[D] Dealing with an unprofessional reviewer using fake references and personal attacks in ICML26

A Reddit discussion on r/MachineLearning describes a researcher's experience with an ICML 2026 reviewer who cited fabricated references and made personal attacks in their review. The post reflects broader community concerns about unprofessional peer review conduct at major ML conferences, with ICML's own guidelines explicitly stating that "unprofessional reviews can harm the community in multiple ways: frustration for authors (particularly students) who may slow down in their research, drop out of the field, and/or end up reviewing unprofessionally themselves as a result." The thread sparked discussion about recommended escalation paths, such as flagging the review to the Area Chair and using the rebuttal process to formally dispute fabricated citations and inappropriate comments.

Getting sabotaged by a reviewer at IJCAI [D]
[[d-how-are-reviewers-able-to-get-away-without-providing-ackno|[D] How are reviewers able to get away without providing acknowledgement in ICML 2026?]]
ICML 2026 am I cooked? [D]
Is the ICML 2026 final justification period still open? [R]

Source: research

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