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Frequently Asked Questions

Attending COLM

  • How can I get an invitation letter for a visa?

    Upon registration, you will be able to download an invitation letter.

  • I am a postdoc or I just graduated, do I qualify for student rate registration?

    If you are a recently graduated student publishing under your student affiliation, then you should register as a Student. For other non-industry researchers, including postdocs, faculty and independent researchers, register as an Academic.

  • Is there an author registration requirement at COLM?

    At least one author of each accepted paper must register for the main conference (i.e., workshop registration does not satisfy this requirement). If the author is a student they only need a student registration. Only one registration is needed even if the author has multiple accepted papers. This policy follows the norms at peer venues in the field.

  • What if none of the authors of an accepted paper can attend due to visa or other circumstances?

    We are making significant efforts that all authors can attend COLM, including by providing early registration options to start the visa process in advance and through the creation of travel grants. If no author can attend, we will allow the paper to be presented at COLM by a colleague. We believe this is not ideal, so ask to only use this option if all other options are exhausted. COLM is an in-person conference only, and all papers must be presented in person. If all the above options were truly exhausted, authors can contact the PCs to work out a solution. Before contacting the PCs, please make sure to have exhausted all other options in a timely and demonstrable manner. We will not be able to help if the authors have not demonstrated good-faith efforts to attend COLM.

  • Will COLM have a virtual option?

    COLM is an in-person conference only, and is unable to provide a virtual attance option.

Conference Structure

  • Is COLM an archival conference?

    Yes, COLM is an archival venue. You may submit to non-archival venues in addition to COLM, but not to archival venues.

  • What will the conference structure be like?

    The conference will be single-track with invited speakers, oral presentations, and poster sessions. COLM 2026 will also include one day for workshops.

Other

Presentation

  • Are papers presented as posters or oral presentations?
    All papers will be presented as posters. A small number of papers will be selected for oral presentations. We will notify the authors of papers selected for oral presentations around mid September.
  • I can’t make it, can I send you the poster to print and hang in the session? Or is there a way to present remotely?
    We are sorry, but COLM cannot place your poster for you in the poster session. This is not within the capacity of the conference. It is not good for the conference and dynamics onsite, and it does not result in a meaningful presentation of your work. Submission to COLM entails the responsibility of all the authors for presenting the paper at COLM, just like other conferences. Because COLM is an in-person conference only, this entails attendance and travel. If absolutely necessary, we recommend identifying a colleague who can travel or is already attending that is willing to present on your behalf (but COLM does not have the capacity to assist in this process).
  • What are the poster dimensions?

    Main Conference: poster size is 36" x 72"

    Workshops: poster size is 34" x 34"

Registration

  • Badge Replacement Policy

    Badge Replacement Policy

     

    You will not be allowed into the Conference without a badge. 

    • Treat your Badge like cash.
    • See the policy below if you need a new badge because you have lost your badge or you left it at the hotel. 

    Badge Replacement Policy

    • 1st Replacement
      • Full Price. You will need to purchase a new registration for the current and remaining conference sessions you wish to attend.
      • Your replacement fee will be refunded after the conference if you return to the registration desk with both badges within 24 hours. 
    • 2nd Replacement 
      • Full Price. You will need to purchase a new registration for the current and remaining conference sessions you wish to attend.
      • There will be no refund.

    Damaged or Updated Badges

    • We will replace for free badges that are damaged, scuffed, or need to be updated due to change of institution.

     

  • Full-time Student

    * Full Time Student

    • You must be a full-time student in an accredited undergraduate, Master’s or graduate program, or a continuing student (i.e., accepted into such a program for the next academic cycle). You will be required to upload a digital version of your student ID at registration.
    • Must have been a student when submitting the paper for review.
    • If attending the physical conference, you will need to present your physical student ID when you check in.
  • Transfer Policy

    Registration Transfer Policy

     

    Registrations can not be transferred

    Registrations are linked to immigration documents, tax documents and credit card transactions and cannot be transferred to another person. Changing the name on a registration could void the registration; you will be asked for an id or a student id matching the name as the registration was created. 

    Do not share your badge

    Allowing someone else to use your badge to attend the conference is against the conference policy and could void your registration

    Registration Cancelation

    See our registration cancelation policy

     

Registration Cancellation Policy

  • Registration Cancellation Policy

    Registration Cancellation Policy

    To ease the process of registration and visa applications, we are providing several mechanisms to help:

    • Full refunds to conference admission until Sep 05, 2026 11:59 PM AOE or and additional refund options due to Visa issues after that date. Refunds will be issued to your credit card and may take up to 10 business days to process.  To cancel a registration, please go to the Payment and Receipt section of your registration.
    • Automatic visa letter generation upon registration.
    • Prioritized Special Event code for Canadian Visas (included in the invitation letter).

    Registrations can be neither canceled nor refunded after Sep 05, 2026 11:59 PM AOE or , the cancellation deadline except in 

    Visa information for physical or hybrid conferences

    If your visa is denied before Sep 05, 2026 11:59 PM AOE or ,  you may use the standard cancellation policy detailed above to cancel and refund your registration in full.

    If you applied for your visa before July 30, 2026, and you are unable to attend because your visa was denied or you have not received a response we will refund your registration fees. 

