Journals and Conferences for High School Students Interested in Computational Linguistics and NLP

As a high school student interested in studying computational linguistics and natural language processing (NLP) in college, I’ve always looked for ways to stay connected to the latest developments in the field. One of the most effective strategies I’ve found is diving into the world of academic activities: reading papers, following conference proceedings, and even working on papers of my own.

In this post, I’ve put together a list of reputable journals and major conferences in computational linguistics and NLP. These are the publications and venues I wish I had known about when I first started. If you’re just getting into the field, I hope this can serve as a useful starting point.

At the end, I’ve also included a quick update on my recent experiences with two conferences: NAACL 2025 and the upcoming SCiL 2025.

Part I: Journals
Here is a list of prominent journals suitable for publishing research in computational linguistics and natural language processing (NLP), based on their reputation, impact, and relevance to the field:

1. Computational Linguistics
   • Published by MIT Press for the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL) since 1988.
   • The primary archival journal for computational linguistics and NLP research, open access since 2009.
   • Focuses on computational and mathematical properties of language and NLP system design.
2. Transactions of the Association for Computational Linguistics (TACL)
   • Sponsored by the ACL, open access, and archived in the ACL Anthology.
   • Publishes high-quality, peer-reviewed papers in NLP and computational linguistics.
3. Journal of Machine Learning Research (JMLR)
   • Covers machine learning with some overlap in NLP, including computational linguistics applications.
   • Open access and highly regarded for theoretical and applied machine learning research.
4. Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research (JAIR)
   • Publishes research in AI, including computational linguistics and NLP topics.
   • Open access with a broad scope in AI-related fields.
5. Natural Language Engineering
   • Published by Cambridge University Press.
   • Focuses on practical applications of NLP and computational linguistics.
6. Journal for Language Technology and Computational Linguistics (JLCL)
   • Published by the German Society for Computational Linguistics and Language Technology (GSCL).
   • Covers computational linguistics, language technology, and related topics.
7. Language Resources and Evaluation
   • Focuses on language resources, evaluation methodologies, and computational linguistics.
   • Published by Springer, often includes papers on corpora and annotation.
   

Part II: Conferences
The following are the top-tier conferences in computational linguistics and NLP, known for their competitive acceptance rates (often around 25%) and high impact in the field:

1. Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL)
   • The flagship conference of the ACL, held annually in summer.
   • Covers all aspects of computational linguistics and NLP, highly prestigious.
2. Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing (EMNLP)
   • One of the top NLP conferences, focusing on empirical and data-driven NLP research.
   • Held annually.
3. International Conference on Computational Linguistics (COLING)
   • A major international conference held biennially, covering a broad range of computational linguistics topics.
4. North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics (NAACL)
   • The ACL’s North American chapter conference, held annually or biennially.
5. European Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics (EACL)
   • The ACL’s European chapter conference, focusing on NLP research in Europe and beyond.
6. Conference on Computational Natural Language Learning (CoNLL)
   • Focuses on computational learning approaches to NLP, sponsored by ACL SIGDAT.
   • Known for innovative research in natural language learning.
7. Lexical and Computational Semantics and Semantic Evaluation (SemEval)
   • A workshop series under ACL, focusing on lexical semantics and evaluation tasks.
   • Highly regarded for shared tasks in NLP.
8. International Joint Conference on Natural Language Processing (IJCNLP)
   • Held in Asia, often in collaboration with ACL or other organizations.
   • Covers a wide range of NLP topics with a regional focus.
9. The Society for Computation in Linguistics (SCiL) conference
   • A newer and more specialized event compared to the well-established, top-tier conferences like ACL, EMNLP, COLING, NAACL, and EACL.
   • Began in 2018.
   • Narrower focus on mathematical and computational modeling within linguistics.
   • Frequently held as a sister society meeting alongside the LSA Annual Meeting
10. Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS)
    • A premier venue for machine learning research
    • Publish NLP-related papers, however, it is not a dedicated computational linguistics or NLP conference.

Part III: My Experience

NAACL 2025 took place in Albuquerque, New Mexico, from April 29 to May 4, 2025. As you might already know from my previous blog post, one of my co-authored papers was accepted to the Fifth Workshop on Speech, Vision, and Language Technologies for Dravidian Languages, part of NAACL 2025. Due to a scheduling conflict with school, I wasn’t able to attend in person—but I still participated remotely and followed the sessions virtually. It was an incredible opportunity to see the latest research and learn how experts in the field present and defend their work.

SCiL 2025 will be held from July 18 to July 20 at the University of Oregon, co-located with the LSA Summer Institute. I’ve already registered and am especially excited to meet some of the researchers whose work I’ve been reading. In particular, I’m hoping to connect with Prof. Jonathan Dunn, whose book Natural Language Processing for Corpus Linguistics I mentioned in a previous post. I’ll be sure to share a detailed reflection on the conference once I’m back.

If you’re interested in computational linguistics or NLP—even as a high school student—it’s never too early to start engaging with the academic community. Reading real papers, attending conferences, and publishing your own work can be a great way to learn, connect, and grow.

— Andrew