ACM Inappropriate Content Policy

Updated September 12, 2024

Introduction

ACM is a scientific, engineering, and educational organization and its publications are intended for that purpose. Use of ACM Publications to propagate political or religious views or denigrate individuals or groups of people is counter to that purpose and will not be tolerated by ACM. ACM recognizes the Editors-in-Chief and Program Committee Chairs as the content decision-makers for their respective publications, who have the editorial freedom and responsibility to, as needed, change or remove content prior to publication, including text, images, video, audio, and other content that may violate the standards of our community. ACM always reserves the right to refuse, correct, retract, or remove publications on the basis of the inclusion of inappropriate content.

Definition

While acknowledging the subjective nature of what constitutes indecency, obscenity, or bad taste, ACM regards inappropriate content as material—images, video, audio, or text— that uses degrading, derisive, derogatory, exploitative, harmful, hate-based, misogynistic, obscene, profane, racist, sexist, sexually explicit or violent text, pictures, examples, and/or illustrations in a way that is likely to cause offense or harm. Furthermore, content contained in an ACM Publication should be relevant to the Work and not be gratuitous or completely unrelated to the subject matter of the Work. This may include political speech, which is addressed in more detail below.

ACM recognizes that these matters are often subjective in nature, and that the use of possibly inappropriate material should be judged both in the context of the Work itself and in terms of as the potential for such material to be considered inappropriate on a standalone basis. It may well be that the use of a particular instance of material is entirely appropriate when judged in the context of the Work in which it is presented, just as the opposite may be true.

Political Speech

Political content included in a Work published in the ACM Digital Library, including the text body and figure or table captions, including the acknowledgements section, must be relevant to the topic of the article or it may be deemed inappropriate by Editors-in-Chief, Program Committee Chairs, or ACM. In addition, any political views that appear in an ACM Publication that are considered appropriate and publishable should be accompanied by a statement from the authors indicating that the political opinions included in the published Work are the sole opinion of the author(s) or creators of the Work and not of ACM. This includes maps and other expressions of geopolitical borders.

Decision Making

Editors-in-Chief and Program Chairs are responsible for making editorial decisions regarding the inclusion or exclusion of content that may be deemed inappropriate. However, in instances where such content is approved for publication by Editors-in-Chief or Program Chairs, but ACM Publications Staff believe the material falls within the above definition for “inappropriate content,” ACM Publications Staff may ask Editors-in-Chief or Program Chairs to reconsider their initial decision. In such instances, Editors-in-Chief and Program Chairs should request advice and support from any or all of the following:

• Reviewers. Typically, the first to view content submitted for consideration, reviewers should be encouraged to flag or call attention to content that may be considered inappropriate
• Authors or Content Creators. Editors and Program Chairs should reach out to authors or content creators of questionable material directly to discuss the questionable material. Questions to ask or conversations to have:
  • Why is the material necessary to the paper?
  • How does this material help prove the argument in the Work?
  • Are there other images, text, or video which can be used instead which would be deemed more appropriate?
  • Perhaps provide suggestions for authors or content creators to tell the story in a manner that will be appreciated by all and consideer more clearly defining editorial guidelines.
• Editorial Board Members / Advisory Board Members / Program Committee Members. Seek advice from a resource where different voices/perspectives prevail.

If inappropriate content is added to a Work between the accepted version and final author / content creator-supplied version, authors or content creators will be given an opportunity to justify the inclusion of the material per the specifications in this policy and/or to remove the inappropriate content, in accordance with the current production process. If the authors or content creators do not comply with the request, the Work will not be published.

Inappropriate content, including gratuitous political speech, in ACM Conference presentations is not covered by this Policy unless such inappropriate content is contained within the conference publication or poster being presented. Please refer to conference-specific policies for non-publication-related content, such as keynote addresses, presentations and discussions during conference sessions, or other conference events. With this exception, non-publication related inappropriate content should be addressed by the individual conference, ACM Special Interest Groups, or the ACM SGB in a general conference presentation Policy.

Implementation

This Policy applies to all ACM Publications, including content published in the ACM Digital Library prior to the date of adoption of this policy and to all submitted but not yet published content prior to this date. ACM does not intend to conduct a widespread review of previously published content in order to correct, retract, or remove published content from the ACM Digital Library as a result of this updated Policy, although ACM reserves the right to do so for any individual content published prior to the latest update to this Policy.

Further Guidance

There are numerous examples in the scholarly literature of material that ACM would consider to be inappropriate for inclusion in an ACM Publication. As a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), ACM strives to comply with scholarly publishing industry standards and best practices for assessing inappropriate or offensive material and implementing appropriate remedies, including the decision to require changes or removal of such material by the author(s) prior to publication by ACM.

The following is a list of links to resources and case studies for Editors-in-Chief, Program Committee Chairs, Peer Reviewers, and Authors to provide additional guidance on determining what content may be viewed by ACM as inappropriate, consistent with this updated Policy:

• https://publicationethics.org/case/dealing-cases-culturally-offensive-content
• https://publicationethics.org/publication-integrity-week-2023/inclusive-language-policing-progressive
• https://www.acm.org/diversity-inclusion/words-matter
• https://www.apa.org/about/apa/equity-diversity-inclusion/language-guidelines
• https://www.sigaccess.org/welcome-to-sigaccess/resources/accessible-writing-guide/
• https://c4disc.pubpub.org/guidelines-on-inclusive-language-and-images-in-scholarly-communication
• https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2783090
• https://www.bmj.com/content/378/bmj.o1829

Actions and Appeal

In cases where the Editors-in-Chief or Program Chairs fail to respond to ACM Publications Staff or make a decision to publish the content without changes or modifications, ACM staff may appeal such decisions. Likewise, in cases where the Editors-in-Chief or Program Chairs decide to remove such content from a Work without the authors' or content creators' consent, ACM authors and content creators may appeal such decisions.

In cases where a Work has been published in the ACM Digital Library prior to the updating of this Policy or is published without being flagged by Editors-in-Chief, Program Chairs, or ACM Publications Staff after the updating of this Policy, and Inappropriate Content is later identified in such published Works, ACM will at its discretion have a range of options, including the option to add an Editorial Notice of Concern to the citation page of the published Work detailing the use of inappropriate and potentially offensive content or, if deemed necessary, ACM may decide to retract such Works from the ACM Digital Library.

Appeals shall be made directly to the ACM Publications Board, which shall be the final authority on such decisions. The ACM Publications Board may delegate this authority to a committee or the Publications Board Chairs, either on a standing or case-by-case basis.

Contact Information

Contact the ACM Director of Publications for any of the following:

• Questions about the interpretation of this policy
• Questions about the appeals process
• Requests for deviations from, or extensions to, this policy
• Reporting of potential violations of this policy

Mailing address:

ACM Director of Publications
Association for Computing Machinery
1601 Broadway, 10th Floor
New York, NY 10019-7434
Phone: +1-212-626-0659
Or via email:
[email protected]

Frequently Asked Questions