Nominations for Constraints Journal Awards 2026

[Eugene Freuder]

Nominations are solicited for the 2026 Constraints Journal Classic and Prominent Paper Awards. The nomination form is very simple and mainly asks for a brief statement (500 words or fewer) in support of the nomination. (You are not asked to recruit references.)

Last year’s winners were:

Classic Paper Award to Olya Ohrimenko, Peter Stuckey and Michael Codish for their paper “Propagation via lazy clause generation” published in Constraints 14, 357-391 (2009).

Prominent Paper Award to Hélène Verhaeghe, Siegfried Nijssen, Gilles Pesant, Claude-Guy Quimper and Pierre Schaus for their paper “Learning optimal decision trees using constraint programming” published in Constraints 25, 226-250 (2020).

The nomination form is available at:

https://forms.gle/96nDcQTqnYyzb7LJA

Nominations are welcome until the end of 22 June 2026, AoE. 

Don’t leave this to “someone else”. Nominate!

Further information:

The Constraints journal has two awards for papers published in the journal:

• The Constraints Classic Paper Award which recognizes outstanding papers published at least 15 calendar years ago in the Constraints journal that are exceptional in their significance and impact. Nominations are now solicited for papers published in Constraints between 1996 and 2011 (inclusive) for the 2026 Classic Paper Award.
• The Constraints Prominent Paper Award which recognizes outstanding papers published not more than 7 years ago in the Constraints journal that are exceptional in their significance and impact. Nominations are now solicited for papers published in Constraints between 2019 and 2025 (inclusive) for the 2026 Prominent Paper Award.

All Constraints papers can be found online on the Springer webpage. Note a paper may have these dates associated with it: accepted, published, version of record, issue date. If any of these fall within the required dates for the award the paper is eligible. Note you can search for specific papers or all papers between specified dates at the Springer Advanced Search site: https://link.springer.com/advanced-search. 

  

Evaluation Criteria

Factors influencing the decision of the award include:

• Did the paper start a significant new line of research?
• Has the paper made a major theoretical advance?
• Has it heavily influenced other researchers (whether in or outside CP)?
• Has the paper influenced systems and/or applications?

Nomination Submission

Nominations are welcome until the end of 22 June 2026, AoE. 

[Eugene Freuder]

I'm happy to report that Springer is contributing four e‑book coupons, valued at 200 EURO each to the 2026 Constraints journal awards. 

Nomination is a simple process. Don't wait until the last minute. Submit your nominations! 

https://forms.gle/96nDcQTqnYyzb7LJA

[Eugene Freuder]

The recipients of the 2026 Constraints Journal Awards will be announced at the Thirtieth Anniversary of the Constraints Journal panel at CP 2026 in Lisbon. If the authors can be present, they will be invited to appear on the Panel to be recognized, to receive the award in person, and to briefly describe their award-winning papers. 

Don't let this opportunity to nominate papers succumb to the "tragedy of the commons". Don't assume "someone else will do it". I think you'd be surprised at how often awards of all sorts fail to attract the number of nominations they deserve. These nominations do not have to involve a lot of effort. The maximum number of words allowed for the "Impact and Significance" statement is just that, a maximum, not a requirement. These nominations do not involve soliciting references. 

Don't you want to help recognize your colleagues and the work they have done? 

Don't wait, Nominate! 

The nomination form is available at:

https://forms.gle/96nDcQTqnYyzb7LJA

Nominations are welcome until the end of 22 June 2026, AoE. 

On Friday, May 29, 2026 at 10:56:26 AM UTC-4 Eugene Freuder wrote:

[Eugene Freuder]

Last few days to nominate papers for the 2026 Constraints Journal Awards! 

Participate in this community activity. 

Note a paper may have these dates associated with it: accepted, published, version of record, issue date. If any of these fall within the required dates for the award the paper is eligible. So while you can search for specific papers or all papers between specified dates at the Springer Advanced Search site: https://link.springer.com/advanced-search., it is possible that won't turn up all eligible papers. You can check the dates associated with a specific paper at that paper's Springer webpage.

The nomination form is available at:

https://forms.gle/96nDcQTqnYyzb7LJA

Nominations are welcome until the end of 22 June 2026, AoE. 

On Friday, May 29, 2026 at 10:56:26 AM UTC-4 Eugene Freuder wrote: