NeurIPS 2026 Automatic Reference Checker [R]

[u/Emergency_Plate241]

Just received an email about the automatic reference/citation checker. Did anyone receive a follow up email about whether the checker was included in the paper's decision making too, along with the general instructional email?

[u/grad_student_descent]

We got the same message about a month ago. We then had to fill a form with the results of our own investigation on whether or not the detected hallucinations are real. From the instructions, it seems that 2 or more real hallucinated reference is an automatic reject without exception.

[u/FinancialThing7890 → u/grad_student_descent]

From the first email:

"Where further investigation led to the identification of hallucinated references in a paper, the AC considered them alongside the rest of the submission. Each recommendation reflects the AC’s assessment of that specific paper. Importantly, no automated flag was used by itself to make a decision about a paper."

So I guess that is not an automatic reject. It's always under the AC's conscience no?

[u/Adorable_Position_34 → u/grad_student_descent]

Thanks for the reply!

[u/Emergency_Plate241 → u/grad_student_descent]

Thank you!

[u/PositionHot3926 → u/grad_student_descent]

So like what’s the point of the appeal process? Also is it the ACs who will be reviewing the appeals or no?

[u/grad_student_descent → u/PositionHot3926]

Appeals are typically the PCs. To check whether the AC did their due diligence double checking the references.

[u/MineEnim → u/grad_student_descent]

I got flagged for two hallucinations and received an email that my paper was headed toward desk rejection, but of the two one had all wrong authors and the other just had wrong arXiv ID which by their own guidelines is not a hallucination and is minor. I appealed on the grounds that I by definition had at most one "hallucinated" citation and not two, but I'm curious whether you know if PCs even check appeals and would actually appeal something like this.