To keep the review cycle reasonably short, please invite three reviewers as soon as possible but at least within a week. Our standard invitation letters for reviewers ask them to return their reviews within 30 days. We would appreciate if you could make a recommendation on a manuscript within six weeks.

• Go to ACM's Manuscript Central (http://acm.manuscriptcentral.com) and login.

• Choose 'Editor Center' and then click on 'New Manuscripts: Manage Referees and Make Decisions.'

• You will now see a list of your assigned manuscripts. Click on 'View Details' to view the submission or assign reviewers.

• Under 'Associate Editor Actions,' click on 'Assign or Remove Referee'.

• The right hand portion of the screen will allow you to search for referees. Please use this facility to find referees you would like to invite. If a suitable referee is found, click on his/her name. This will open a new window with an 'Assign Referee' button. After clicking this button, the main screen will show the referee, which may now be invited by clicking the 'Invite Referee' button.

  If the referee is not in our database, you may add the referee to the database by clicking 'Add New Referee'. A new window will allow you to fill in the name, institution and e-mail address of the referee. Finish by clicking on the 'Assign Referee' button, and clicking the 'Invite Referee' button on the main screen.

• Once you hear back from the reviewer, find in Manuscript Central the appropriate manuscript and click 'View Details'.

• Click in the 'Editor Actions' section on the appropriate button next to the reviewer's name (i.e. 'Agreed,' 'Declined,' etc) and follow the on-screen instructions.

An Associate Editor may recruit reviewers from the pool of Associate Editors. An Associate Editor that acts as a reviewer will then follow the guidelines for reviewers.

• For each review you will receive an email notification. When all the reviews are completed, you may make your preliminary decision that will be sent to the Editors-in-Chief. This decision should take into consideration your own opinion of the resource as well as the general consensus of the refereeing committee.


• Under "Editor Actions," click on "Make Decisions," and then click on "Post Decision."


• Select your decision from the drop down menu. There are four options: Accept, Minor Revision, Major Revision, and Reject. Please choose Accept only when the submission is perfect and there are no suggestions for improvement (use this sparingly). Use the Minor Revision option when you feel the resource should be accepted after slight revisions. Use Major Revision when you feel the majority of the paper/resource should be redone and should go through another review process. Use Reject when the resource is not appropriate for ACM TAP publication. Please also post your comments to the Editors-in-Chief using the comment box.

Please view the ScholarOne Tutorial for Editors - this will give you step-by-step instructions with screen shots:

PowerPoint tutorial
Microsoft Word version

These and other tutorials and FAQs can be found at ScholarOne's Support website.

Potential authors should consult the Information for Authors. The ACM TAP Conflict of Interest Policy for the is also available.