The Computing Research Association

Scholarly Publications

In recent years, there has been much discussion in the Computing Research community regarding scholarly publication: how we communicate and evaluate our ideas. We have a complex, multi-layered system of workshops, conferences, and journals, each of which has evolved as our field has grown. Perhaps it is time to reassess and see if there is benefit to changing the way we publish. There are two forces that provide impetus for such an assessment. On the one hand, there is a worry about how the current systems scale as our field continues to grow. On the other hand, there are new possibilities due to the economics of electronic publication.

This web page is a clearinghouse for information related to scholarly publication in Computing and related fields.

If you are aware of thoughtful opinions or innovative experiments not mentioned here, please email jag at umich dot edu.

Scholarly Reputation
The goal of this clearinghouse is not to focus on promotion and tenure as much as on moving the field itself forward. Nevertheless, the importance of publication in establishing scholarly reputation cannot be understated.

Peer Review
The peer review system and journal publication are standard in most academic disciplines. Even so, there has been much discussion about its strengths and weaknesses.

Post-Publication Review
New review processes, including in particular post-publication review, have been suggested in many disciplines.

Computing Community Articles
The Computing community has had several thoughtful pieces on this issue, also taking into account the importance of conference publication in our discipline.

Novel Practices
Several new schemes have also been attempted, with varying degrees of success, by different sub-communities in the computing field.

Forums
There have been a few workshops and panels to examine related issues.