CORE ranks computing conferences: A* is the top tier (flagship, highly selective), A is excellent, B is solid, C is regional or niche.

A* by field:

  • Machine learning: NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR.
  • Vision: CVPR, ICCV, ECCV.
  • NLP: ACL, EMNLP, NAACL.
  • Systems: OSDI, SOSP, NSDI.
  • Databases: SIGMOD, VLDB, ICDE.
  • Security: IEEE S&P (Oakland), CCS, USENIX Security.
  • Networks: SIGCOMM.

A* typically means 20 to 30% acceptance rates, program committees of hundreds, and proceedings hiring committees recognize instantly. It does not mean a B venue paper cannot out-cite an A* paper. Citations follow ideas, not rankings.

CORE is Australia-centric in origin but used globally in CS; European hiring committees lean on it heavily too. Sources: IEEE, ACM Use conference rankings for: targeting submissions, justifying venue choice to advisors, and comparing across subfields. Do not use it as a quality score for individual papers.

The CORE A* conferences list by field tells you where the top tier actually publishes, not where the marketing says.