|
This is a list of important publications in computer science, organized by field.
Some reasons why a particular publication might be regarded as important:
- Topic creator – A publication that created a new topic
- Breakthrough – A publication that changed scientific knowledge significantly
- Introduction – A publication that is a good introduction or survey of a topic
- Influence – A publication which has significantly influenced the world
- Latest and greatest – The current most advanced result in a topic
On computable numbers, with an application to the Entscheidungsproblem Description: This article set the limits of computer science. It defined the Turing Machine, a model for all computations. On the other hand it proved the undecidability of the halting problem and Entscheidungsproblem and by doing so found the limits of possible computation.
Importance: Topic creator, Breakthrough, Influence
On certain formal properties of grammars Description: The Chomsky hierarchy, a containment hierarchy of classes of formal grammars that generate formal languages was introduced.
Importance: Topic creator, Breakthrough, Influence
Finite automata and their decision problem - Michael O. Rabin and Dana S. Scott
- IBM J. Research and Development, 3:114--125, 1959.
- Online version (http://domino.research.ibm.com/tchjr/journalindex.nsf/0/cdf6b2949432156385256bfa00683d63?OpenDocument)
Description: Mathematical treatment of automata, proof of core properties, and definition of non-deterministic finite automaton
Importance: Topic creator, Breakthrough, Influence, Introduction
On the computational complexity of algorithms Description: This paper gave computational complexity its name and seed.
Importance: Topic creator, Breakthrough, Influence
The complexity of theorem proving procedures - S. A. Cook
- Proceedings of the 3rd Annual ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing (1971), pp. 151--158.
Description: This paper introduced the concept of NP-Completeness and proved that Boolean satisfiability problem(SAT) is NP-Complete.
Importance: Topic creator, Breakthrough, Influence
Reducibility among combinatorial problems - R. M. Karp
- In R. E. Miller and J. W. Thatcher, editors, Complexity of Computer Computations, pages 85-103. Plenum Press, New York, NY, 1972.
Description: This paper showed that 21 different problems are NP-Complete and showed the importance of the concept.
Importance: Influence
Computers and Intractability: A Guide to the Theory of NP-Completeness Description: The main importance of this book is due to its extensive list of more than 300 NP-Complete problems. This list became a common reference and definition. It is important to note that though the book was published only few years after the concept was defined such an extensive list was found.
Importance: Introduction, Influence, Latest and greatest
- Andrew Chi-Chih Yao
- Proc. 23rd Symposium on the Foundations of Computer Science (1982), pp. 80--91
Description: This paper introduced the concept of Trapdoor functions and described some of its application, like in cryptography.
Importance: Topic creator, Breakthrough
The Knowledge Complexity of Interactive Proof Systems Description: This paper introduced the concept of zero knowledge.
Importance: Topic creator, Breakthrough
How to Construct Random Functions Description: This paper showed that the existence of one way functions leads to computational randomness.
Importance: Topic creator, Breakthrough, Latest and greatest, Influence
- Adi Shamir
- Journal of the ACM, 39(4):869-877, 1992.
Description: IP is a complexity class whose characterization is quite different from the usual time/space bounded computational classes. In this paper Shamir showed the IP = PSPACE, hence each problem in one complexity class is solvable in the other.
Importance: Breakthrough
- C.H. Papadimitriou
- Addison-Wesley, 1994. ISBN 0201530821
Description: This book provides a very good introduction to Computational Complexity
Importance: Introduction
A machine program for theorem proving Description: The DLL algorithm. The basic algorithm for SAT and other NP-Complete problems.
Importance: Breakthrough, Influence
A Machine-Oriented Logic Based on the Resolution Principle - J. Alan Robinson
- Comms. ACM, 5:23--41, 1965.
Description: First description of resolution and unification used in theorem proving; used in Prolog & logic programming.
Importance: Topic Creator, Breakthrough, Influence
Optimization by simulated annealing - Kirkpatrick, S., Gelatt, C., & Vecchi, M.
- Science, Number 4598, 13,pages 671-680, May 1983.
- Online copy (http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/kirkpatrick83optimization.html)
Description: A very common heuristic for NP-Complete problems.
