Does submitting to only journals negatively affect research career after finishing PhD? [D]

Reddit r/MachineLearning / 4/20/2026

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Key Points

  • The post asks whether publishing exclusively in journals (e.g., TMLR, JMLR, Neurocomputing) rather than conferences could hurt a candidate’s chances of being interviewed or hired as an ML research scientist after completing a PhD.
  • It references ongoing discussions about journal review processes being perceived as fairer and less random compared with conference reviews.
  • The core concern is how publication venue choice influences hiring and evaluation norms in machine learning research roles.
  • The question frames the issue as a career-strategy tradeoff between journal-only publishing and the conference-centric culture in ML.
  • Overall, it seeks community insight on the downstream impact of venue selection on career outcomes in ML research.

I saw many discussions about TMLR and other journals lately and how their review processes are considered fairer and less random.

My question is, how much does it hurt one's chance much of getting interviewed/hired as a ML research scientist if they choose to publish at only journals like TMLR, JMLR, or Neurocomputing, instead of conferences?

submitted by /u/dontknowwhattoplay
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