Communications of the ACM
The Toxic Culture of Rejection in Computer Science
A paper that reinforces a prior idea may be more valuable than a paper that introduces a new idea.
Credit: ACM SIGBED
Unlike most disciplines, conference publications dominate over journals in computer science, and program committees carry out the bulk of the peer reviewing. Serving on a PC is a yeoman's service, and the community owes them a debt of gratitude. However, a toxic culture has emerged.
A low acceptance rate has become valued as a quality metric for conferences. This feeds a culture of shooting each other down rather than growing and nurturing a community. Many venues are proud of their 10% acceptance rates. The goal of a PC has become to destroy rather than to develop.
Since we are conditioned to find reasons to reject rather than reasons to accept, papers are thrown out due to a single dominating negative review.
From ACM SIGBED
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