AAAI 2018

The purpose of the AAAI conference series is to promote research in artificial intelligence (AI) and foster scientific exchange between researchers, practitioners, scientists, students, and engineers in AI and its affiliated disciplines. AAAI-18 is the Thirty-Second AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence. It will continue the tradition of previous AAAI conferences with technical paper presentations, invited speakers, workshops, tutorials, poster sessions, senior member presentations, competitions, and exhibit programs, all selected according to the highest standards. AAAI-18 will also include additional programs for students and young researchers.

Topics
AAAI-18 welcomes submissions reporting research that advances artificial intelligence, broadly conceived. The conference scope includes all subareas of AI and machine learning. These include (but are not limited to) traditional topics such as search, planning, knowledge representation, reasoning, natural language processing, robotics and perception, multiagent systems, statistical learning, and deep learning. We expressly encourage work that cuts across technical areas, or develops AI techniques in the context of important application domains, such as healthcare, sustainability, transportation, and commerce. For 2018, the Program Cochairs have absorbed the Cognitive Systems and Computational Sustainability tracks into the main conference technical program, with provision for distinguished oversight of reviews. In addition, the cochairs have initiated an Emerging Topics program which, this year, will encourage submissions and community building in the area of Human-AI Collaboration. Further details are listed below. The full set of AAAI-18 keywords is available on the AAAI-18 keywords page. Emerging Topics This year AAAI-18 especially encourages submissions in the emerging area of effective collaboration between humans and AI systems and novel applications thereof. Further details are available on the emerging topics page.

Author Registration
Authors must register at the AAAI-18 web-based technical track paper submission site before they submit their abstracts and papers. The software will assign a password, which will enable the author to log on to submit an abstract and paper. To avoid last-minute congestion, authors are encouraged to register well in advance of the September 8 abstract deadline. Abstract submission will close at 11:59 PM UTC-10 (midnight Hawaii) on September 8, 2017. Final paper submission will close at 11:59 PM UTC-10 on September 11, 2017.

Abstract and Paper Submission
Abstract submission is required by September 8, 2017. Authors should include a full title for their paper, as well as a complete abstract in the fields provided. Submissions that have “placeholder” (test, xyz, etc.) titles or abstracts (or none at all) will be deleted. Authors of these types of submissions will not be allowed to submit a full paper on September 11, 2017. Papers must be formatted in AAAI two-column, camera-ready style; see the 2018 author kit for details (link available July 2017). Papers must be in trouble-free, high-resolution PDF format, formatted for US Letter (8.5″ x 11″) paper, using Type 1 or TrueType fonts. AAAI submissions are anonymous, and must conform to the instructions (detailed below) for double-blind review. Submissions may have up to 8 pages with page 8 containing nothing but references. For final papers, authors may purchase up to two additional pages in the proceedings (see below for details). The last page of final papers may contain text other than references, but all references in the submitted paper should appear in the final version, unless superseded. The AAAI copyright block is not required on submissions, but must be included on final versions. Electronic abstract and paper submission through the AAAI-18 paper submission site is required on or before the deadlines listed above. We cannot admit submissions by e-mail or fax. Authors will receive confirmation of receipt of their abstracts or papers, including an ID number, shortly after submission. AAAI will contact authors again only if problems are encountered with papers. Inquiries regarding paper receipt must be made no later than September 13, 2017.

Submission Limit
This year AAAI-18 is enforcing a strict submission limit. Each individual author is limited to no more than 10 submissions to AAAI-18 and authors may not be added to papers following submission. Resubmissions of Substantially Improved IJCAI-17 and NIPS-17 Submissions Authors of declined IJCAI-17 and NIPS-17 submissions may submit substantially improved versions to AAAI-18, optionally accompanied by a cover letter that explains how the revised submission addresses the comments of the IJCAI-17 and NIPS-17 reviewers. Such cover letters should be prepended to the PDF paper submission (cover letter + 7 pages + 1 page reference) and a PDF copy of the full IJCAI-17 or NIPS-17 reviews should be included as supplemental material. Cover letters will be taken into consideration in the AAAI-18 review process.

