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 Will This Work in the Long Run?

The following things are very important in the communication of research results: 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!