Is it considered a breach of ethics (double blind reviewing) if I contact a potential reviewer after the final publishing decision by the conference?

Question

There was one reject review of the paper, but the final decision was accept.

The rejecting reviewer wrote a lot of useful feedback, and was fair and balanced: my intentions are certainly not to further argue for my case, just to discuss some things (including the paper and their thoughts on it, outside of the formal conference framework).

I believe I know who wrote the review, and we've had some contact before. Is it a problem if I contact them about this? Should I wait for the whole process to be finalized (i.e. there is a public preprint with the authors' names on it)? Should I just never do this directly even after the blind is broken?

Answer 1

You should contact the editor and ask them to pass on your request to connect to the reviewer. They will let you know if/when that can be done.

Circumventing the blind on your own would be uncouth.

Answer 2

Wait. Then contact the editor, saying that you appreciate the comments from the reviewer who rejected, think you know their identity, would like to discuss the material with them. Ask if the editor will pass along your request.

Answer 3

No problem at all. Contact them as soon as possible, while your article is still fresh in their mind. Reviewers can forget quickly about articles they reviewed. Since you cannot be completely sure who the reviewer is, you might send them a copy of the article (if it is not publicly available as a preprint).

Journals are supposed to facilitate scientific exchanges, not to hinder them. In your case, going through the editor would probably take long and may lead nowhere.

I am not sure why ethics is involved here. Who could be harmed?