Supplemental Material
The length of the main submission is strictly limited as indicated above. Authors may also choose to submit supplemental material as a second file. Examples of supplemental material are proofs of theorems that are stated in the main paper, or video demonstrations. Submissions may reference the supplemental material, but should be self-contained. Reviewers are instructed to make their evaluations based on the main submission, and are not obligated to consult the supplemental material. If proofs or other supplement matter are an important part of the contribution, their essential elements should be included in the main paper. Please be very careful not to violate the blind review requirements in the supplemental material. Those resubmitting substantially improved IJCAI-17 and NIPS-17 submissions must include a PDF copy of their full IJCAI-17 or NIPS-17 reviews as supplemental material. Supplemental material submitted at the time of submission for review will not be published or posted if the paper is accepted for publication. At the time of the submission of a final paper for publication, a different supplemental file is requested, which should contain all files necessary to recompile the accepted paper.

Blind Review Instructions
Reviewing for the AAAI Conference is blind to the identities of the authors. The first page, on which the paper body begins, should include the title, abstract, content areas, and ID number (if available), but not names or affiliations of the authors. The references should include all published literature relevant to the paper. Acknowledgments of funding or assistance should also be omitted. Submissions should not contain pointers to supplemental material on the web. When referring to one’s own work, use the third person, rather than the first person. For example, say “Previously, Newell (1996) showed that…,” rather than “In our previous work (Newell 1996) we showed that…” Try to avoid including any information that would identify the authors or their affiliations. Such information may be added to the final camera-ready version for publication. Policy Concerning Submissions to Other Conferences or Journals AAAI-18 will not consider any paper that, at the time of submission, is under review for or has already been published or accepted for publication in a journal or another conference. Once submitted to AAAI-18, authors may not submit the paper elsewhere during AAAI’s review period. These restrictions apply only to refereed journals and conferences, not to unrefereed forums (e.g. arXiv.org) or workshops with a limited audience and without archival proceedings. Authors must confirm that their submissions conform to these requirements at the time of submission.

Review Process
Program committee (PC) members will be matched to submissions based on research expertise and interest. Authors will have a limited opportunity to respond to initial reviews. This author feedback will then be taken into account in the final recommendations and reviews may be changed accordingly. PC reviewers will make recommendations to the senior program committee, who in turn will make recommendations to the program cochairs. The program cochairs will make all final decisions following full consultation with members of the senior PC during this process.

Publication
Accepted papers will be allocated eight (8) pages in the conference proceedings; up to two (2) additional pages may be used at a cost to the authors of $275 per page. Final papers found to exceed page limits and or otherwise violating the instructions to authors will not be included in the proceedings. Authors will be required to transfer copyright of their paper to AAAI. Accepted papers will be available via the online schedule at the conference. The published archival versions of the papers will be made available in AAAI Digital Library and in hard copy after the conference. Conference Registration and Attendance At least one author is required to register for the conference and be available to present the paper, and we encourage all authors to attend if possible. Demonstrations During paper submission, authors will be able to express interest in demonstrating their systems (if applicable) during a demonstration/poster session and describe the features of their intended demonstration.

Journal Opportunities
A select set of top-rated papers may be nominated for fast track reviewing at participating journals, including the AI Journal (AIJ) and the Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research (JAIR). Nominated authors will be invited to submit extended versions of their AAAI-18 papers for fast-track consideration. Questions and Suggestions Concerning author instructions and conference registration, write to aaai18@aaai.org. Concerning suggestions for the program and other inquiries, write to the AAAI-18 Program Cochairs at aaai18chairs@aaai.org. AAAI-18 Program Cochairs Sheila McIlraith (University of Toronto, Canada) Kilian Weinberger (Cornell University, USA)

Committees

 * Conference Committee Chair
 * has conference committee chair::Shlomo Zilberstein, University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA


 * Program Co-Chairs
 * has PC chair::Sheila McIlraith, University of Toronto, Canada
 * has PC chair::Kilian Weinberger, Cornell University, USA