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aistats-author-response

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Use when drafting AISTATS author responses or author-reviewer discussion replies under OpenReview, covering text-only discussion, no-link guidance, no revised-paper upload, anonymity requirements, statistician-reviewer pushback patterns, and decision-focused clarification strategy for theory-plus-experiments papers.

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Source SKILL.md: https://github.com/brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills/blob/HEAD/AISTATS-Skills/skills/aistats-author-response/SKILL.md

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AISTATS Author Response

Use this after AISTATS reviews are released. Reopen the current OpenReview instructions and author-discussion policy before drafting because response mechanics are cycle-specific.

Triage

  • Answer concerns that affect correctness, novelty, statistical validity, clarity, reproducibility, or fit for AISTATS.
  • Use existing submitted evidence: paper sections, appendices, supplementary material, theorem statements, experiments, checklist entries, and code/data descriptions.
  • Keep the reply anonymous. Do not reveal institution, authorship, grants, private URLs, or repository ownership.
  • Treat discussion as clarification, not revision. Do not depend on uploading a revised paper or new supplement unless current instructions explicitly allow it.
  • If current rules prohibit links, do not use URLs in the discussion. AISTATS 2026 author-reviewer discussion was text-only and links were not allowed.
  • Correct factual errors first, then address requests for missing comparisons, uncertainty estimates, proofs, or hyperparameters.

Drafting pattern

  1. State the decision-critical correction or concession.
  2. Point to exact submitted evidence.
  3. Explain the statistical or theoretical consequence.
  4. Promise a camera-ready wording fix only if it does not add unsupported new claims.

Statistician-reviewer pushback patterns

PushbackWhat it signalsAISTATS-ready fix
"Assumption A3 seems strong"The reviewer traced the proof chainPoint to where A3 is verified, weakened, or shown necessary; never dismiss it as standard without a citation
"The experiments violate the theorem conditions"Theory-experiment mismatch spottedIdentify which conclusions survive misspecification and cite the robustness simulation that shows it
"Observed rates do not match the bound"The reviewer compared empirical slopes against theoryReference the log-log plot, or explain the constant-dominated regime at the tested sample sizes
"Comparison with the classical statistical method is missing"Statistics-literature gapAnchor to the appendix comparison, or concede and scope a camera-ready clarification

Response micro-example

Reviewer objection: the minimax claim hides its dependence on dimension d. Reply skeleton:

  1. Concede that the d-dependence appears only in the appendix constant.
  2. Quote the exact constant from Theorem 2 so the reviewer need not search.
  3. Note that the simulation at d = 100 in Figure 4 follows the predicted scaling.
  4. Offer one camera-ready sentence making the dependence explicit in the main text.

Discussion-phase calibration

  • One decision-critical point per reviewer beats exhaustive replies; AISTATS meta-reviewers read for whether the central statistical objection was actually resolved.
  • Never paste new theorem statements or fresh proofs into the discussion box; sketch the argument and anchor it in submitted material only.
  • Respond early in the window — AISTATS discussion periods are short and reviewers who reply once rarely reply twice.
  • Length and formatting norms vary by cycle; recheck the current discussion instructions before sending anything.

Output format

[Priority issue] <reviewer concern>
[Decision dimension] correctness / novelty / statistical validity / clarity / reproducibility
[Draft response] <AISTATS-ready anonymous text>
[Evidence anchor] <paper/appendix/supplement item>
[Forbidden content removed] <links, identity leaks, new unsupported claims>