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Conflict of Interest Policy For Papers Authored By ACM Editors-in-Chief
(This policy was adopted at the Publications Board Meeting on March 21, 2000)
The purpose of this policy is to address the conflict-of-interest
(COI) that arises when an editor-in-chief (EIC) of an ACM journal is
an author of a paper submitted to that journal. There are other COI
issues that arise in handling papers for a journal. The scope of this
policy is, however, strictly limited to the specific issue of EIC
authored papers.
ACM has traditionally given its EICs considerable freedom in
establishing policy for each journal. A one-size-fits-all approach
does not work well for the diverse computing disciplines addressed by
different ACM journals. This policy therefore establishes a minimum
baseline that all ACM journals should follow. Each journal can, in
addition, establish additional requirements, at discretion of the
journal's EIC.
ACM does permit an EIC to be an author of a paper in the EIC's
journal. Outright prohibition of EIC authorship is considered too
severe for at least three reasons. First, it can unduly penalize the
EIC's co-authors. In several computing disciplines the ACM
Transactions is the premier, and sometimes the sole high quality,
archival research publication. A strict prohibition will impact the
EIC's co-authors especially if they are just starting their research
careers. Second, it can prevent high-quality papers from appearing in
ACM journals. ACM's stated mission is to be the publisher of choice.
Good work should be evaluated on its merits and not on authorship.
Third, it can be a disincentive for leading researchers to serve as
EIC, especially insofar as this prohibition would affect co-authors
particularly graduate students. Many ACM Conferences do not permit
the Program Chair to submit papers to the Conference. The three
arguments given above apply with some force to ACM Conferences also.
However, the multi-year terms of EICs makes a more compelling case for
journals than for conferences.
The ACM policy for processing papers with the EIC as an author is as
follows.
1. The EIC will submit the paper to an Associate Editor who is
specifically designated for this purpose and explicitly identified
in the web pages for that journal. The designated Associate
Editor must have agreed to accept this responsibility and should
not be a collaborator of the EIC or from the same organization as
the EIC.
2. The Associate Editor designated in step 1 (say Alice) will not
process the paper herself, but will hand it to another Associate
Editor (say Bob) whose identity will not be disclosed to the EIC.
Bob will obtain reviews and make all decisions regarding processing
of the paper (such as reject, requires major revision and second
review, conditional accept, accept, etc.) and will convey these
decisions to the EIC by way of Alice. Alice will keep the identity
of Bob anonymous from the EIC, and Bob will keep the identity of
the reviewers anonymous from Alice.
3. In case of guest edited special issues, such as based on papers
invited from Conferences, the guest editor will make the final
decision directly but will annonymize all reviewer information in
corresponding with the authors, including the EIC.
4. In order to avoid the appearance of impropriety, existing standards
of acceptability must be rigorously applied when considering papers
(co-)authored by EICs. Papers which are marginal in any way should
be rejected.
Each Journal, at discretion of its EIC, can impose additional
requirements. In the extreme EIC authorship can be prohibited. In
all cases the policy should be explicitly posted on the web page of
the Journal. The EIC is required to inform the Publications Board
Chair whenever the policy is modified, especially if modified to be
less stringent than it was. When a new EIC is appointed additional
requirements in place by the outgoing EIC can be changed by the
incoming EIC as a condition of acceptance.
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