TPRC 2024: The 52nd Research Conference on Communications, Information and Inter

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Abstract:
We use conference presentation data from 1994 through 2022 and publication records of the papers presented to investigate three main questions and their respective subcomponents: (1) Has the time to publication or the frequency of publication in academic journals shifted over time; does either factor vary by subfield or according to journal ranking? (2) Do factors beyond quality, such as gender or community involvement through board membership or journal editing, influence the likelihood of publication? (3) Is a subfield-specific conference necessarily insular, or could it produce publications and policy-driven papers beyond its subfield? Results suggest that the time to publication has decreased somewhat, and this decrease does not vary by field or journal ranking. Gender appears to be a factor in publication in peer-reviewed journals, while network and community ties do not. Finally, we find that most papers presented at TPRC conferences are published in lower-ranking or field journals, which is as expected given the ultimate goal of scholarly research as a means of impacting policy.