[Air-l] on conferences

[elw at stderr.org]

> There is no reason a move toward full papers would need to be drastic. 
> In future years, a call could be made for both full papers and 
> abstracts, the former as part of a special track that would also be 
> appealing to publishing arrangements with some of the journals who have 
> been supporters of research by AIR attendees in the past. This would 
> allow for the organization to "try out" full papers, without requiring 
> an immediate ramping up of reviewers or process.


I think this is a good idea, and would be interested in seeing the 
organization move in this direction.  Particularly because it is gradual 
and a no-harm-done sort of experiment, regardless of outcome....

Maybe a good starting point would be to ask some of those journal editors 
whether they'd be willing to sponsor topical special issues, and then fill 
those special issues with full papers from the conference?  [Not sure 
whether you'd want the editors soliciting the authors, or the authors 
competing to get their papers into issues.  I can see pro/con of both 
sides.]

Great ideas, Alex!

--e