Related papers: A better consensus: Changes to the Decadal process…
In this paper, we consider lightweight decentralised algorithms for achieving consensus in distributed systems. Each member of a distributed group has a private value from a fixed set consisting of, say, two elements, and the goal is for…
Peer review is a cornerstone of scientific publishing, including at premier machine learning conferences such as ICLR. As submission volumes increase, understanding the nature and dynamics of the review process is crucial for improving its…
The peer review process is essential to the success of science, but it also delays publications and absorbs considerable effort. Journals find it increasingly difficult to recruit competent reviewers. This study presents the results of…
Traditional closed peer review systems, which have played a central role in scientific publishing, are often slow, costly, non-transparent, stochastic, and possibly subject to biases - factors that can impede scientific progress and…
In many machine learning applications, there are multiple decision-makers involved, both automated and human. The interaction between these agents often goes unaddressed in algorithmic development. In this work, we explore a simple version…
Decentralized payment systems such as Bitcoin have become massively popular in the last few years, yet there is still much to be done in understanding their formal properties. The vast majority of decentralized payment systems work by…
Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) committees and Codes of Conduct (CoC) have become common in laboratories and physics departments across the country. However, very often these EDI committees and CoC are not equipped to provide…
Much of the science case for the next generation of deep, wide-field optical/infrared surveys has been driven by the further study of dark energy. This is a laudable goal (and the subject of a companion white paper by Zhan et al.). However,…
Satellite constellation missions, consisting of a large number of spacecraft, are increasingly being launched or planned. Such missions require novel control approaches, in particular for what concerns orbital phasing maneuvers. In this…
Complex data in social and natural sciences find effective representation through networks, wherein quantitative and categorical information can be associated with nodes and connecting edges. The internal structure of networks can be…
AI's rapid growth has been felt acutely by scholarly venues, leading to growing pains within the peer review process. These challenges largely center on the inability of specific subareas to identify and evaluate work that is appropriate…
Explainable recommendation has shown its great advantages for improving recommendation persuasiveness, user satisfaction, system transparency, among others. A fundamental problem of explainable recommendation is how to evaluate the…
In this contribution to the proceedings of the 182nd Nobel Symposium, I reflect on the concept of "discovery" as it is used by physicists and astronomers. In particular, I comment on how the scientific community distinguishes discoveries…
Consensus mechanism is the heart of any blockchain network. Many projects have proposed alternative protocols to improve restricted scalability of Proof of Work originated since Bitcoin. As an improvement of Delegated Proof of Stake, in…
We propose an enhanced peer-review process where the reviewers are encouraged to truthfully disclose their reviews. We start by modelling that process using a Bayesian model where the uncertainty regarding the quality of the manuscript is…
Random sample consensus (RANSAC) is a robust model-fitting algorithm. It is widely used in many fields including image-stitching and point cloud registration. In RANSAC, data is uniformly sampled for hypothesis generation. However, this…
Estimands can help to clarify the research questions being addressed in randomised trials. Because the choice of estimand can affect how relevant trial results are to patients and other stakeholders, such as clinicians or policymakers, it…
While software and algorithms have become increasingly important in astronomy, the majority of authors who publish computational astronomy research do not share the source code they develop, making it difficult to replicate and reuse the…
Astronomers in CANDELS outline changes for the academic system to promote a smooth transition for junior scientists from academia to industry.
Policy Brief on "Large Projects in Astronomy: An Indian Endeavour", distilled from the corresponding panel that was part of the discussions during S20 Policy Webinar on Astroinformatics for Sustainable Development held on 6-7 July 2023.…