Proceedings

All proceedings require ACM Headquarters approval for:

• Cover and front piece design and contents
• Ordering information, member and non-member prices
• Copyright procedures

All sponsored conference proceedings must be copyrighted by ACM.

Prices for proceedings should offer members of ACM and/or sponsoring SIGs 50% discount on the non-member price. 

The sale of conference proceedings (or the ACM or SIG share of proceedings for co-sponsored meetings) will be administered solely by ACM Headquarters unless other arrangements are agreed to by the Publications Board.

ACM's policy is to seek outright ownership of copyright in works published by the Association. Organizers of co-sponsored conferences must contact ACM Headquarters to see if a publication agreement with the co-sponsoring society exists. If not ACM Headquarters will work out an appropriate agreement. This agreement must be in place when the co-sponsored TMRF is submitted for approval. 

Submission Systems

ACM has secured hosted, supported licenses for EasyChair and HOTCRP submission systems.  As an additional option Microsoft CMT may be considered. ACM Conference leaders may choose one of these systems at no expense to the conference or sponsoring SIG. The contract ACM has entered into for each of these systems offers features beyond the free versions.  Conference and Program Chairs are notified of this benefit upon submission of the PAF (Preliminary Approval Form)  and the TMRF (Technical Meeting Request Form).

Please contact the vendors below directly and indicate you are an ACM conference.  They will verify and provide further instructions.  

Conference organizers are not obligated to use these systems.  If there is a submission system that the committee prefers, they are welcome to use it.  

ACM provides access to a production vendor for compilation of the proceedings however, conference leaders may choose to do this on their own or through another vendor. 

_{Procedure using ACM’s vendor:}

• Create preparation instructions with sample & template files customized to each conference
• Secure approval from Chairs on above
• Send acceptance notification and instructions to keynotes and authors of invited and accepted papers
• Send reminders to authors on a weekly basis as appropriate
• Continuously work with authors for DL compliance of submissions
• Pursue and collect electronic copyright forms
• Collect front matter needed for cover, title page and banner from Chairs no later than 3 weeks pre-publication
• Secure proceedings by-product quantities and shipping information
• Paginate and index submissions for TOC and Indexes
• Post page proofs and/or E-proceedings master for Chairs/ACM review and approval
• Secure approvals
• Publication metadata compilation initiated, print production and/or E-proceedings duplication
• Ship by-products (service and timing depends on conference location) to arrive before first day of conference
• Supply ACM with finalized metadata and all related files to auto-load into the ACM DL
• Provide files for print-on-demand 

_{Procedure using a vendor selected by the conference committee:} 

• Conference leaders provide ACM with a .csv file containing accepted author information and  

• Conference leaders paginate the proceedings, compile the table of contents/author index, format the front matter/produce the cover, CD-ROM or DVD label or screen USB drives

• After the author rights  forms are approved by ACM the proceedings are printed locally or produced electronically by the Conference Leaders/ files are sent to ACM for inclusion in the Digital Library

• General Instructions on producing proceedings volumes can be found here.  

_{How are page limits determined?}

ACM does not manage paper page limits and there are no digital library requirements.  Conference leadership should consider history, budget and output (if hardcopy will be printed) when making the decision.  

ACM Policies for Reviewers

ACM has two relevant policies that address the guidelines that should be followed for the paper review process. 

• Roles and Responsiblities in ACM Publishing
• ACM’s Code of Ethics

_{ACM AUTHOR-IZER}

ACM Authorizer is a unique service that enables ACM authors to generate and post links to their ACM DL published article.  This link allows for those interested in the article to download it for no charge.  All papers published in the ACM Digital Library are eligible for this service.  We suggest you mention the ACM Authorizer in your Call for Papers.  For detailed information, including a PowerPoint presentation, as well as how authors can set up their ACM Author homepage is available here.  

_{ACM AUTHOR RIGHTS}

Authors have the option to choose the level of rights management they prefer. ACM offers three different options for authors to manage the publication rights to their work.

ACM has a given SIG leaders the option to make conference proceedings freely available via the ACM DL platform for up to two weeks before the event for one month total. Not only will this option facilitate easy access to the proceedings by conference attendees, it will also enable the community at large to experience the excitement of learning about the latest developments being presented in the period surrounding the event itself.  If a SIG chooses this option, the conference chair of each conference will be able to choose whether and how to exercise the option.  Some conferences already open their proceedings during the conference as a way to provide internet-based access to the proceedings.  Conferences that wish to open the proceedings in advance of the conference start date must clearly notify authors of this fact in the call for papers.  In order to take advantage of Opern Surround, the proceedings must be opened by the first day of the conference.  

Language Services

ACM has partnered with International Science Editing (ISE) to provide language editing services to ACM authors.  More information on this service can be found here.  

OpenToc  in ACM Digital Library

• ACM SIGs may authorize the posting of Tables of Contents of their scheduled upcoming sponsored conference proceedings with Author-Ized links enabling free full-text downloads from the ACM Digital Library.
• Effective as of 2014, these OpenTOCs may be kept permanently on the conference site or the SIG site. The SIG must decide which site(s) to use.
• The sponsoring SIGs may choose OpenTOC for the upcoming volume (rolling off after 12 months), or a permanent OpenTOC that remains permanently on the chosen site(s) to build up a local series archive, or no OpenTOC at all.
• For co-sponsored conferences, all co-sponsors must agree to the posting and each co-sponsor may choose its site(s).

For more details, please see the ACM OpenToc policy.