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Communications of the ACM
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CACM Gets A Makeover
ACM's 50-year-old flagship, Communications of the ACM (CACM), has been remade new again starting with the July issue. Its new design, new sections, and fresh batch of dependably informative, important articles, are all viewable in the Digital Edition.
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Honorable Mention
A Research Highlights article from the July CACM, entitled "Anton, a Special-Purpose Machine for Molecular Dynamics Simulation," was cited in a Science Times article by John Markoff in The New York Times. The CACM article describes the application of massively parallel computing technology to modeling molecular interactions.
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July 2008 Table of Contents
EDITOR'S LETTER
Where Do You Come From? And Where Are You Going?
In the CACM 50th Anniversary Issue, I wrote an essay ("CACM:
Past, Present, and Future") describing the process initiated in early 2005 by then ACM President David Patterson to revitalize Communications. Upon ACM Council's approval of a new editorial model in June 2007, a major initiative was launched to achieve this vision. This issue is the culmination of that effort. To appreciate the magnitude of the task, consider the analogy of "replacing the engines of a jet plane in mid-flight." A monthly publication cannot take a break. Communications continued to appear every month while behind the curtains major changes were taking place. Over the next few months, I will discuss these changes in greater detail and, more importantly, why these changes are necessary for Communications to maintain its leadership position.
A major change is the establishment of a new editorial board. This outstanding board brings together many of the leaders of the computing field. The board is organized by teams, roughly corresponding to the different sections within the magazine. Producing a monthly publication requires an ongoing effort to "procure" high-quality material, which is the task of this editorial board. ACM is lucky to have so many dedicated volunteers.
Let me close by mentioning one new feature of the new content model with ties to the old days, when Communications was a venue for top research papers. The new Research Highlights section provides readers with a collection of outstanding research articles, selected from the broad spectrum of computing research conferences. This section provides a broad overview of the most significant developments in computing research. Articles appearing in this section are first nominated by Editorial Board members or Approved Nominating Organizations, and are then subject to final selection by the Editorial Board. Prior to publication, authors are requested to rewrite and expand the scope of their articles, as appropriate for Communications' broad-based readership.
Each selected Research Highlights article is preceded by a one-page Technical Perspective, providing readers with an overview of the underlying motivation of the research, the important ideas to emerge from the work, and its scientific and practical significance. These Technical Perspectives are written by noted experts in the field addressed in the research article. The aim for the Research Highlights to enable ACM members to stay current on the newest advances in computing research.
Moshe Y. Vardi
Editor-in-Chief
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