In the field of computing and computer science in Serbia, the last two decades have been marked by intensified research activities and development. The research community in this field became larger, and as a natural consequence, the need appeared for establishing an appropriate scientific journal in Serbia. The primary goal of the journal was raising the quality of the research community in the field of computing and computer science.

The idea of starting such a journal was first put forward by one of the leading Yugoslav figures in the field of information systems, Dr Branislav Lazarević, a professor at the Faculty of Organisational Sciences in Belgrade. With unselfish assistance from his close associates, especially Prof Dragana Bečejski Vujaklija, in early 2003, Prof Lazarević gathered the initiatory board for setting up the journal. The initiatory board consisted of representatives from ten academic institutions fostering the field of computing and computer science: the Faculty of Organisational Sciences, the Faculty of Mathematics, the Mathematical Institute of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts and the Faculty of Electrical Engineering from Belgrade, the Faculty of Sciences and the Faculty of Technical Sciences from Novi Sad, the Technical Faculty from Zrenjanin, the Faculty of Economics from Subotica, as well as the Faculty of Economics and the Faculty of Sciences from Podgorica. At the first meeting of the initiatory board in September 2003, the journal was named Computer Science and Information Systems, abbreviated to ComSIS. The journal was officially registered in the same year, and Prof Lazarević was unanimously elected Editor-in-Chief. At the same time, the Managing Board and the Editorial Board were constituted. English was selected as the official language of the journal, the journal web site was put up, and it was decided that ComSIS would be a non-profit open-access journal. The main topics covered by the journal are computer science, information systems, and software engineering.

Prof Branislav Lazarević was Editor-in-Chief until the end of 2004. Subsequently, the role was taken over by Prof Vladan Devedžić, also a professor at the Faculty of Organisational Sciences, until the end of 2005. Prof Vladan Devedžić put special emphasis on improving the international reputation of the journal and initiated the registration of the journal for coverage in the international SCI journal index, maintained by Thomson Reuters. From 2006 to 2009 the role of Editor-in-Chief was fulfilled by Dr Ivan Luković, a professor at the Faculty of Technical Sciences in Novi Sad. The main challenges in this period were establishing a constant influx of quality submissions and meeting the strict criteria of Thomson Reuters, with the goal of ensuring the coverage of the journal by the SCI index. In August 2008, the ComSIS journal received official confirmation of coverage in the JCR/SCI Expanded index, which represents an important turning point in the life of the journal. This made ComSIS the first SCI-indexed journal in the field of computing and computer science across the region of former Yugoslavia. Around this time, the Faculty of Sciences from Podgorica left the consortium of founders, while the School of Computing from Belgrade joined. In November 2008, Prof Branislav Lazarević passed away, leaving a lasting mark on what ComSIS is today. From 2009, Editor-in-Chief of the journal is Dr Mirjana Ivanović, a professor at the Faculty of Sciences in Novi Sad.

After the inclusion in the SCI index, the first two-year impact factor for 2010 was published in June 2011. This event marked the start of a period of the intense international and national interest for the journal. The challenge of this period, still lasting today, is in maintaining and improving the subsequent values of the impact factor, and ensuring a high standard of the journal’s operation in the environment of a high influx of submissions and requests for organising special issues and sections. Today’s demands require organisational restructuring of the journal, a task which is being diligently worked on by the journal boards, with the goal of continued improvement of the journal’s international reputation.