editor’s letter

DOI: 10.1145/1666420.1666421
Moshe Y. Vardi
Revisiting the Publication Culture
in Computing Research

In my May 2009 Editor’s Letter, “Conferences vs. Journals
in Computing Research” (p. 5), I addressed the publication
culture of our field: “As far as I know, we are the only
scientific community that considers conference publication
as the primary means of publishing
our research results. In contrast, the
prevailing academic standard of ‘pub-
lish’ is ‘publish in archival journals.’
Why are we the only discipline driving
on the conference side of the ‘publica-
tion road?’”
In response to my editorial, Lance
Fortnow wrote a Viewpoint column
(Aug. 2009, p. 33), entitled “Time for
Computer Science to Grow Up,” in
which he concluded: “Computer sci-
ence has grown to become a mature
field where no major university can sur-
vive without a strong CS department. It
is time for computer science to grow
up and publish in a way that represents
the major discipline it has become.”
The May 2009 editorial and the Au-
gust 2009 column attracted a lot of at-
tention in the blogosphere. The reac-
tion has been mostly sympathetic to the
point of view reflected in both pieces.

Moshe Y. Vardi, EdIToR-In-CHIEF