ICML 2009

ICML 2009 invites submission of engagingly written papers on substantial, original, and previously unpublished research in *all* aspects of machine learning. We welcome submissions of innovative work on systems that are self adaptive, systems that improve their own performance, or systems that apply logical, statistical, probabilistic or other formalisms to the analysis of data, to the learning of predictive models, or to interaction with the environment. We welcome innovative applications, theoretical contributions, carefully evaluated empirical studies, and we particularly welcome work that combines all of these elements. We also encourage submissions that bridge the gap between machine learning and other fields of research. ICML 2009 will be held in Montreal, Canada, June 14-18, 2009, and will be co-located with the Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence Conference (UAI), and the Conference on Learning Theory (COLT), and the Reinforcement Learning Symposium.

APPROXIMATE DATES
(Note slightly earlier schedule than 2008):


 * January 26:  Full paper submissions due (no separate abstract date)
 * February 27: First round reviews available
 * March 10:    Author responses due
 * April 6:     Acceptance notification
 * April 20:    Final camera-ready version due


 * June 14:     ICML Tutorials
 * June 15-17   ICML Conference
 * June 18:     Joint Workshops Day, UAI/COLT/RL to follow

Format of the Conference
The conference will include three days of technical presentations, one day of tutorials and one day of workshops. Accepted papers will each have an oral presentation as well as a poster in an evening poster session. There will also be talks by several invited speakers, and a banquet.

Awards
Awards will be given for Best Paper(s), Best Student Paper(s) (first-authored by a student), Best Application Paper, 10-year Best Paper (most influential paper of ICML 1999).

Submission
Submission format, details and style files will soon be available on the ICML 2009 website (coming soon!). Submission of papers and the management of the paper reviewing process will be entirely electronic.

Review Process (New for 2009!)
Our review process this year will be slightly different from previous years to further encourage innovative papers on a variety of topics. Authors will indicate a preference for an area chair to handle their papers (list of area chairs and interests coming soon!). The goal here is to ensure each submission is considered by reviewers appropriate to the paper's intended contribution. Each submitted paper will receive two first round reviews. As in recent years, authors will have the opportunity to see and respond to the reviews before a final decision is made. Papers that receive at least one positive review in the first round will receive one or more additional reviews. Final decisions will be made using the input from all reviewers, the author feedback, the area chair, and program chairs. Reviewing for ICML 2009 will be blind to the identities of the authors. No conditional accepts will be granted this year.

ICML 2009 will not accept any paper that is substantially similar to another paper that is currently under review or has already been accepted for publication in a journal or another conference. The program chairs will consider making an exception for papers published in substantially disjoint communities (application conferences, for example), as long as the submitted papers are themselves clearly targeted to a machine-learning audience. Please clearly indicate which contributions are novel and which are previous work, either by the authors or others. If a paper submitted to ICML 2009 and another already published or already submitted paper contain substantial overlap in content and the content is not clearly indicated (anonymously) as being previous work, then the ICML submission may be rejected on the grounds of being a dual submission. Similarly, authors must withdraw their papers if they submit an overlapping paper elsewhere during ICML's review period.

Conference Chairs

 * General Chair:
 * has general chair::Andrea Danyluk, Williams College
 * Program Chairs:
 * has program chair::Leon Bottou, NEC Research
 * has program chair::Michael Littman, Rutgers University
 * Local Arrangements Chair:
 * has local chair::Doina Precup, McGill University