I also don't typically weigh in here, but I feel compelled to mention that
there are conferences that have given a lot of thought to the problem of
uncollegial reviews. The Digital Humanities 2020 conference
<https://dh2020.adho.org/>, for example, offers extensive guidelines for
both submitters *and* reviewers. They are experimenting with an open peer
review system, and the conference organizers have written a thoughtful
explanation of why
<https://dh2020.adho.org/guidelines/the-open-peer-review-process/>, and I
encourage anyone who is involved with any kind of review process to take a
look.

We're all responsible for creating the environments and institutions we
want to see. I'd encourage some self-reflection here about why we equate
certain types of criticism with intellectual rigor.

All the best,
Sarah

On Thu, Aug 22, 2019 at 12:50 PM Randal Harrison <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> I don’t usually weigh in here, but, in support of Karen’s (whom I do not
> know personally) original post:
>
> You know, when I have a bad time, I sometimes share it with colleagues. So
> I support hearing about it when another academic had a particularly bad
> experience. And it certainly doesn’t make up my mind automatically when
> someone expresses an opinion at me. Nor did I think her comments were
> particularly rancorous.
>
> Sharing is caring. Sorry you felt spanked, Chairs of MTSR 2019 Conference,
> but then your response seemed either overweening, perhaps “chairsplainin’,”
> and maybe a little Trump-y? Why not apologize if there was a disconnect and
> then hold out the olive branch?
>
> Randy
> ……
>
> Randal Sean Harrison, Ph.D.
> Emerging Technologies Librarian
>
> University of Notre Dame
> 158 Hesburgh Library
> Notre Dame, IN 46556
>
> (574) 631-0312
> [log in to unmask]
> randalseanharrison.com <http://randalseanharrison.com/>
>
> ⌖  Map to my office <http://randalseanharrison.com/new_office/map.png>
> ⌖  Make a meeting <https://randalseanharrison.youcanbook.me/>
>
>
>
> > On Aug 22, 2019, at 12:25 PM, Lina Bountouri <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
> >
> > On behalf of the Chairs of MTSR 2019 Conference
> >
> > ------------------------------
> >
> > Dear list members,
> >
> > We apologise for the long email.
> >
> > We apologize also that we have to reply to an email of a member in the
> > list, but this is not about saying that “we are right, you are wrong”, or
> > talk about why an author felt that the reviewers were “nasty” to a paper,
> > but about giving the facts about this issue, and protect the MTSR
> Community
> > (http://www.mtsr-conf.org/).
> >
> > MTSR is an inter-disciplinary conference, which brings together
> academics,
> > researchers, practitioners, librarians, etc. in the specialized fields of
> > metadata, ontologies and semantics research. Professionals from more than
> > 40 countries are involved. We feel that the comments of Karen Coyle
> insult
> > us personally and professionally and we have to reply by giving only
> facts.
> >
> > Conferences are vibrant events and no one says that mistakes never
> happen.
> > But If an author has any problem with a conference, a conference track
> or a
> > review process, the professional way to solve or discuss about it is
> > firstly to directly contact the Conference, try to find a solution or
> get a
> > proper explanation, and then, if s/he is not happy and go publicly to any
> > professional list.
> >
> > The International Conference on Metadata and Semantics Research (MTSR)
> goes
> > back to 2005. Since then the community has grown and become strong.
> > Proceedings have been published by the Springer's CCIS (Communications in
> > Computer and Information Science) Series. The acceptance rate of full
> > research papers for both the general session and tracks was 24.6% for
> MTSR
> > 2018. The rate of downloads of the proceedings and chapters is very high
> > according to Bookmetrix.
> >
> > When an author submits a paper to a conference is very important to read
> > the CfP and to read carefully also the Track CfP. Choosing the wrong
> Track
> > could lead to rejection. Authors that do not follow the required
> standards
> > set by the Conference and the Publisher could lead to rejection. Authors
> > that do not follow the instructions to authors, namely page length,
> > Publisher’s template, references, etc. could lead to rejection. In this
> > case, the author submitted a paper about FRBR in Jun 15, 19:23 in the
> track
> > “Knowledge IT Artifacts (KITA) in professional communities and
> > aggregations”. The paper was submitted anonymously, went through a blind
> > peer-reviewed process, and we had an outcome.
> >
> > After the review process an independent committee went through all the
> > procedures in order to check that the conference quality criteria have
> been
> > implemented during the review process. In case of this paper all the
> > procedures that followed were accurate. Nevertheless, the committee
