The 26th International Conference On Machine Learning (ICML-2009)
June 14-18, 2009, Montreal, Canada
Preliminary Call For Papers
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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substantial, original, and previously unpublished research in *all*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.

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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

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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.

With your help, we expect another excellent conference!

-The ICML2009 Organizational Team


General Chair:
Andrea Danyluk (Williams College)
Program Chairs:
Leon Bottou (NEC Research)
Michael Littman (Rutgers University)
Local Arrangements Chair:
Doina Precup (McGill University)