    After Sept. 5, 2026, your full conference registration can be refunded if the following conditions are satisfied:

    • you applied for your visa by July 30, 2026 and
    • you are unable to attend the conference in person because your visa was denied or you have not received a response.

    To request such a refund, you must submit a request using our contact form within one week of the close of the meeting, and include documentation showing the date you applied for a visa.

     

    Registrations are not transferrable

    Registrations cannot be transferred to another person, they are linked to immigration documents, tax documents and credit card transactions.

    See our registration transfer policy.

     

Reviewing

  • Reviewer Load
    We expect a reviewing load of up to 5 papers per reviewer.
  • Reviewer Qualifications
    Reviewers must have research experience equivalent to a second-year graduate student in machine learning or a related field. They must have been a primary author* on at least two peer-reviewed conference or journal papers published in a related venue (e.g., ACL, NAACL, EMNLP, ICML, NeurIPS, ICLR, JMLR, TMLR, CVPR, ICCV – this is not an exhaustive list). We strongly encourage each first-time reviewer to identify a ‘mentor’ (such as a research advisor or manager) who has both the necessary qualifications for and prior experience with reviewing, and who has agreed to oversee and assist the reviewer in their reviewing tasks. The research experience ensures the reviewer is to be able to competently evaluate a submission's methodology, interpret findings and results, and to evaluate contributions in the context of prior works. Prior authorship ensures that the reviewer understands the peer review process (at least from the side of the authors) and the standards and conventions of composing reviews and corresponding with authors. This text is adapted from ICML. *We leave it to your own discretion to interpret what is meant by 'primary author', as this may vary between sub-areas of machine learning.
  • What are the requirements to exempt a paper from reciprocal reviewing?
    To be exempt from reciprocal reviewing, a paper must have at least one author who is a member of the COLM program committee with no reduced quota (i.e., as a reviewer, AC, or PC) at the time of submission. Alternatively, the paper may be exempt if all authors are unqualified to review for COLM.
  • What is the reciprocal reviewing requirement?
    There are two reciprocal reviewing requirements: a 'per-submission' requirement, and a 'per-reviewer' requirement. The submission form will allow submitters to designate an author to fulfill the per-submission requirement, or to indicate that the submission is exempt from the requirement. Multiple submissions cannot have the same reciprocal reviewer, unless all other authors do not qualify or are serving in other roles. Any author with 4 or more submissions will automatically be added to the reviewer pool, unless they are already part of the program committee or the COLM organization. Why are we doing this? COLM is fairly new, so we do not have reliable estimates of reviewing need. We are preparing a large and high quality program committee. In the event that our estimates are too low, we are also preparing to scale the committee with the number of submissions by requiring reciprocal reviewing.

Sponsorship

  • How can I help sponsor the conference?

    We are actively looking for sponsors for the event. Please contact chris.brown@aicons.org if you are interested.

Submission

  • Can I add/remove an author for the camera ready?

    We are sorry, but this is not possible. Authorship information was used to compute conflicts of interest during reviewing. Adding or removing authors endangers the integrity of the reviewing process. No exceptions can be made. The camera ready revision does allow to modify author ordering.

  • Can I edit the submission information between the abstract and full paper submission deadlines?

    All fields will remain editable until the full paper submission deadline. However, we recommend to keep edits to a minimum, and only to necessary edits, so as to minimize any distruptions to the work of the program committee.

  • Can I submit my paper to COLM when it is under review for ARR/ICML/NeurIPS/etc?

    We are sorry, but COLM does not allow double submissions. All papers under the ARR process, regardless of stage, are considered as under submission to ARR, and cannot be submitted to COLM. COLM will conduct double submission checks following the full paper submission deadline. Only papers then under review will be checked. This means that papers withdrawn before, including abstracts with no full paper submitted, will not be considered or used for double submission checks. COLM cannot provide guarantees of compatiblity with regard to the policies and processes of other venues regarding double submissions, but this policy what we consider as under submission at COLM.

  • What is the COLM preprint policy?

    COLM will use the following policy, adapted from NeurIPS: 'Non-anonymous preprints (on arXiv, social media, websites, etc.) are permitted. We recommend you indicate “preprint”, rather than the “final” option int he template. Reviewers will be instructed not to actively look for such preprints, but encountering them will not constitute a conflict of interest. Authors may submit work to COLM that is already available as a preprint (e.g., on arXiv) without citing it; however, previously published papers by the authors on related topics must be cited (with adequate anonymization to preserve double-blind reviewing; see below).

  • When is the COLM submission open?

    See the dates page

  • Will COLM allow for an extra page for the camera ready?

    Yes, COLM will allow authors of accepted papers to add an extra page to the camera ready to add content following the reviewers and AC feedback.

  • Will COLM have a short paper track?

    COLM 2026 will not have a separate track for short papers. We appreciate the value of short papers, but for time being we are not supporting this submission track.

  • Will COLM solicit or accept position papers?

    COLM does not have a separate track, reviewing, or call for position papers for the 2026 call. We are opting for simplicity, so will not solicit for position papers, because to be treated properly, they require a different reviewing process.

  • Will COLM solicit or accept survey papers?

    We don't have a special track for survey papers. If you wish, you can submit a survey paper and we will route it to the appropriate area chairs and reviewers and based on their judgment, you will get a decision.