How international are international computing conferences? -- An exploration with systems research conferences

TL;DR

This study analyzes 13 years of international systems research conferences to assess regional diversity and participation, revealing historical imbalances and slow adaptation to Asia's growing research presence.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive longitudinal analysis of regional diversity in top-tier systems conferences and highlights persistent under-representation of Asian researchers in program committees.

Findings

Top-tier conferences show delayed increase in Asian participation

Program committees remain under-representative of Asian researchers

Diversity shifts are slow and uneven over time

Abstract

In recent years, Asia's rapid growth in research output has been reshaping the computing research landscape. What was once a two-block system (America and Europe) is evolving into a multipolar world with three major hubs: America, Europe, and Asia. To study these pivotal changes and evaluate international diversity, we have analyzed the past 13 years of 13 international systems research conferences: ASPLOS, NSDI, OSDI, SIGCOMM, ATC, EuroSys, ICDCS, Middleware, SoCC, CCGRID, IC2E, IEEE Cloud and EuroPar. Our analysis focuses on accepted papers and participation in the Program Committee, grouping the results by region (America, Europe, and Asia). Surprisingly, we find a pronounced historical imbalance in international diversity among top-tier systems conferences (ASPLOS, OSDI, NSDI, SIGCOMM). While most other conferences have progressively reflected Asia's growing research presence over the past decades, this group has shown a noticeable adjustment only in the recent four years. We also identify persistent rigidities in how program committee (PC) diversity adapts to shifts in accepted paper origins, with a consistent under-representation of researchers from Asian organizations in many PCs.