In an effort to broaden participation in NAACL 2022, we are launching a research mentorship program (similar to recent ones at ICLR 2022 and AISTATS 2022) to assist underrepresented, underprivileged, independent, and particularly first-time NAACL submitters.

We hope this program can help create a path for prospective NAACL authors—who would not otherwise have considered participating in, or working on a submission to NAACL workshops. We hope to establish valuable connections and first-hand training for these early-career researchers from underrepresented demographics throughout the submission process. This program will provide the authors access to mentors who will provide them feedback on: (i) polishing the draft (ii) suggesting any missing experiments (iii) discussing interesting directions to extend the work etc. In order to meet the demands of a wide range of mentees, we are looking for mentors from all career stages, ranging from senior PhD students to senior academic/industry researchers.

To this end, we are starting a pre-submission mentoring program that begins on Feb 8th and will run until April 8th.

Information for Mentors

We solicit mentors and request their time for enabling this program to assist in broadening participation in our community. Please fill out the form here.

To apply to be a mentor, you should have sufficient research experience, and preferably, mentoring/advising experience. Please feel free to nominate other mentors for the program and we will try to reach out to them to request their participation.

Mentors will be acknowledged on the NAACL website and in the NAACL proceedings.

Important Notes:

  • Please list your respective mentees as potential COIs so that it would not delay the reviewing processes of the respective workshops that the submissions are going to be at.

Information for Mentees

To apply to be a mentee, please fill out the form here. Please prepare a 1 page PDF document containing a brief draft/excerpt/extended abstract for your submission. Detailed submission instructions can be found below.

Important Notes:

  • Please list your respective mentors as potential COIs so that it would not delay the reviewing processes of the respective workshops that the submissions are going to be at.

  • For any questions related to specific workshop submission deadlines, submission instructions and policies, please reach out to the workshop organizers.

  • Please note that submitting to this mentoring program does not submit your work to a workshop automatically. You will still need to make a submission to your workshop of interest before their specified deadline(s).

Mentor/Mentees Expectation

  • After mentors and mentees receive their introductory matching emails, mentees are expected to share their in-preparation drafts with their mentors. We recommend that mentees share first drafts with their mentors by February 20, in order to allow ample time for mentors to provide actionable feedback.

  • Mentors are encouraged to provide feedback addressing the following questions (among others):
    • Is the main claim of the work justified and communicated well?
    • What weaknesses might affect paper acceptance, and how can those be addressed?
    • What additions could make the paper stronger?
    • How can the structure and presentation of the paper be improved?

  • Mentors and mentees are expected to communicate via email and/or video/audio chat. We encourage mentors and mentees to schedule regular check-ins (once every 3-4 weeks) if feasible.

  • We will have a mid-way check-in in early March to check if the match is going well. Mentors and mentees can request for a new match then, if needed.

  • Time commitment expected from the mentors is about 8 hours over the duration of the mentoring program.

Data Sharing

For mentees, the PDF/extended abstract will be shared with mentors to organize a match. For both mentees/mentors, your contact info will be shared with your mentor/mentee once matched.

Submission Instructions

All abstracts must be no longer than 1 page (excluding references), and must follow the ACL Author Guidelines. Abstract submissions must use the official ACL style templates, which are available as an Overleaf template and also downloadable directly (Latex and Word). Please follow the paper formatting guidelines general to “*ACL” conferences available here. Authors may not modify these style files or use templates designed for other conferences. We urge you to conform to these templates for your abstract submissions since workshop paper submissions will likely require you to use the same templates. Note that you do not need to include all sections (e.g., related work, conclusion, etc.) in your abstract.

Submission Anonymization

Unlike typical “*ACL” conference and workshop submissions, we do not require abstract submissions for the mentoring program to be anonymized. However, the final submissions to the workshops that the mentees intend to submit to, need to follow the submission guidelines for the respective workshops including the anonymity guidelines.

Multiple Submission Policy

Multiple submission policies may be different across workshops. Some workshops may have non-archival tracks that allow submission of under-review or previously accepted work. Please make sure that your submission adheres to the multiple submission policy of the workshop that you are planning to submit to.

Important Dates

  • Jan 31 Feb 4: Deadline to fill out registration form (for both mentors and mentees)
    • Mentees, please note that you need to submit a brief abstract to be matched
  • Feb 8: Introductory emails sent out to mentors and mentees
  • Mar 8: Midway check-in
  • Apr 8: End of Mentorship Program (and NAACL workshop submission deadlines!)

Please feel free to reach out to us with any questions at this email address: naacl2022mentoring@gmail.com

Acknowledgements: Portions of this call are adapted from mentoring programs ICLR 2022 and AISTATS 2022 and CFP for ARR.