Some links to the students on how to write papers, present them in conferences, etc.
As general material, read Phil Rogaway's Frank advice for UC Davis students in CS/CSE.
Research is #1. You activities should be geared toward making research progress, as measured by top-quality conference and journal publications. This is what will determine your career success.
Unlike in undergraduate studies, there is no one to prod you along in your PhD program and career. You have to be self-motivated, and make goals and plans with schedules. Tuomas can help you make these.
Think creatively about trends in the world and computing. What technology will be useful in the future? What technology will make the world a better place? Where is technology headed? What new technologies will emerge? What technologies will become obsolete?
Think out of the box.
Research is 5% ideas, 95% execution (proving, implementing, writing, presenting). While an individual makes research progress in spurts with slower periods in between, in the long run (2-5 year horizon), success does come to those who work hardest.
Great AI conferences: IJCAI, AAAI, UAI, ICML. Other very good places to publish: TARK and AAMAS conferences, as well as DIMACS and Dagstuhl workshops. Second tier of AI conferences: KR, CP, NIPS, AIPS. Some great CS theory conferences: FOCS, STOC, SODA, (in machine learning theory, COLT is also good). Second tier of CS theory conferences: ICALP, ISAAC, ESA, SWAT. Best ecommerce conference: ACM-EC.
If you get a paper accepted to a good conference, your trip to the conference will generally be paid for from grants. However, do apply for a student travel scholarship for the conference (these are usually available at least for IJCAI, AAAI, ICMAS, and AGENTS).
Two weeks of vacation per year (conference trips are in addition). You don’t have to take it all. Please talk to Tuomas well in advance about your vacation plans so that your plans are coordinated with the group’s activities.
When questions, issues, tradeoffs, etc., pop up, talk to Tuomas. He’ll be happy to help.
Different people rank journals differently, but here are some rough guidelines that are probably helpful.
1. AIJ
2. JAIR – fast turnaround (2-3 months); potentially as high quality as AIJ
Machine Learning
Journal of Machine Learning Research (JMLR) – fast turnaround, also excellent
J. of Automated Reasoning (JAR)
Computational Intelligence
IEEE Trans. on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence
Journal of Heuristics
IEEE SMC
Annals of Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence
JETAI
(International Journal of Approximate Reasoning)
(Decision Support Systems)
AI Magazine – widely read & cited; really a magazine rather than a journal
Theoretical Computer Science – 2nd tier, but one of three areas mentions games as a topic (H. van den Herik is on the editorial board, so they may mean search algorithms for adversarial games, but they have also published other game theory work, and a special issue around 2004).
Information and Computation.
Information Processing Letters (IPL) - fast turnaround, 2nd tier.
1. Operations Research (an INFORMS journal)
2. Management Science (an INFORMS journal)
Annals of Operations Research
Journal of the Operational Research Society
European Journal of Operations Research
Mathematics of OR (an INFORMS journal)
Journal of Electronic Commerce Research (JECR)
International Journal of Electronic Commerce (IJEC) (copyedited, uphill battle to
get it right; they cannot really handle latex)
Electronic Commerce Research and Applications (new journal started 2/2002 by Andrew Whinston, Jae Kye Lee, etc.)
Group Decision & Negotiation
(Negotiation Journal)
Marketing Science (an INFORMS journal)
Theory & Decision
Journal of Risk and Uncertainty
J. of Combinatorial Theory
Networks
INFORMS Journal on Computing (does a lot of AI-related stuff too)
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J. of Logic and Computation
ACM Journal of Experimental Algorithmics – I don’t know how good this is
CACM (copyedited, uphill battle to get it right; really a magazine)
IEEE Internet Computing (copyedited, uphill battle to get it right)
IEEE Computer
Real-time Systems
Elsevier Science Journal on Computational Science - this is a new journal that started in 2010.
1. Econometrica
2. JPE (J. of Political Economy) - no theory;
3. AER
4. QJE - only a little theory; Harvard clique?
5. RES (Review of Economic Studies)
Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control (more respected in economics than Computational Economics).
Computational Economics.
A social choice theorist (at Union College) suggested the following ranking in that area:
GEB > Math and Social Science = IJGT > Theory & Decision = Social Choice and Welfare
1. JET (= Journal of Economic Theory)
2. GEB (#1 specialty journal in game theory)
3. International J. of Game Theory (#2 specialty journal in game theory) – can take years to get a review
ET (= Economic
Theory) – 2nd tier, but good.
JME (= Journal of
Mathematical Economics) – 2nd tier, but good.
Economics Letters – 3rd tier.
RAND J. of Economics