JAIR at Five

The Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research (JAIR) was one of the first scientific journals distributed over the Web. It has now completed over five years of successful publication. Electronic publishing is reshaping the way academic work is disseminated, and JAIR is leading the way towards a future where scientific articles are freely and easily accessible to all. This report describes how journal has evolved, its “grassroots” philosophy, and prospects for the future. In May, 1993, the first manuscripts were submitted to the Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research (JAIR), a fledgling experiment in electronic publishing for the AI community. By August, JAIR had reviewed, accepted, and published two articles, and rejected 18 others. During its first five years, JAIR has evaluated nearly 600 submissions, publishing the 114 that were recommended by its rigorous, rapid-turnaround reviewing process. Completed papers have been immediately distributed over the Internet, and remain freely available in the JAIR archives (http://www.jair.org/). Although the true worth of an academic journal is most appropriately evaluated over decades, we believe that JAIR’s first half decade of existence has yielded some valuable lessons about what it takes to create a successful new journal. This five-year report describes the origins of JAIR, reviews its standards and processes, assesses the journal’s status, and speculates about the future of academic electronic publishing.