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Choose a computer science conference by matching your paper to its current call, review criteria, submission track, publication outcome, and policies—not by prestige or rank alone. A repeatable comparison of those factors can help you identify a venue that fits both the research and your team’s constraints.
Start with the paper and the current call
List the paper’s research question, methods, main contribution, evidence, and intended audience. Then read the current call for papers for each plausible venue and check whether the call welcomes that kind of work and values its contribution.
Review criteria can reveal important differences. For example, the RecSys 2026 call says reviewers assess relevance, originality, rigor, impact, and replicability. It also warns that out-of-scope papers, incomplete papers, or papers lacking sufficient evidence for their main claims may be rejected without full review. A prestigious label cannot compensate for a mismatch with the call.
Compare the actual tracks and publication outcomes
A conference is not always one uniform publication opportunity. Its tracks may differ in eligibility, review depth, format, and whether accepted work becomes part of an archival proceedings record. Check the rules for the specific track you would enter.
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The HCOMP/Collective Intelligence 2026 call illustrates the distinction: full papers of up to 6,000 words excluding references receive three detailed external reviews coordinated by a program committee member; accepted papers appear in archival ACM Digital Library proceedings with individual DOIs. Talks of up to 1,500 words receive brief reviews by two program committee members and are posted on the conference website without archival proceedings or individual DOIs. These word limits and review arrangements describe that 2026 call, not a general conference standard.
Ask what the track promises and verify the publication arrangement in the official materials:
- Is the submission a full paper, short paper, poster, demo, talk, workshop paper, or another category?
- Who reviews it, and what kind of review or feedback can authors expect?
- Does acceptance lead to archival proceedings, a DOI, and publication through a named digital library—or only a program listing or abstract collection?
Do not assume that a publisher or society affiliation guarantees a particular form of indexing. The IEEE Computer Society Technical Meeting Handbook 2025 says proceedings are submitted for possible inclusion in IEEE Xplore; it also states that no conference, workshop, event, or publisher can guarantee IEEE Xplore inclusion or indexing by IEEE partners. IEEE conference content can undergo quality review by IEEE volunteers.
Check policies and eligibility before submitting
Read the current edition’s rules for prior publication and simultaneous submissions, anonymity, authorship, ethics, and any relevant human-subjects requirements. Confirm that the paper and team meet them before investing in a submission.
Policies vary. For work covered by it, the ACM SIGPLAN republication policy says closely related prior conference or workshop work must be cited, its relationship to the new manuscript explained, and the program chair explicitly informed. It says program committees judge the additional publication value and states: “We foresee no circumstances under which an unrevised conference paper will be accepted to a second conference.” If you are uncertain how the policy applies, ask the program chair in advance.
Presentation and attendance rules also differ by event. The RecSys 2026 call says a paper not presented by an author may be removed from the proceedings at the program chairs’ discretion. The HCOMP/Collective Intelligence 2026 call requires at least one author to register by the early-registration deadline and requires in-person attendance except in exceptional circumstances. Check the rules for the edition you are considering rather than applying these examples to other venues.
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Compare candidates with a fact-based scorecard
For each plausible conference, record a factual answer and the official source for each criterion. Separate non-negotiable requirements from preferences so that a strong score in one area cannot hide a disqualifying mismatch.
| Criterion | What to establish | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Topical and methodological fit | Does the call include the paper’s question and methods? Is the intended audience the right one? | Must meet |
| Contribution and evidence | Do the review criteria value this kind of contribution, and does the paper provide evidence for its claims? | Must meet |
| Track and review format | Which submission category applies, who reviews it, and what review depth or feedback is specified? | Must meet the intended outcome |
| Publication outcome | Is accepted work archival? Are proceedings, DOI assignment, and digital-library availability stated? | Must meet if required for the paper |
| Policies and eligibility | Are prior work, simultaneous submissions, anonymity, authorship, ethics, and presentation rules compatible with the manuscript and team? | Must meet |
| Audience and professional value | Will the relevant research community see and use the work? Rankings and publication patterns can inform this, but do not decide it. | Preference |
| Practical constraints | Can the team meet the deadline and formatting rules, attend or present if required, and manage registration, travel, and any publication charges? | Must meet where applicable; otherwise preference |
Use current official calls and policies to fill the scorecard. Deadlines, fees, attendance requirements, and other logistics are venue- and edition-specific; they cannot be inferred from general guidance.
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Use rankings as context, not a verdict
The International CORE (ICORE) database can help discover and compare selected international computer science and computer systems engineering conferences. Its ranking method combines automated data metrics, conference submissions, and expert committee judgment. The database supports searches by conference name, acronym, or research area, and shows current and historical ranks. It also provides tools for examining researchers’ publication patterns and a more granular citation-based centile within a field.
Understand what a label means before using it. ICORE describes A* as a flagship designation—“A* = A + flagship”—not necessarily stronger citation performance. It describes A as excellent and B as good to very good. An unranked venue simply has no ranking decision in the database; that status alone does not show that a venue is poor or illegitimate. Check the venue’s own page, current call, organizers, proceedings, and peer-review process.
In its 2026 database, ICORE reports 825 ranked venues, distributed as follows:
| ICORE 2026 category | Share of ranked venues |
|---|---|
| A* | 7.52% |
| A | 13.09% |
| B | 30.18% |
| Australasian B | 0.73% |
| C | 46.18% |
| Australasian C | 2.3% |
The portal separately lists 162 venues as “Other.” These are counts and proportions within ICORE’s ranking database, not a global census or an estimate of your paper’s chance of acceptance. ICORE says its rankings are periodically updated, so check the current edition when comparing venues.
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Acceptance rates are also poor substitutes for fit. Use a rate only when organizers publish an attributable numerator and denominator for the specific conference, year, and track. A rate without those details does not tell you how competitive your paper will be.
Quick Recap
Make the final choice
- Remove venues that fail a must-meet condition. Exclude calls that do not fit the work, tracks that do not provide the publication outcome you need, or venues whose policies or deadlines the team cannot meet.
- Compare the remaining options on audience and review value. Consider whether the right community will engage with the work and whether the track’s review format suits your goals.
- Verify practical requirements in the current edition’s official materials. Confirm formatting, deadline, presentation, attendance, registration, and any applicable charges before choosing.
- Choose the best fit for this paper, not the most impressive-sounding label. Rankings can inform the comparison, but scope, evidence expectations, publication terms, policies, and feasibility should govern the decision.
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