Importance: Influence
Description: This set of textbooks used to be very popular algorithms books. The algorithms were written in the MIX assembly language. Due to that, the algorithms were very precise but not very readable...
Importance: Influence
Introduction to Algorithms Description: As its name indicates this textbook is a very good introduction to algorithms. This book became so popular that it is almost the de facto standard for basic algorithms teaching.
Importance: Introduction, Influence
A formal theory of inductive inference - Ray Solomonoff
- Inform. and Control, vol. 7, pp. 1--22, March 1964; pp. 224--254, June 1964.
Description: This was the beginning of Algorithmic information theory and Kolmogorov complexity. Note that though Kolmogorov complexity is named after Andrey Kolmogorov, he said that the seeds of that idea are due to Ray Solomonoff. Andrey Kolmogorov contributed a lot to this area but in later articles.
Importance: Topic creator, Breakthrough, Influence
Algorithmic information theory - Gregory Chaitin
- IBM Journal of Research and Development 21 (1977), pp. 350-359, 496.
- Online version (http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/CDMTCS/chaitin/ibm.pdf)
Description: A good introduction to Algorithmic information theory by one of the important people in the area.
Importance: Introduction
Description: This paper created communication theory and information theory.
Importance: Topic creator, Breakthrough, Introduction, Influence
Error detecting and error correcting codes - Richard Hamming
- Bell Systems Technical Journal, vol. 29, pp. 147--160, 1950
- Online copy (http://www.engelschall.com/~sb/hamming/?page=1)
Description: In this paper, Hamming introduced the idea of error-correcting code. He created the Hamming code and the Hamming distance and developed methods for code optimality proofs.
Importance: Topic creator, Breakthrough, Introduction, Influence
A Method for the Construction of Minimum Redundancy Codes - David A. Huffman
- Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers, September 1952, Volume 40, Number 9, pp. 1098-1101.
Description: The Huffman coding.
Importance: Influence, Breakthrough
A Universal Algorithm for Sequential Data Compression - Jacob Ziv
- Abraham Lempel
- IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, Vol. 23, No. 3, pp. 337-343.
- Online copy (http://citeseer.nj.nec.com/ziv77universal.html)
Description: The LZ77 compression algorithm.
Importance: Influence, Breakthrough
Elements of Information Theory - T. M. Cover
- J. A. Thomas
- Wiley, 1991.
Description: A good and popular introduction to information theory.
Importance: Influence, Introduction
An experimental timesharing system. Description: This paper discuss timesharing as a method of sharing computer resource. This idea changed the interaction with computer systems.
Importance: Influence
The UNIX Time-Sharing System - Dennis M. Ritchie and Ken Thompson
- Communications of ACM 7, 7, July 1974.
- Online copy (few formats) (http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/ritchie74unix.html)
Description: The Unix operating system and its principles were described in this paper. The main importance is not of the paper but of the operating system, which had tremendous effect on operating system and computer technology.
Importance: Influence, Breakthrough
Scheduling Techniques for Concurrent Systems - J. K. Ousterhout
- Proceedings of Third International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems, 1982, 22—30.
Description: Algorithms for coscheduling of related processes were given
Importance: Influence
A relational model for large shared data bank - E. F. Codd
- Communications of the ACM, 13(6):377-- 387, June 1970
Description: This paper introduced the relational model for databases. This model became the number one model.
Importance: Topic creator, Breakthrough, Influence
The Entity Relationship Model - Towards a Unified View of Data - P.P-S. Chen
- ACM Transactions on Database Systems, Vol. 1, No. 1, March 1976, pp. 9-36
Description: This paper introduced the Entity-relationship diagram(ERD) method of database design.
Importance: Breakthrough, Influence
Mining association rules between sets of items in large databases - Rakesh Agrawal, Tomasz Imielinski, Arun Swami
- Proc. of the ACM SIGMOD Conference on Management of Data, pages 207--216, Washington, D.C., May 1993
- Online copy (HTML) (http://citeseer.nj.nec.com/agrawal93mining.html)
Description: Association rules, a very common method for data mining.
