Rebuttals Move Peer-Review Scores, but Initial-Review Structure Bounds the Movement
Researchers analyzed 73,000 reviewer trajectories from ICLR 2024-2025 to measure how author rebuttals affect peer-review scores. Using LLMs as measurement tools, they found that while rebuttals can move scores, initial review structure predicts most score movement, constraining rebuttal impact to measurable but bounded effects.