About the Journal

Computational Linguistics is the official flagship journal of the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL).

Editorial Team

Formed in 2024, the current editorial team is led by Editor-in-Chief Wei Lu. Meet the full team here.

Focus and Scope

Computational Linguistics is the longest-running journal dedicated to the computational study of language. It publishes peer-reviewed research that advances our understanding of language through computation, including theoretical models, empirical methods, system design, and scalable approaches to representation, generation, and interpretation. As a central venue for the ACL community, Computational Linguistics welcomes contributions from both academic and industrial researchers who work on computational approaches to language.

The journal is published by MIT Press. Please refer to its official MIT site here: https://direct.mit.edu/coli. Since Volume 51 (March 2025), it has adopted a new vision. Please refer to the Editorial for more information.

Under its new vision, Computational Linguistics strongly encourages research that engages with emerging paradigms, with particular emphasis on contemporary language model technologies (e.g., Large Language Models, or LLMs) and other transformative developments reshaping computational language research. At the same time, the journal remains committed to insightful contributions grounded in theoretical, mathematical, algorithmic, linguistic, and interdisciplinary perspectives. We particularly welcome studies that bridge these foundational principles with the latest scientific advancements. Our mission is for Computational Linguistics to serve as a central forum where diverse perspectives converge and collaborate to drive the field forward.

Please see below for the types of submissions accepted by the journal. Substantially extended versions of conference papers may be acceptable as submissions. In such cases, the manuscript must clearly explain how the work extends beyond the earlier publication and why the contributions of the extended version merit presentation in this central venue and deserve the community's attention. This will help both reviewers and readers readily understand the value of the work.

Peer Review Process

There is a rolling acceptance for paper submissions. See below for more precise information about deadline timings.

  • The editor-in-chief assigns each paper to an action editor, taking expertise and load-balancing issues into account.
  • The action editor picks reviewers for the paper.
  • There is a tiered reviewing timeline for submissions:
    • Up to 25 pages: 3 weeks
    • Up to 40 pages: 4 weeks
    • Up to 45 pages: 5 weeks
    • Greater than 45 pages: 6 weeks
  • On receiving the reviews, the action editor makes recommendations for the paper.
  • Where necessary, the resubmission of a paper goes back to the same reviewers for the second round review.
  • We unfortunately cannot guarantee that the timeline guidance given in the items above will be met for every submission.

Types/Categories of Submissions to CL

Submissions to Computational Linguistics may fall into any of the following categories: Short or Long Papers (regular research articles), Survey Articles, Squibs and Discussions, Position Papers, Last Words, Book Reviews, and Award Articles.

Please refer to the submission page for more details.

 

Journal History

Published quarterly by MIT Press through a peer-review process, this open-access journal focuses on research in computational linguistics and natural language processing. It features research articles, squibs and discussions, survey articles, position papers, opinion pieces, and scholarly book reviews. The journal was established in 1974 by David Hays under the name American Journal of Computational Linguistics and was renamed to its current title in 1984. In 2009, it transitioned to free online access, making all of its content freely available to researchers and readers worldwide.