> decided
> > to send the paper for a second round of review in the light of the
> comments
> > made by the reviewers. Two experts in the field did the second round of
> > reviews. In total the paper had 4 reviews.
> >
> > We always, as MTSR community, value the work of all authors. By sending
> > this paper after receiving two rejections to a second group of expert
> > reviewers for a second round of reviews, shows that MTSR Conference takes
> > seriously the review process and values the work of researchers. MTSR
> > evaluates all papers on their timeliness and novelty; significance to the
> > field and potential impact on the course of future work in the area;
> > document structure; clarity; quality of text; relevance to MTSR
> Conference
> > and methodology.
> >
> > Two final points:
> >
> > a) When an author submits a paper to a conference or a journal s/he
> expects
> > that her/his work is to be evaluated.
> >
> > b) MTSR will continue to work closely with the Community, PC members and
> > reviewers in order to improve further the quality of reviews, keeping the
> > high standards in the review process and the independent voice of
> reviewers.
> >
> > We will not respond to any other email concerning this issue. If you want
> > to have a vibrant experience with MTSR Community and Conference, we
> suggest
> > that you attend a conference or submit in the future your research work.
> >
> > Karen, we invite you to attend an MTSR Conference, and we are sure that
> you
> > will change your opinion about it. We feel that this is not fair for all
> > parties.
> >
> > We are looking forward to working with you.
> >
> > With best regards,
> >
> > Chairs of MTSR 2019 Conference
> >
> >
> > On Wed, 21 Aug 2019, 18:34 Karen Coyle, <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >
> >>
> >> Folks,
> >>
> >> I made the terrible mistake of submitting to this conference, so I
> >> wanted to let others know about my experience. The "review" that I
> >> received consisted of a 25-point nastygram, dripping sarcasm. I was
> >> utterly shocked, to say the least. This is without a doubt a conference
> >> that needs a Code of Conduct, but I'm not holding out hope for it.
> >>
> >> Clearly one that I will avoid in the future, and I regret having had
> >> contact with this community. The contrast with Code4Lib is like 0 to 1.
> >> Oh, boy, and I glad to be here!
> >>
> >> kc
> >>
> >>
> >> -------- Forwarded Message --------
> >> Subject: [CODE4LIB] 1st C4P - SPECIAL TRACK on METADATA & SEMANTICS for
> >> CULTURAL COLLECTIONS & APPLICATIONS
> >> Date: Thu, 9 May 2019 08:39:16 +0200
> >> From: Lina Bountouri <[log in to unmask]>
> >> Reply-To: Code for Libraries <[log in to unmask]>
> >> To: [log in to unmask]
> >>
> >> 1st Call for Papers, apologies for cross-posting
> >> ------------------------------
> >>
> >> SPECIAL TRACK on METADATA & SEMANTICS for CULTURAL COLLECTIONS &
> >> APPLICATIONS <http://www.ionio.gr/labs/dbis/mtsr2019/>
> >>
> >> Part of the 13th International Conference on Metadata and Semantics
> >> Research (MTSR 2019) <http://mtsr-conf.org/home>
> >> October 28 – 31 2019, Rome, Italy
> >>
> >> *Submission deadline: June 16th, 2019*
> >> Proceedings will be published in *Springer CCIS series
> >> <http://www.springer.com/series/7899>*
> >>
> >> AIM AND SCOPE
> >> Cultural Heritage collections are essential knowledge infrastructures
> that
> >> provide a solid
> >> representation of the historical background of human communities. These
> >> knowledge infrastructures
> >> are constructed from and integrate cultural information derived from
> >> diverse memory institutions,
> >> mainly libraries, archives and museums. Each individual community has
> spent
> >> a lot of effort
> >> in order to develop, support and promote its own systems, tools and
> >> metadata for the management
> >> of cultural information, mainly related to its particular resources and
> >> use.
> >>
> >> In this framework, the management of the cultural information has to
> deal
> >> with challenges related to
> >> (i) metadata modeling, specification, standardization, extraction,
> >> (semantic) enrichment, mapping,
> >> integration, effective use, and evaluation, (ii) knowledge
> representation
> >> as conceptualization to
> >> provide the context for unambiguously interpreting metadata, and (iii)
> >> information integration from
> >> different contexts for the provision of integrated access, reuse and
> >> advanced services to users.
> >>
> >> At the same time, there are also inter-domain efforts targeted to
> >> semantically align data (research
> >> data, educational data, public sector information etc.) to cultural
> >> information. New challenges are
> >> also emerged from the need to incorporate cultural information into the
> new
> >> publication paradigms,
> >> where a variety of resources (data, metadata, processes, results, etc)
> are
> >> linked and integrated,
