'Rebuttal or Prepared Discussion' Instructions

Occasionally a technical paper offering provokes a valid disagreement, as related to substantive issues in the paper, to justify a rebuttal. These instructions are written so all such rebuttal offerings may be handled in a uniform manner. The following "guidelines" supercede all previous guidelines or practices used at SAE conferences to address this issue:

1. The session organizer or technical track chair should notify SAE staff of any possible rebuttal as soon as possible, but no later than the draft manuscript deadline for the conference for which the rebutted paper is intended.
2. All rebuttals of written papers must also be in written form. The rebuttal and the rebutted papers shall be published as separate documents with their own paper numbers due to copyright and other issues. "Oral Only" rebuttals are not permitted.
3. SAE staff should ensure that the author of the rebutted paper is notified within three (3) days of the organizer/track chair notification.
4. The rebuttal author should be given an author kit and other necessary materials to prepare the rebuttal draft manuscript.
5. Rebuttal papers should address the areas of disagreement in a professional manner. Reasons for disagreement must be specific, and evidence as to validity of the disagreement must be provided in the text of the paper.
6. The organizer/track chair is required to have the author of the rebutted paper review the draft rebuttal paper following the normal SAE paper review guidelines. The other reviewers of the rebuttal paper should be identical to those of the rebutted paper.
7. The organizer/track chair, after review of the rebuttal paper reviews, makes a decision as to the acceptance or rejection of the rebuttal paper offer. If accepted, the rebuttal paper should be scheduled for presentation immediately after the original paper is scheduled. If rejected, the rebuttal offering is designated as such in the SAE database and is not scheduled as a paper or an Oral Only presentation at any SAE conference.
8. The entire process of writing, reviewing, and scheduling the rebuttal paper must not interfere with the previously published timeline for technical program creation.
9. The oral presentation of the rebuttal paper, to be presented at the same conference as the rebutted paper, must be reviewed by the session organizer/track chair using the same criteria as for all oral presentations.
10. All questions pertaining to procedural matters should be directed to the SAE staff representative responsible for the session in which the rebuttal paper is to be placed.