While Computer Science research remains one of the most dynamic areas of human endeavor, the ways in which Computer Science research is peer reviewed, published and otherwise disseminated has struggled to keep pace with the rapid developments in the field. Among the most notable changes in the past decades are a shift towards online publishing, and a transition towards Open Access (OA) models. Other innovations involve improved reproducibility, hybrid conference/journal venues, better tools and repositories to support the publication process, new bibliometric platforms, etc.

Still, many key challenges remain: rising subscription costs for access to literature (the "serials crisis"), rising APC costs charged for OA publishing, unequal access to publication and networking opportunities worldwide, the peer review process being inundated with submissions, long review times (particularly for journals), collusion and other unfair practices in peer review, questionable metrics that generate counterproductive incentives, unethical use of AI for reviewing and preparing articles, difficulties reproducing results described in articles, the costs (environmental, personal, and financial) of conference travel, and the impossibility of keeping up-to-date with key developments in areas with hundreds of new articles published each day.

The goal of this Dagstuhl Perspectives Workshop is to first cast a critical look at current practices relating to the review and publication of the results of Computer Science research, to secondly conceive of a roadmap to improve these practices (covering short, medium, and long-term goals prioritized as such), and to thirdly coordinate concrete actions to move this agenda forward. Key topics that will be addressed in focused breakout groups include affordable and sustainable Open Access models, streamlined and high-quality peer review practices, the hybridization of conferences vs. journals, ethical AI-powered methodologies to support publishing and reviewing, publication of research artifacts beyond the PDF, and alternative metrics that create incentives better aligned with the goals of the community.

The workshop will feature a mixture of keynote presentations, short talks, breakout sessions, and plenary discussions. The attendees invited will be leaders and experts in diverse aspects of the peer-review and publishing lifecycle: from academic publishers, funding bodies, professional organizations, libraries, submission & review software, bibliographical platforms, scholarly AI research, bibliometrics, OA initiatives, as well as concerned researchers in the area. As a result of the workshop itself, participants will be encouraged to collaborate on one or more whitepapers that document our diagnosis of current practices, the challenges to address, our roadmap, and the concrete actions we plan. We will consider the workshop a success if it can stimulate a shift in one or more aspects of Computer Science publishing that benefit the community’s mission to advance the state of the art of the field in an ethical, inclusive, and sustainable manner.

Creative Commons BY 4.0

Aidan Hogan, Marieke Huisman, Uli Sattler, and Divesh Srivastava