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Who Pays for Open Review? Visible Author Reputation and Its Effect on Ratings

By: Qinghua Zhao · Xinyu Chen · Yanhui Yang · Tengfeng Sun · Junfeng Liu · Zhongfeng Kang

14 September 2026 at 12:00

arXiv:2609.11983v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: An OpenReview bug in November 2025 broke anonymity at several conferences and prompted calls for open review, which motivate us to ask what shifting from blind to open would mean for authors. Analyzing over 18,000 reviewed submissions to ICLR 2026, split into de facto open and blind groups by arXiv preprint timing, we find that ratings rise with author reputation under both mechanisms, with a steeper slope under open review that is statistically significant, and that the open-blind difference is concentrated at the borderline ratings. The pattern holds across five reputation proxies (including institution, h-index, and citation count), three author-aggregation rules, and five definitions of the open window. A controlled simulation with five AI models as reviewers, holding the manuscript fixed and varying the author reputation, reproduces the effect. With claude-opus-5 as the reviewer, for example, rating rises by 0.5 points as the author moves from low to high reputation.

Narrative review of the staging classification controversy in stage N3 small cell lung cancer: from the perspective of overlapping Veterans Administration Lung Study Group and International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer definitions

Omics In Lung

By: Xinyu Chen · Qilin Wang · Juncai Ye · Xueping Yang · Jiahao Chen · Guangzeng Zhou · Chuanyu You · Tian Xu · Yan Gui

11 September 2026 at 18:00

J Thorac Dis. 2026 Aug 31;18(8):950. doi: 10.21037/jtd-2026-1704. Epub 2026 Aug 28.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Traditionally, two primary systems have been employed for staging small cell lung cancer (SCLC): the Veterans Administration Lung Study Group (VALG) system and the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) tumor, node, metastasis (TNM) system. The term "limited disease" is defined differently: VALG characterizes it as disease encompassed within a single tolerable radiation field, while IASLC defines it as the lack of distant metastases (M0). Patients with N3 disease frequently satisfy VALG extensive-stage (ES) criteria while meeting IASLC limited-stage (LS) criteria, resulting in a notable staging discrepancy. Therefore, this review aims to clarify the clinical challenges posed by this staging overlap and provide insights for standardizing staging terminology and optimizing therapeutic decision-making in N3 SCLC.

METHODS: A narrative review utilizing a systematized search strategy was conducted. While strict adherence to PRISMA guidelines was not pursued because the extensive heterogeneity of the literature precluded a formal meta-analysis, rigorous search criteria were applied to minimize selection bias. Databases including PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, the Cochrane Library, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) were searched for literature from January 2000 to March 2026. Studies examining stage N3 SCLC, spatial metastatic burden, and definitional inconsistencies between the VALG and IASLC staging systems were analyzed to assess their effects on treatment dosimetry, systemic therapy, and survival outcomes.

KEY CONTENT AND FINDINGS: The staging overlap in N3 SCLC leads to heterogeneous clinical management depending on its spatial metastatic burden, and this highly variable cohort can be stratified into distinct prognostic subgroups based on the anatomical distribution (single-region vs. multi-region) of the involved lymph nodes.

CONCLUSIONS: These findings should guide clinical trial design and terminology. Clinical decision-making must transcend historical paradigms and technical constraints. Future strategies must incorporate spatial evaluations of metastatic burden alongside innovative multimodal tools, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and multi-omics, to facilitate tailored therapy for SCLC.

PMID:42724560 | PMC:PMC13559235 | DOI:10.21037/jtd-2026-1704