# Introduction to Notes See also: * [Technical Reference for Notes](https://docs.openreview.net/reference/api-v1/entities/note) * [Guide for getting notes (submissions, reviews, etc)](https://docs.openreview.net/how-to-guides/data-retrieval-and-modification/how-to-get-all-notes-for-submissions-reviews-rebuttals-etc) * [Guide for exporting submission and other information](https://docs.openreview.net/how-to-guides/data-retrieval-and-modification/how-to-loop-through-accepted-papers-and-print-the-authors-and-their-affiliations) ### What is a note? The **Note** is the core data object in OpenReview that is used to represent content such as submissions, reviews, comments, official responses, and more. Notes are created and governed by **invitations**, which define their schema and permissions. For detailed information about the Note object and its fields, see [here](https://docs.openreview.net/reference/api-v2/entities/note). A few fields that are particularly important for interacting with notes are `id`, `invitation` ,`readers` , and `content`. * `id` - unique identifier for the Note * `invitation` is used to identify the schema used to generate and validate the note. In practice, this is most commonly used for identifying all notes for example identifying all Reviews or all Rebuttals. * `readers` identifies which groups are the readers of a note or a field within a note * `content` is a dictionary that contains all of the fields of a note. ### Notes, Replies, and Forums A **Reply** is a specific type of Note that is **linked to another Note**—such as a comment on a submission or a review in response to a paper. **`id`** * The unique identifier of a specific Note. * Every Note, whether standalone or a reply, has its own `id`. **`forum`** * The `forum` field indicates the **top-level Note thread** the current Note belongs to. * For a submission, `forum == id`, since it starts its own thread. * For a reply, `forum` is the `id` of the original submission Note it belongs to. **`replyto`** * The `replyto` field indicates the **direct parent** of the current Note. * A top-level Note (like a submission) has `replyto=None`. * A review or comment will have `replyto` set to the `id` of the Note it is directly responding to (could be a submission or another comment). In OpenReview, typically Submissions are the top-level Note, and other Notes posted in relationship to the Submission is a reply. The example below shows a forum page for an example submission. In this case, the Submission is the top-level note, the Official Review is a reply to the Submission, and the Official Comment is a reply to the Official Comment.
The data structure of the above forum is as below: ``` {'cdate': 1749500872124, 'content': {'abstract': {'value': 'This is an abstract 1'}, 'authorids': {'readers': ['TC/2024/Conference', 'TC/2024/Conference/Submission1/Authors'], 'value': ['~SomeFirstName_User1', 'author@mail.com', 'andrew1@amazon.com']}, 'authors': {'readers': ['TC/2024/Conference', 'TC/2024/Conference/Submission1/Authors'], 'value': ['SomeFirstName User', 'First Last', 'Andrew Mc']}, 'keywords': {'value': ['machine learning', 'nlp']}, 'paperhash': {'readers': ['TC/2024/Conference', 'TC/2024/Conference/Submission1/Authors'], 'value': 'user|paper_title_1'}, 'pdf': {'value': '/pdf/pppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp.pdf'}, 'title': {'value': 'Paper title 1'}, 'venue': {'value': 'TC 2024 Conference Submission'}, 'venueid': {'value': 'TC/2024/Conference/Submission'}}, 'ddate': None, 'domain': 'TC/2024/Conference', 'forum': 'WEIzUBsDX6', 'id': 'WEIzUBsDX6', 'invitations': ['TC/2024/Conference/-/Submission', 'TC/2024/Conference/-/Post_Submission'], 'license': 'CC BY-SA 4.0', 'mdate': 1749500934613, 'nonreaders': None, 'number': 1, 'odate': None, 'parent_invitations': None, 'pdate': None, 'readers': ['TC/2024/Conference', 