Hasty Briefsbeta

Queueing to publish in AI and CS

3 hours ago
  • #publication model
  • #acceptance rate
  • #CS conferences
  • The common CS conference publication model with a fixed low acceptance rate is analyzed using a toy model.
  • In an ideal scenario where authors resubmit indefinitely, the number of accepted papers remains constant regardless of the acceptance rate.
  • When authors give up after a certain number of submissions, lower acceptance rates increase the pool size and reviewing load, disproportionately affecting average-quality papers.
  • Lower acceptance rates lead to more abandoned papers, especially bad ones, but also significantly impact average papers due to bad luck.
  • The model suggests that higher acceptance rates could reduce the pool of unaccepted papers without dramatically increasing absolute acceptances.
  • Proposed changes include community feedback, faster reviewing experiments, mindful resource use, and openness to tested changes.
  • The effective acceptance rate is higher than a single conference's rate due to resubmissions, and the quality of accepted papers improves with lower acceptance rates.