Importance: Topic creator, Introduction, Influence
- C.E. Shannon
- " Communication Theory of Secrecy Systems", Bell System Technical Journal, vol.28-4, page 656--715, 1949.
- Online copy (PDF) (http://www.cs.ucla.edu/~jkong/research/security/shannon1949.pdf)
Description: Information theory based analysis of cryptography.
Importance: Breakthrough, Introduction, Influence
New directions in cryptography - W.Diffie, M.E.Hellman
- IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory, IT-22, 6, 1976, pp.644-654
- Online copy (HTML) (http://citeseer.nj.nec.com/340126.html)
Description: This paper suggested public key cryptography and presented Diffie-Hellman key exchange.
Importance: Topic creator, Breakthrough, Introduction, Influence, Latest and greatest (A great paper from every perspective...)
A Method for Obtaining Digital Signatures and Public Key Cryptosystems - R. Rivest, A. Shamir, L. Adleman
- Communications of the ACM, Vol. 21 (2), 1978, pages 120--126
- Online copy (HTML) (http://citeseer.nj.nec.com/rivest78method.html)
Description: The RSA encryption method. The first public key encryption method.
Importance: Breakthrough, Influence
How to Share a Secret Description: A safe method for sharing a secret.
Importance: Topic creator, Breakthrough
Computing machinery and intelligence Description: This paper discusses whether machine can think and suggested the Turing test as a method for checking it. In a sense, this was the beginning of artificial intelligence
Importance: Topic creator, Breakthrough, Influence
A Proposal for the Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence Description: This summer research proposal marks the areas of research in artificial intelligence since then. It was a very long summer.
Importance: Influence
Language identification in the limit - E. M. Gold
- Information and Control, 10:447--474, 1967
Description: This paper created Algorithmic learning theory.
Importance: Topic creator, Breakthrough, Influence
On the uniform convergence of relative frequencies of events to their probabilities Description: Computational learning theory, VC theory, statistical uniform convergence and the VC dimension.
Importance: Breakthrough, Influence
A theory of the learnable - Leslie Valiant
- Communications of the ACM, 27(11): 1134--1142 (1984)
Description: The Probably approximately correct learning (PAC learning) framework.
Importance: Topic creator, Breakthrough, Influence
Learnability and the Vapnik-Chervonenkis dimension - A. Blumer
- A. Ehrenfeucht
- D. Haussler
- M. K. Warmuth
- Journal of the ACM, 36(4):929--965, 1989.
Description: The complete characterization of PAC learnability using the VC dimension.
Importance: Breakthrough, Influence
Cryptographic limitations on learning boolean formulae and finite automata - M. Kearns
- L. G. Valiant
- In Proceedings of the 21st Annual ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing, pages 433--444, New York. ACM.
- Online version(HTML) (http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/kearns89cryptographic.html)
Description: Proving negative results for PAC learning.
Importance: Influence
The strength of weak learnability - Robert E. Schapire
- Machine Learning, 5(2):197--227, 1990.
- Online version(HTML) (http://citeseer.nj.nec.com/schapire90strength.html)
Description: Proving that weak and strong learnability are equivalent in the noise free PAC framework.
Importance: Breakthrough, Influence
Learning in the presence of malicious errors - Michael Kearns
- Ming Li
- Journal on Computing, 22(4):807--837, August 1993.
- Online version(HTML) (http://citeseer.nj.nec.com/kearns93learning.html)
Description: Proving possibility and imposibility result in the malicious errors framework.
Importance: Breakthrough, Influence
- C.D. Kuglin and D.C. Hines
- IEEE 1975 Conference on Cybernetics and Society, 1975, New York, p. 163--165, September
Description: A correlation method based upon the inverse Fourier transform
Importance: Influence
An Iterative Image Registration Technique with an Application to Stereo Vision - Lucas, B.D. and Kanade, T.
- Proceedings of the 7th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 674--679,Vancouver, Canada,1981
- Online version (http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/lucas81iterative.html)
Description: This paper provides efficient technique for image registration
Importance: Influence
The Laplacian Pyramid as a compact image code - Peter J. Burt and Edward H. Adelson
- IEEE Transactions on Communications, volume = "COM-31,4", p. 532--540,1983.