'TC/2024/Conference/Submission1/Senior_Area_Chairs', 'TC/2024/Conference/Submission1/Area_Chairs', 'TC/2024/Conference/Submission1/Reviewers', 'TC/2024/Conference/Submission1/Authors'], 'replyto': None, 'signatures': ['TC/2024/Conference/Submission1/Authors'], 'tcdate': 1749500872124, 'tmdate': 1749500934613, 'writers': ['TC/2024/Conference', 'TC/2024/Conference/Submission1/Authors']}, 'details': {'replies': [{'cdate': 1749501156614, 'content': {'confidence': {'value': 5}, 'rating': {'value': 10}, 'review': {'value': 'Excellent paper, ' 'accept'}, 'title': {'value': 'Good paper, accept'}}, 'domain': 'TC/2024/Conference', 'forum': 'WEIzUBsDX6', 'id': 'OvggXPAvUK', 'invitations': ['TC/2024/Conference/Submission1/-/Official_Review'], 'license': 'CC BY 4.0', 'mdate': 1749501156614, 'nonreaders': ['TC/2024/Conference/Submission1/Authors'], 'number': 1, 'parentInvitations': 'TC/2024/Conference/-/Official_Review', 'readers': ['TC/2024/Conference/Program_Chairs', 'TC/2024/Conference/Submission1/Senior_Area_Chairs', 'TC/2024/Conference/Submission1/Area_Chairs', 'TC/2024/Conference/Submission1/Reviewer_Nxce'], 'replyto': 'WEIzUBsDX6', 'signatures': ['TC/2024/Conference/Submission1/Reviewer_Nxce'], 'tcdate': 1749501156614, 'tmdate': 1749501156614, 'version': 2, 'writers': ['TC/2024/Conference', 'TC/2024/Conference/Submission1/Reviewer_Nxce']}, {'cdate': 1749501221454, 'content': {'comment': {'value': 'Thank you for your ' 'review!'}}, 'domain': 'TC/2024/Conference', 'forum': 'WEIzUBsDX6', 'id': '9mJiUp5fsF', 'invitations': ['TC/2024/Conference/Submission1/-/Official_Comment'], 'license': 'CC BY 4.0', 'mdate': 1749501221454, 'number': 1, 'parentInvitations': 'TC/2024/Conference/-/Official_Comment', 'readers': ['TC/2024/Conference/Program_Chairs', 'TC/2024/Conference/Submission1/Senior_Area_Chairs', 'TC/2024/Conference/Submission1/Area_Chairs', 'TC/2024/Conference/Submission1/Reviewer_Nxce'], 'replyto': 'OvggXPAvUK', 'signatures': ['TC/2024/Conference/Submission1/Senior_Area_Chairs'], 'tcdate': 1749501221454, 'tmdate': 1749501221454, 'version': 2, 'writers': ['TC/2024/Conference', 'TC/2024/Conference/Submission1/Senior_Area_Chairs']}]}, } ``` ### Creating, Editing, and Deleting Notes (Inference) Operations on Notes are performed via [**Edits**](https://docs.openreview.net/getting-started/objects-in-openreview/introduction-to-edits)**.** The first Edit posted is for the creation of the note, any revisions of the notes can be made by posting Edits with the relevant fields, and deleting a Note object is done by posting and Edit adding a date to the `ddate` field. See below for examples of each operation. To create/modify a Note, you post an Edit with the necessary fields: * **`invitation`**: The ID of the Invitation governing the Note. This is used to ensure that the Edit is well-formed and conforms to the specifications in the invitation. * **`signatures`**: List of group IDs authorizing the Edit. * **`note`**: The Note object containing fields like `readers`, `writers`, `signatures`, and `content` . All notes need to have these four fields. `readers`, `writers`, and `signatures` are all lists of strings consisting of the IDs of groups or profiles. `content` is a dictionary containing the fields that will show up in the final Note. the dictionary needs to include only fields specified in the invitation. Between the notes and all edits of the note, all required fields must be present in the note. ### Note Validation Before the [Edit](https://docs.openreview.net/getting-started/objects-in-openreview/introduction-to-edits) is posted, the content of both the Edit and the Note within is checked to ensure that it fits the parameters of the Invitation. In particular, the dictionary `content` needs to include only fields specified in the invitation. Between the notes and all edits of the note, all required fields must be present in the note.