Mentor Guidelines for Student Research Workshop Papers

Thank you for volunteering to be a mentor for the Student Research Workshop (SRW) at EACL 2026! As a mentor, your role is crucial in guiding and supporting student authors to refine their research papers and enhance their academic writing skills.

Timelines

Mentors will be paired with student authors shortly after the paper submission deadline. You will have approximately four weeks to provide feedback and suggestions before the feedback deadline on November 28, 2025 (AoE).

Responsibilities

As a mentor, you are expected to:

  • Review the assigned student paper thoroughly.
  • Provide constructive feedback on the research content, methodology, clarity, and overall presentation.
  • Suggest improvements and guide the student authors in addressing any weaknesses.

Communication

We expect mentors to communicate with student authors primarily via OpenReview official comments. Please ensure that your feedback is respectful, encouraging, and aimed at fostering a positive learning experience.

You may also choose to have additional communication channels (e.g., email, video calls) if both you and the student authors agree.

How to Provide Feedback

Please use the “Official Review” feature on OpenReview to submit your feedback. This allows us to keep track of mentoring status. You can access the review form through the following steps:

  1. Log in to your OpenReview account.
  2. Navigate to the “Assigned Submissions” section.
  3. Click on the paper you are mentoring.
  4. Select the “Official Review” button to access and submit your feedback.

Feedback Form

The feedback form will include the following four sections.

1. Summary Of Strengths

Here, please highlight the key strengths of the paper, including aspects such as originality, significance, clarity, and methodology. Please be as specific as possible to help the student authors understand what aspects of their work can be highlighted in the final submission.

2. Summary Of Weaknesses

In this section, please identify the main weaknesses or areas for improvement in the paper. This could include issues related to research design, data analysis, clarity of writing, or any other relevant aspects. Providing specific examples will help the student authors understand where they need to focus their efforts.

Important Note 1: This section is not for listing minor issues such as typos or formatting errors. Instead, please focus on substantive feedback that can help improve the overall quality of the work. Minor issues should be noted in the “Additional Comments” section.

Important Note 2: Please avoid making harsh or overly critical comments. The goal is to support and encourage student authors in their learning journey and improve their work constructively before the final submission.

3. Suggestions

In this section, for each weakness identified in the previous section, please provide specific suggestions on how the student authors can address these issues.

4. Additional Comments

Feel free to include any additional comments or advice that you believe would be beneficial for the student authors. This could include general writing tips, resources for further reading, or encouragement to motivate them in their research journey.

Moreover, this section can be the place to mention any minor issues (e.g., typos, formatting errors) that you noticed during your review.

Contact

If you have any questions or need further assistance during the mentoring process, please feel free to reach out to the SRW Chairs at eaclsrw@gmail.com. While you can also reach out to us via OpenReview, email is preferred and faster for urgent matters as notifications on OpenReview are turned off for PC members by default.

We sincerely appreciate your dedication and effort in mentoring student authors for the EACL 2026 Student Research Workshop. Thank you for being a part of this important initiative!