- Online version (http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/burt83laplacian.html)
Description: A technique for image encoding using local operators of many scales
Importance: Influence
Condensation -- conditional density propagation for visual tracking - M. Isard and A. Blake
- International Journal of Computer Vision 29(1), pp. 5--28, 1998.
- Online version (http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/isard98condensation.html)
Description: A technique for visual tracking
Importance: Influence
YACC: Yet another compiler-compiler - Stephen C. Johnson
- Unix Programmer's Manual Vol 2b, 1979
- Online copy (HTML) (http://citeseer.nj.nec.com/johnson79yacc.html)
Description: Yacc is a tool that made compiler writing much easier.
Importance: Influence
Compilers: Principles, Techniques and Tools Description: This book became a classic in compiler writing. It is also known as the Dragon book, after the (red) dragon that appears on its cover.
Importance: Introduction, Influence
Assigning meanings to programs - Robert W. Floyd
- Mathematical Aspects of Computer Science, pages 19-32, 1967
Description: Introduced the idea of attaching logical assertions to points in a program in order to prove its correctness and influenced C. A. R. Hoare's seminal work on program verification.
Importance: Topic creator, Breakthrough, Influence, Introduction
An axiomatic basis for computer programming Description: Axiomatic foundation for program correctness proofs was laid. The importance of the use of formal methods is explained.
Importance: Topic creator, Breakthrough, Influence, Introduction
The temporal logic of programs - Amir Pnueli
- In Proc. 18th IEEE Symposium on Foundation of Computer Science, pages 46--57, 1977.
Description: The use of temporal logic was suggested as a method for formal verification. Importance: Topic creator, Influence
Abstract interpretation: a unified lattice model for static analysis of programs by construction or approximation of fixpoints - Patrick and Radhia Cousot
- In Proc. 4th ACM Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages, 238--252, 1977
Description: Introducing abstract interpretation for the verification of computer programs by sound approximations.
Importance: Topic creator, Influence.
Model Checking Description: An overview of Model checking, an automatic formal verification technique Importance: Introduction
Go To Statement Considered Harmful - Dijkstra, E. W.
- Communications of the ACM, 11(3), 147-148, March 1968
- Online copy (HTML) (http://www.acm.org/classics/oct95/)
Description: Don't use goto - the beginning of structured programming.
Importance: Topic creator, Influence
On the criteria to be used in decomposing systems into modules - David Parnas
- Communications of the ACM, December:1053-1058, December 1972.
- Online copy (HTML) (http://www.acm.org/classics/may96/)
Description: The importance of modularization and information hiding.
Importance: Influence
Description: Throwing more people at the task will not speed its completion...
Importance: Influence
No Silver Bullet: Essence and Accidents of Software Engineering Description: We will keep having problems with software...
Importance: Influence
Description: Open source methodology.
Importance: Influence
Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object Oriented Software Description: This book was the first to define and list design patterns in computer science
Importance: Topic creator, Influence
The Structure of "THE"-Multiprogramming System - Dijkstra, E. W.
- Communication of the ACM, Vol. 11, No. 5 May 1968, pp. 345-346
- Online copy (HTML) (http://www.acm.org/classics/mar96/)
Description: The introduction of basic primitives like mutex as the basis of multiprocessing programming.
Importance: Breakthrough, Influence
How to Make a Multiprocessor Computer That Correctly Executes Multiprocess Programs - Leslie Lamport
- IEEE Transactions on Computers, volume C-28, number 9, p. 690-691, September, 1979.
Description: Requirements that guarantee the correct execution of multi process programs were defined.
Importance: Breakthrough, Influence
LogP: Towards a realistic model of parallel computation - D. Culler, R. Karp, D. Patterson, A. Sahay, K. E. Schauser, E. Santos, R. Subramonian, and T. von Eicken
- In Proceedings 4th ACM SIGPLAN Symposium on Principles and Practice of Parallel Programming, May 1993.
- Online version (http://citeseer.nj.nec.com/culler93logp.html
|
Feeds |
Contact