ACL Author Response

Use this when ARR reviews land. The response is written inside the review cycle, before the meta-review is finalized, its primary reader is the area chair who will summarize your paper for whatever conference you later commit to. Reopen aclrollingreview.org/reviewing for the current cycle's exact window and rules.

What the response can actually move

• ARR assigns at least three reviewers; after the author response there is a reviewer-discussion phase in which reviewers are expected to update reviews. A response that gives a reviewer a concrete reason to revise is worth more than one that argues.
• The meta-review travels with the paper to commitment. Senior area chairs at the venue read the meta-review first, so your real goal is to shape what the AC writes, not to win a debate transcript.
• Scores are not the only currency: a meta-review that says "the main weakness was resolved in discussion" can rescue a committed paper that scores alone would sink.

Triage order

1. Factual errors in reviews (wrong dataset, misread table, missed section).
2. Misunderstandings a two-sentence clarification can dissolve.
3. Requests satisfiable from submitted material, appendix tables, checklist answers, the supplement archive.
4. Requests needing new experiments: promise only what is genuinely small, or explicitly defer to a revision cycle (ARR is built for resubmission).
5. Taste disagreements: answer once, briefly, without heat.

NLP-reviewer objection patterns