How are programming-related papers published?

Question

Hi,

I've been working on implementing code from papers such as The Slab Allocator: An Object-Caching Kernel Memory Allocator. This has kind of got me wondering now... How do these guys get these papers published?

The closest I've gotten in my search for this answer is the IETF's RFCs, but what if your paper doesn't discuss an Internet-related concept? And if it's not too much to ask (there's got to be someone here who knows), how difficult is it to actually be published? Do you have to present a new idea, or can you compare and contrast several existing ideas (where discussion does not already exist)?

This question seems to have come up before, but I'd like to know from a perspective that does not focus only on GC, but on a broader scale. For the record I don't actually have a paper, I'm more interested in the work involved and the avenues through which papers are published.

Answer 1

Typically, papers are submitted to a conference appropriate to their topic (Usenix has a number of computing-related conferences, for example, and there are many other more specialized conferences) in response to a Call for Papers (using Usenix as an example again, http://usenix.org/events/cfps.html lists the CfPs of various Usenix conferences). The individual CfPs will generally lay out any more detailed requirements, as well as the process involved.

Pretty much every worthwhile journal implements a form of peer review, where submitted papers (after initial screening by an editor) are distributed anonymously to a handful of other individuals in the same field as the general topic of the paper, who collectively provide their opinion on whether or not the paper is suitable for publishing to the editors of the journal, based on factors such as the credibility of the paper itself and its conclusions, the references cited, and overall quality of the writing.

Answer 2

A few years ago I published an HCI paper. Normally you will submit a draft the paper well before a conference, people review it and you will get a yes/no answer.

Depending on the quality of your paper and the quality of the conference (and also other factors like the quality of other submissions) your chances of getting it published will vary.

Of course if the conference isn't particularly prestigious you might get away with using this- http://pdos.csail.mit.edu/scigen/

Answer 3

ACM and IEEE are two of the most important publishers of computing-related journals and conference proceedings. It would probably help to work with someone who has experience in academic publishing, both to select the most appropriate forum and to make sure the paper gets written in the right kind of style.

Regarding how difficult it is to get published: if you have a brilliant idea and can write it up in a basically readable article, you will get it published. But usually you will have something that is perhaps interesting but not really exceptional, and then it will matter a lot to find the right forum and to write up the paper in a way that the reviewers will like.