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I am a grad student reviewing papers for a small workshop at an upcoming conference. I am fairly certain one of the papers assigned to me is written by my direct research mentor, with whom I'm doing an internship. The process is double-blind, but due to writing, style, topic, particular obscure citations, and other factors I'm fairly convinced of this.

Is there usually a mechanism for passing on the paper review due to a conflict of interest? Moreover, would that be the right decision here? I respect my mentor very much; he is a top researcher in the subfield the paper addresses. I am unsure if this constitutes a conflict of interest.

This is also my first time as a reviewer, so am not familiar with the guidelines/expectations for this process. Any help would be appreciated!

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    Just excuse yourself and explain the situation to the organizers.
    – Moishe Kohan
    Commented Jun 11 at 23:58
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    Absolutely a conflict of interest in more ways than I count. When that happened to me in grad school and the editor was informed (by me) they always immediately cancelled the request and thanked me.
    – user3508551
    Commented Jun 12 at 1:33
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    @user3508551: That's a complete and useful answer, you should post it as such.
    – Daniel R. Collins
    Commented Jun 12 at 2:23
  • Thanks for the help!
    – Karl Capricorni
    Commented Jun 12 at 15:45

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This is a clear conflict of interest.

Do not do this review and return it to the organising committee immediately with your concerns. Because even if the author is not your mentor, being convinced that they are can already influence you to make an unfair assessment of the paper. Writing your review and informing after is just loss of time for you and the organisers.

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  • Thanks for the advice. Is it proper to contact the workshop chairs from my (non-anonymous) email? I assume only the meta reviewer knows the identity of the reviewers, is it fine to directly message the chairs without anonymity?
    – Karl Capricorni
    Commented Jun 12 at 16:43
  • How were you contacted? Use the same method to reach them.
    – The Doctor
    Commented Jun 12 at 16:48
  • This is on OpenReview so no direct communication.
    – Karl Capricorni
    Commented Jun 12 at 16:58

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