Communications of the ACM
Rebuttal How-To: Strategies, Tactics, and the Big Picture in Research
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For the 2023 Individualized Cybersecurity Research Mentoring Workshop (iMentor),1 I gave a 45-minute presentation on writing conference rebuttals. The insights would benefit others beyond the cybersecurity research community, so I organized my thoughts and shared them with our broader computing community. Submitting rebuttals, also known as the author response period, is a common practice in computing conferences. After reading the reviews, the authors can submit a succinct—for example, approximately 700 words—itemized response, within several days. The program committee then discusses the work further to reach the final verdict for the manuscript.
Writing rebuttals energizes me, even though most of my rebuttals do not change the rejection fate of my papers. I genuinely enjoy the opportunity to communicate with experts in the field. This process of intensely reading others' opinions about my work also helps solidify my own research style. Discussing rebuttal plans is a wonderful team-bonding activity, so be sure to analyze reviews together with coauthors. Unconstructive reviews, however, induce impostor syndrome.13 Therefore, plan rebuttals after you have overcome the initial shock.
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