> >> providing better shareability and reusability. Currently, Linked (Open)
> >> Data, as part of the
> >> Semantic Web Technology, is having a major role in modernizing cultural
> >> heritage collections.
> >> Providing to users the possibility to re-use and integrate data into
> their
> >> own systems is currently
> >> more than a need, given that transparency and access to information is a
> >> prerequisite. A critical
> >> factor to the effectiveness of many aspects of all the above efforts is
> the
> >> quality of metadata,
> >> as interpreted by its context and use and evaluated by the proper
> measures
> >> and methods. Many
> >> institutions and aggregate infrastructures are dealing with the poor
> >> quality of metadata that
> >> inevitably results in poor integration, search and reuse, while their
> >> enrichment, in terms of
> >> contextualization, co-referencing, alignment, etc, is really
> challenging.
> >>
> >> The aim of this Special Track is to maintain a dialogue where
> researchers
> >> and practitioners working
> >> on all the aspects of the cultural information will come together and
> >> exchange ideas about open issues
> >> at all stages of the cultural heritage information life cycle. The track
> >> also welcomes works related to
> >> semantics and applications for new approaches to cultural information
> >> publication and sharing, as well
> >> as to interlinking to other datasets published in the Semantic Web
> >> universe.
> >>
> >>
> >> TOPICS
> >> The papers in this special track should be original and of high quality,
> >> addressing issues in areas
> >> such as:
> >> * Cultural Heritage metadata models, standards, ontologies, knowledge
> >> organization and representation systems
> >> * Cultural Heritage information integration, interoperability and
> mappings
> >> * Automated extraction of metadata, entities, and patterns from Cultural
> >> Heritage resources
> >> * Metadata manual or automated (Semantic) enrichment and search
> >> * Metadata quality metrics, tools and services
> >> * Linked Open Data approaches in the Cultural Heritage domain
> >> * Publication, linking and citation of Cultural Heritage information and
> >> resources
> >> * Large volume content management
> >> * 3D models-indexing, storage and retrieval approaches
> >> * Infrastructures for sharing content
> >> * Digital Curation workflows and models
> >> * Provenance and preservation metadata for Cultural Heritage digital
> >> resources
> >>
> >> SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
> >> Authors can submit either full papers (12 pages) or short papers (6
> pages).
> >> Submitted papers have to
> >> follow the LNCS proceedings formatting style and guidelines
> >> <
> >>
> https://www.springer.com/gp/computer-science/lncs/conference-proceedings-guidelines?countryChanged=true
> >>>
> >> .
> >>
> >> Submissions should be original and not previously submitted, published
> and
> >> under review to other
> >> Conferences or Journals.The submitted papers will undergo the same peer
> >> review as the submissions
> >> for MTSR 2019 and accepted contributions will be published in the MTSR
> 2019
> >> proceedings (Springer CCIS series <http://www.springer.com/series/7899
> >).
> >> Authors of accepted papers will be asked to register to the Conference
> and
> >> present their work.
> >>
> >> Selected papers might be considered for a revised and extended version
> to
> >> be published in a range of
> >> international journals, including the International Journal of Metadata,
> >> Semantics and Ontologies
> >> <https://www.inderscience.com/jhome.php?jcode=ijmso>
> >> (Inderscience), and Data Technologies and Applications
> >> <
> >>
> http://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/products/journals/journals.htm?id=dta
> >>>
> >> (previously published as Program, Emerald).
> >> More information on submission can be found at the MTSR 2019 call for
> >> papers web page <http://mtsr-conf.org/call-for-papers>.
> >>
> >>
> >> IMPORTANT DATES
> >> June 16th, 2019: Submission deadline
> >> July 28th, 2019: Notification of decision (Acceptance/Rejection)
> >> August 25th, 2019: Camera-ready papers due
> >> October 28th – October 31st, 2019: Conference at the Marconi University
> in
> >> Rome, Italy
> >>
> >>
> >> SPECIAL TRACK CHAIRS
> >> * Michalis Sfakakis, Dept. Archives, Library Science and Museology,
> Ionian
> >> University, Corfu, Greece ([log in to unmask])
> >> * Lina Bountouri, Dept. Archives, Library Science and Museology, Ionian
> >> University, Corfu, Greece and NATO HQ, Brussels, Belgium (
> >> [log in to unmask],
> >> [log in to unmask])
> >>
> >>
> >> PROGRAM COMMITTEE (TBA)
> >>
>


-- 
Sarah Melton
Head of Digital Scholarship
O'Neill Library
Boston College
140 Commonwealth Ave.
Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts 02467
617-552-3210

ORCID: <https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3780-5577>0000-0003-3780-5577
<https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3780-5577>