Information Processing Letters Explained

Abbreviation:Inf. Process. Lett.
Editor:Leah Epstein
Cover:Information Processing Letters.gif
Discipline:Computer science
Publisher:Elsevier
Country:Netherlands
Impact:0.959
Impact-Year:2020
Frequency:24/year
History:1971–present
Website:http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ipl
Link1:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00200190
Link1-Name:Online access
Issn:0020-0190
Oclc:38995181
Openaccess:no

Information Processing Letters is a peer-reviewed scientific journal in the field of computer science, published by Elsevier. The aim of the journal is to enable fast dissemination of results in the field of information processing in the form of short papers. Submissions are limited to nine double-spaced pages.

The scope of IPL covers fundamental aspects of information processing and computing. This naturally covers topics in the broadly understood field of theoretical computer science, including algorithms, formal languages and automata, computational complexity, computational logic, distributed and parallel algorithms, computational geometry, learning theory, computational number theory, computational biology, coding theory, theoretical cryptography, and applied discrete mathematics. Generally, submissions in all areas of scientific inquiry are considered, provided that they describe research contributions credibly motivated by applications to computing and involve rigorous methodology. High quality experimental papers that address topics of sufficiently broad interest are also considered.

IPL implements a 3-tier review process. Each submissions is assigned to an associate editor, who determines whether it falls within IPL's scope and meets basic quality criteria. On average, about 60% of submissions are desk-rejected by associate editors. Submissions determined to be suitable for further review are distributed between the members of the editorial board, who handle the review process, which typically involves soliciting external reviews from 2-3 experts in the area. Between 2017 and 2020, the overall acceptance rate in IPL averaged 20–25%.

Established in 1971, IPL is one of the oldest journals in computer science. In its now over 50-year old history, IPL has published research contributions from leading figures in computer science research, including multiple Turing Award winners: Alan Perlis, Edsger Dijkstra, Donald Knuth, Robert Floyd, Stephen Cook, Niklaus Wirth, Richard Karp, John Hopcroft, Robert Tarjan, Ronald Rivest, Edmund Clarke, Judea Perl, Silvio Micali, and Leslie Lamport. Among its earlier, pre-1990 articles, its list of influential papers includes the following: