Some Frequently Asked Questions:
Do ETAI Articles Count as Being Published?
Yes, if an article has been accepted after refereeing,
then it has passed the same quality requirements as in any
of the best journals in the area. Provided that your
promotion committee or research sponsor looks at the
actual quality of your publications and the medium
where they were published, and not only at historical prestige
factors, ETAI articles must certainly count
even today. Please click here
for more
information about how publishing, reviewing, and refereeing
works in our system, and about the advantages of using it.
We are taking active measures to explain the strengths and
the quality requirements of the ETAI scheme to those who
evaluate research results.
How is the Colloquium Related to the ETAI?
The Colloquium is an additional service on top of the basic
publication scheme provided by ETAI, and is organized within
one of ETAI's areas. In fact, the ETAI is a confederation of
several areas within Artificial Intelligence, each of which
has its own Area Editor, its own Editorial Committee,
and so on. All areas share a common publication scheme for
research articles, characterized by free on-line availability
of articles, posteriori reviewing, and a distinction between
public review discussion and confidential
refereeing.
The ETAI area for Reasoning about Actions and Change organizes
the present Colloquium as an experiment in rapid turn-around,
network-based communication between researchers. The review
discussion required by ETAI is performed within the Colloquium.
What's the Distinction Between Newsletter and News Journal?
The Newsletter is sent out by e-mail almost daily to our list
of subscribers, and is the method whereby
information is distributed rapidly. The News Journal is published
at the end of each month as a digest of the information that was
sent out by Newsletter during the past month. Together, they
constitute our rapid turnaround
news system for research in our area.
Who's Behind All This?
Please click here to see the answer.
Why Do You Think This Will Work in the Long Run?
The following things are very important in the communication of
research results:
- Cost: since the cost of journal subscription goes up
rapidly and library budgets are constant, at best, the
continued availability of an article is best guaranteed
by publishing it in a way where access is free. No copyright
restrictions, no subscription fees, nothing.
- Attention: making sure that your colleagues get to
notice your work. ETAI received articles are discussed
by the peers in an open, Internet-pace debate.
That's the best attention they can get.
- Time to the market: making sure that someone else
doesn't publish the same results before you. With ETAI's
system of posteriori reviewing (first publish, then public
review in the sense of discussion, then confidential
refereeing) there are no publication
delays.
These are advantages that conventional journals can not match.
Even the conventional electronic journals do not have the
advantages of public discussion and posteriori reviewing.
Who Can Use This System?
Research articles and other contributions (research notes,
contributions to discussions) within the area of
Actions and Change are welcome to the present colloquium.
Research contributions within some other current
ETAI area are likewise welcome to the respective area.
Research within AI which does not belong to any of the
ETAI areas can not be received by the ETAI - all contributions
go through the area editors.
The operation of the present Colloquium depends heavily
on software support for generating the web pages and E-mail
messages that carry and contain the information. If you are
thinking of setting up a similar communication system for
another area of research, within or outside AI,
you may be interested in obtaining access
to this support software. It is freely available - but be
prepared for a considerable amount of work anyway!