Thursday, October 06, 2011

EATCS ballot on the future of the publication of the ICALP proceedings

Today, the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science started a ballot on the future of the publication of the proceedings of ICALP. This is a very important decision for the EATCS, and for the ICALP community in general. As chairman of the publication committee of the EATCS, I urge all the members of the TCS community who have a right to vote as members of the EATCS, to give this matter serious thought and exercise their right to express an opinion on whether future ICALP proceedings should be published with Springer or with LIPIcs. Note that if you attended ICALP 2011, ESA 2011 or MFCS 2011, you have the right to vote since your registration fee probably included a one-year membership of the EATCS.

Note also that the result of the  ballot will only take effect if at least 25 % of the EATCS members participate. Otherwise, the proposal of the EATCS council to recommend to the EATCS membership to go along with Springer for the next four years will take effect automatically.

The ballot on the future of the publication of the ICALP proceedings, as well as all the supporting documentation,  can be found here.  I do hope that you will take time to consider this matter and vote as soon as possible.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Apparently, only EATCS members can see the arguments pro and con. Care to summarize them?

JS said...

Documents: recommendation, minority report, pros and cons, LIPIcs, Springer.

Anonymous said...

I attended both ESA 2011 and MFCS 2011 but never got my EATCS membership data, am I the only one?

Luca Aceto said...

I attended both ESA 2011 and MFCS 2011 but never got my EATCS membership data, am I the only one?

Thanks for bringing this up. I will alert the secretarial office of the EATCS immediately.

Luca Aceto said...

I just heard from the EATCS secretarial office.

If you attended ESA or MFCS, and you have received your EATCS membership data, drop a line to secretary@eatcs.orr and they will check your membership status.

Luca Aceto said...

Woops! Of course I meant "if you attended ESA or MFCS, and you have not received your EATCS membership data".

Anonymous said...

The problem with the Springer proposal is that it does not list the cost for the proceedings. I wonder how we are supposed to make a decision?!

Rob1606 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Rob1606 said...

It is mentioned somewhere that the cost of the proceedings is 87 euros (for each participant, of course; EATCS receives 11,000 euros from Springer but we pay the proceedings!)

Luca Aceto said...

Regarding the cost of the ICALP proceedings, one has to consider two separate aspects:

1. the cost of the proceedings for an ICALP attendee, and

2. the cost of the proceedings for libraries and scientists who buy the proceedings from Springer.

The latter costs are very high. Library subscriptions to the LNCS series cost today more than 7000 euros per year, or so I was told by my librarian. Individual copies of the ICALP 2011 proceedings cost 140 USD (volume 1) and 110 USD (volume 2).

Proceedings are cheaper for ICALP attendees, since the ICALP organizers get a number of free copies and there are some discounts. Moreover, since the last edition of ICALP, participants can select not to buy hard copies of the proceedings. The rest of the details of the Springer agreement explain other benefits Springer is willing to offer EATCS members. ICALP attendees become members for a year, and so are entitled to such benefits.

I hope this helps.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Rob and Luca for clarification. I wonder: if none of us wants the ICALP 12 printed copy then Springer does not charge a single penny to the organizers? I doubt this but if that is indeed the case, then this could indeed motivate me to vote in line with the council's recommendation (accept Springer's proposal). Anyone can confirm that as an attendent who does not need (and actually does not want) printed proceedings, my registration fee would not incude any costs for the proceedings?

Thanks again and sorry for bothering people with this cost issue but I still hope that one day we have reg fees that allow students and people from not so wealhy institutions to attend TCS conferences, maybe even without having an own paper. Right now 300+ EUR reg fees are often prohibitive, unfortunately :(

Luca Aceto said...

Anyone can confirm that as an attendent who does not need (and actually does not want) printed proceedings, my registration fee would not incude any costs for the proceedings?

I can confirm that for the first time ever, this was the case at ICALP 2011. See their registration page. I expect that ICALP 2012 will follow the same model.

Anonymous said...

Is ETAPS part of EATCS? This is claimed in the Springer proposal.

Poze nunta Antonia said...

Apparently, only EATCS members can see the arguments pro and con. Care to summarize them?

masaj erotic said...

Felicitari in primul rand pentru blog,este o munca depusa eficient,in al doilea rand pentru minunatele postari...mi se pare foarte interesant. succes si sa munciti cu cel putin acelasi simt de raspundere pe viitor