ACM Announces New Open Access Publishing Model for the International Conference Proceedings Series
Move Marks a Major Step in ACM’s Transition to a Fully Open Access Publisher by the End of 2025
New York, NY, September 26, 2023 – ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, has announced it will transition its International Conference Proceedings Series (ICPS) to a fully Open Access (OA) publishing model beginning January 1, 2024. Making its ICPS program Open Access represents an important step in ACM’s comprehensive shift to full OA publication of all content in the ACM Digital Library, which is planned for completion by December 2025.
The ACM International Conference Proceeding Series (ICPS) provides a mechanism for publishing the contents of high-quality conferences, technical symposia and workshops in the ACM Digital Library, the world’s leading repository of computer science research, thereby increasing their visibility among the international computing community.
ACM has published more than 75,000 research papers in the ACM Digital Library (DL) from over 2,000 conferences through the ICPS program since it was established in 2002. All ICPS published articles appear in the DL and are assigned digital object identifiers (DOIs), enhancing discovery, enabling persistent reference linking and archiving in digital preservation repositories, all while ensuring perpetual access. Publication in the ACM DL ensures high visibility. The ACM DL averages over 4 million unique users from 195 countries every month. On average, users generate 4.4 million page views and 1.75 million downloads each month.
“Our decision to make ACM’s ICPS program open access reflects the computer science community’s overwhelming support for open access to research publications,” explained Dame Wendy Hall, University of Southampton and Co-chair ACM Publications Board. “Importantly, it’s also better for authors. According to ACM’s publication data, OA articles are downloaded and cited roughly 70% more frequently, on average, than those behind a paywall.”
Divesh Srivastava, AT&T, Co-chair ACM Publications Board, also noted that, as part of ACM’s strategy to become an entirely open access publisher, more authors publishing as part of the ICPS program will not have to pay author processing charges (APC’s). “A significant (and increasing) proportion of ICPS authors will be covered by their institution’s membership of the ACM Open program,” Srivastava explained.
In a letter to ICSP conference organizers, Hall and Srivastava also cited government mandates requiring open publication of the results of taxpayer-supported research as a factor in ACM developing a new model for the ICPS program. They also noted that ACM will be the first major computer science publisher to transition to a fully OA model for all its research publications, and that other publishers are expected to follow.
About ACM
ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, is the world's largest educational and scientific computing society, uniting educators, researchers, and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources, and address the field's challenges. ACM strengthens the computing profession's collective voice through strong leadership, promotion of the highest standards, and recognition of technical excellence. ACM supports the professional growth of its members by providing opportunities for life-long learning, career development, and professional networking.