Introducing Proceedings of the ACM

What is PACM?

Proceedings of the ACM on X (PACM) is a new journal series with first issues planned for 2017. This series is suitable for those ACM SIG-sponsored conferences that adapt their review processes to be comparable to those of journals. It has been launched in recognition of the fact that conference-centric publishing disadvantages the CS community with respect to other scientific disciplines when competing with researchers from other disciplines for top science awards and career progression, and the fact that top ACM conferences have demonstrated high quality and high impact on the field.

The new series will adhere to the following principles:

1. Clear documentation of review process and policy;
2. Minimum of three expert reviewers with written reviews;
3. Reviewers may be drawn from outside the conference Program Committee;
4. Minimum of two-cycle review with opportunity for major revisions reviewed by same reviewers;
5. Specific provisions for conflict-of-interest.

It is recommended that attendance at the event not be mandatory for publication. 

PACM Structure

PACM is intended to allow the best conferences published by ACM to achieve a level of external recognition commensurate with their quality, including consideration by organizations responsible for maintaining citation indices.

PACM will be structured as a series of journal titles, each with a coherent theme and associated with several high-quality ACM conferences on related topics. For example, a title such as Proceedings of the ACM on Distributed Computing could be associated with high-quality conferences from several SIGs that address topics in distributed computing.

Conferences whose research articles are published in PACM must abide by specific guidelines when it comes to the review process used to accept papers -- specifically the same guidelines that journal papers undergo. In particular, the review process must include:

• at least three written reviews by experts unconflicted with the paper and its authors
• a process that supports bona fide major revisions, where revised papers are re-evaluated by the reviewers of the original submission
• review of complete papers with all the content needed to assess correctness, novelty, and significance of the work

How PACM Works

The operation of each PACM title falls under the purview of the journal editorial board and the sponsoring SIG. The overall PACM series will be overseen by the ACM Publications Board through a steering committee with representatives of ACM’s participating SIGs. The steering committee is responsible for reviewing proposals for new and revised PACM titles and for regular review of each title to ensure that its conferences are in compliance with the PACM guidelines.

Each PACM title will be submitted for indexing and for calculation of its own impact factor.

Conferences that become part of a PACM title will no longer publish separate proceedings. Rather, their research papers will be published as one or more issues of the PACM title associated with the conference. Such conferences may continue to publish a “companion” or adjunct proceedings for short papers, posters, panel abstracts, and other material other than full papers.

Papers published in a PACM journal will be made open to conference attendees and members of sponsoring SIGs, and shall be treated as proceedings papers for purposes of ACM’s open access initiatives (including author-choice APCs, sponsored proceedings, OpenTOC, and OpenSurround).

• The default medium for PACM journals will be online-only. Physical distribution media can be produced at additional cost with perissue  pricing based on media, quantity and size of issues.
• There will be no professional copyediting. ACM has partnered with International Science Editing (ISE) to provide language editing services to ACM authors. These services are available for both Word and LaTeX files and at author expense. http://acm.internationalscienceediting.com/
• Authors must use the PACM journal LaTex file or Word template available at http://www.acm.org/publications/authors/submissions
• ACM’s standard journal submission system will not be used by PACM, since it would require significant cost for configuration and development time to fit the standard PACM model, as well as add new ongoing administrative costs.
• Production costs charged to the Conferences for these journals will be in line with previous production costs for paper publication. In the first year, ACM will absorb any difference in actual costs.  Subsequently, direct costs will be adjusted to reflect actual experience.
• A more detailed set of requirements is discussed in detail in the guidelines section, the application process section and the governing policy document.