PACMMOD, V4, N2 (PODS), May 2026 Editorial

We are excited to announce the fifth issue dedicated to the Principles of Database Systems (PODS) research track of the Proceedings of the ACM on Management of Data (PACMMOD) journal. In its current form, the journal hosts a SIGMOD and a PODS research track. The PODS research track aims to provide a solid scientific basis for methods, techniques, and solutions for the data management challenges that continually arise in our data-driven society. Articles for the PODS track of PACMMOD present principled contributions to modeling, application, system building, and both theoretical and experimental validation in the context of data management. Such articles might be based, among others, on establishing theoretical results, developing new concepts and frameworks that deserve further exploration, providing experimental work that sheds light on the scientific foundations of the discipline, or conducting a rigorous analysis of industry artifacts that are widely used and/or recently developed. At a time when computer science is increasingly data-centric, it is essential to promote an active exchange of tools and techniques between principles of database systems and other communities focused on data management. The PODS research track thus pays special attention to articles that promote the integration of data management techniques within broader computer science.