CommunityData:Conferences and Journals

For folks who aren't aware of how this all works, here's the general publication process:

1. You submit a paper to a journal or archival conference.
   • If a paper has been submitted somewhere for publication, you cannot submit it anywhere else before getting a decision. The exception is non-archival conferences, which typically allow you to present work that has been submitted elsewhere.
2. The editor decides to either desk reject your article (the editor decides it isn't a good fit) or sends it out to reviewers.
3. Reviewers provide written feedback to the editor. The editor decides whether to accept the article (very rare!), reject it (more common than we wish!), or ask you to "revise and resubmit" it. They return their decision to you, together with their review and the peer reviews.
   • If you get a rejection, then figure out what changes you want to make and send it out somewhere else
   • If you get a "revise and resubmit" (R+R) decision, then you get to decide whether it is worth the work the reviewers are asking for. Typically, you will both revise your paper and send a letter describing what you did.
4. For conferences, there is (usually) only one round of revisions. After you submit your article, it's either accepted or rejected. For journals, there can be multiple rounds, where you may receive requests for additional revisions.
5. Hopefully, after all this, your paper gets accepted! 🎉
6. The journal / conference sends typeset proofs - this is your last chance to make changes!
7. The journal / conference publishes your paper, and you publicize it!

Deciding where to submit a research project can be tough! This is a non-comprehensive list of some of the core conferences and journals that we see our research as being in conversation with. For each venue, there's a little bit of commentary to help you decide if it might be a good fit for your work.

Conferences

Non-archival

Non-archival means that submissions to a conference are not "published". In other words, you are free to submit the same or nearly the same research to another venue. Some folks look down on presenting research at multiple conferences but others think it's great to get feedback from different audiences.

In general, it's easier to get accepted to a non-archival conference. In addition, they basically never have an R+R requirement—they will pass on reviewer feedback, but you aren't required to do anything with it.

ICA (International Communication Association)

ICA is one of the two big communication conferences, and is probably the best conference for computational communication work. ICA is organized in divisions, which act semi-autonomously, and you submit papers to a division rather than to the conference. The divisions most aligned with CDSC research are probably Computational Methods, Information Systems, Communication and Technology (CAT), and Organizational Communication.

Deadline: Early November

Conference: Late May