Peer-Reviewing and Submission Dynamics Around Top Software-Engineering Venues: A Juniors’ Perspective

Abstract

Research is an intrinsically challenging process full of obstacles. However, these obstacles may be more dominant for a specific group of researchers (such as junior researchers) compared to others. It is the responsibility of the community to pay close attention to those groups that may be struggling for unfair reasons and provide necessary support. Junior researchers are of high importance to the scientific community, and are defined as young researchers who have recently started their research career[ Li19]. Despite their importance, juniors may face impediments when starting their career that hinder their activities and motivation. For instance, collaboration aspects and peer-reviewing models can play a role. Junior researchers without a high reputation (e.g., via their co-authors) may be negatively impacted by reputation biases, and thus could have even more problems with publishing and building their reputation independently. In our study, we investigate what challenges junior researchers perceive when submitting their work to software-engineering venues with a high reputation.