CSCW Review Process

CSCW reviews papers the way a journal does, wearing a conference's name. Decisions come in revision vocabulary, revised papers return to the same reviewers, and — under the rolling model launched for CSCW 2027+ — the process is run by an editorial board (Editors-in-Chief Amy Bruckman and Eric Gilbert, with handling editors per methodological track) rather than a per-year program committee. Reading the process correctly changes how you write, revise, and wait.

The decision ladder (2026-cycle vocabulary)

| Decision | What it means | What it asks of you | | --- | --- | --- | | Revise for External Review | Screeners saw promise but flaws worth fixing before reviewers are spent on it | A focused repair on a short clock; treat as a free pre-review | | Revise and Resubmit (R&R) | The default serious outcome: reviewers want a substantially revised paper, which they will re-read | The full revision campaign (cscw-author-response) | | Conditional Accept with Minor Changes | The paper is in, pending verifiable edits | Execute precisely; do not renegotiate scope | | Accept | Done; production begins | cscw-camera-ready | | Reject | The venue is declining this version | Post-mortem before any re-entry |

Calibration from the final fixed cycle (May 2025, feeding CSCW 2026): after external review, only 33.8% of papers received a final decision — 66.2% received R&R. In the second round, 152 papers were accepted (61 outright in March 2026, 91 via minor changes) and 44 were rejected. Two structural lessons:

1. R&R is the main sequence, not a consolation. A paper that survives to

external review most likely enters a revision loop; budget for it from day one.

1. The second round is a real filter. Roughly a fifth of R&R papers still

failed; a revision is a second full evaluation, not a formality.

Same-reviewer re-review: the defining mechanic

Unlike rebuttal-based conferences, CSCW's revision loop returns to people who remember the first version. Consequences:

• Every reviewer request becomes a tracked obligation; the re-review begins

from the response letter, not from page one.

• Contradicting your own round-one text without flagging it reads as evasion; a

visible change log builds the trust that converts R&R into acceptance.

• Reviewer identity is stable, so tonal repair matters: a defensive round-one

response poisons a round the same person will judge.

The rolling editorial board (CSCW 2027+)

• Submissions go to an EiC or Associate Editor matched to the paper's

methodological track (track boundaries were 待核实 at the 2026-07-08 check); the editor recruits expert reviewers and owns the decision.

• Advertised pace: decisions roughly 3-4 months from submission, continuous

rather than batched.

• Practical shifts for authors: no bidding lottery — editor matching makes the

abstract and keywords routing inputs, so write them for the editor who will triage; and there is no cohort, so your paper is not competing against a deadline batch but against the standard itself.

Waiting-time interpretation

text
[< 1 month]    likely in editor triage / reviewer recruitment — silence is normal
[2-4 months]   in review; the advertised decision window (rolling)
[> 4-5 months] polite status query to the handling editor is appropriate
[R&R issued]   your clock now: the revision deadline is set per paper —
               confirm it in the decision letter, don't assume a default

Standing-report format

text
[Stage]     triage / external review / R&R round n / minor changes / decision
[Regime]    rolling (editorial board) / residual fixed-cycle
[Reviewers] same-set re-review expected? yes (R&R) / new assignment
[Base rate] last verified cycle: 66.2% R&R after external review; ~78% of
            round-two papers accepted (152 of 196)
[Next move] <the single action that advances the paper now>

All statistics and names verified 2026-07-08 against cscw.acm.org blog posts and the rolling CFP; the rolling model is explicitly a soft launch, so expect its mechanics to be tuned — re-verify before relying on any number here.