How to Submit a PACM Proposal

This document provides additional information on key aspects of PACM, including the expectations placed on the review process, policies, and governance, as well as some general criteria to help assess if a conference is a good fit for PACM. It also offers a brief description of the expected structure and content of a proposal submitted to PACM towards the creation of a new PACM journal Title. Proposed modifications to existing PACM titles must also be submitted to the PACM Steering Committee for approval. Such modifications include, among others, adding a new affiliated conference, removing an affiliated conference, changing the frequency of publication, and changing the governance of the Title, etc. If in doubt regarding whether a proposed change requires approval, please check with ACM HQ.

Criteria

A conference may apply to be included within the Proceedings of the ACM series if it meets the following criteria:

• A review process that satisfies the following requirements:
  1. A minimum of 2 written reviews by qualified experts in the field; this provision must permit recruiting reviewers from outside a program committee when the program committee lacks available members with sufficient expertise;
  2. Initial review decisions that include accept, accept subject to revisions, revise, and reject;
  3. An opportunity for papers that require revisions to be revised and resubmitted (with written response) for review by the same reviewers.
     Note: Shepherding without review of the revised paper by the same set of reviewers does not count as a review cycle;
  4. Papers need to be able to include sufficient material for reviewers to evaluate correctness and other criteria without being constrained by arbitrary page limits. Mechanisms should be available to review appendices or extended-length papers when necessary.
• An established record of high quality, judged by its standing in the field, citations, and other measures used by PACM Steering Committee;
• Documented program committee policies that include the review process, eligibility for service on the program committee, processes for addressing superficial or inadequate reviews and assigning papers to reviewers with appropriate expertise, and procedures for managing conflict of interest consistent with ACM policy;
• An established steering or governance committee that submits the proposal for inclusion in PACM in cooperation with one or more SIGs, has the authority to commit to a long-term agreement, and agrees to continue to abide by the reviewing and quality criteria;
• A discussion of its approach for allowing publication in the corresponding PACM title without presentation at the conference:
  1. PACM titles are encouraged to include journal-only submission options (where papers are submitted to the relevant conferences for inclusion in PACM only, but without obligation to present at the conference);
  2. If journal-only submission option is not offered, conferences must provide an approach to accommodate papers from authors who are unable to present in person for any reason.

Does Your Conference Meet PACM Guidelines?

What Should the Proposal Contain?

A proposal is expected to (at least) provide the following information:

Proposed Name and Areas of Coverage

The name for the proposed PACM Title should be representative of the areas the new Title is expected to cover. A Title that plans to cover multiple areas should articulate a strong rationale for why the areas belong together.

Proposed Conferences and Title Vision

This section should identify the conference(s) whose research articles are targeted for publication in the proposed PACM Title, and outline the model that will be used for their publication.

Conference Information

A time-line identifying which conference or conferences would be included in the Title and the expected launch time should be provided together with information on why each conference qualifies for publication in PACM.

Conferences should provide information on their reputation, the level of quality of their accepted papers, and how the conference’s selection process conforms with PACM’s principles. A description of the conference’s governance and how continuity will be ensured from year-to-year should also be provided.

For conferences that do not yet fully comply with PACM’s principles and that may eventually seek to be published in the proposed PACM Title, a description of the process envisioned for achieving these principles should be outlined.

Publication Model

The proposal should describe the intended publication model, including how papers will be selected, i.e., the editorial process that will be followed, whether fixed-deadlines or rolling submission deadlines will be used, the number of issues that are expected each year, etc.

The proposal should also address how it expects to handle papers from authors unable to physically attend the conference for any reason.

Contact Information and Title Editorial Board

This section should list the SIGs with which the publication will be affiliated, and include contact information for representatives from each SIG.  It should also include details regarding the structure of the Title’s Editorial Board, including the proposed Editor-in-Chief.

Each PACM Title will have an Editorial Board structured according to its own proposed and approved governance system. The Title’s Editorial Board shall generally have representatives of each affiliated conference. It will have an Editor-in-Chief who will be identified in the proposal and may have one or more Editors from each affiliated conference who will be responsible for paper selection. The following is the recommended structure:

• Editor-in-Chief (3-year term, renewable once)
• Editor/Track Editor (1-year term; equivalent to program committee chair of conference in specified year)
• Associate Editor (1-year term; equivalent to program committee associate chairs/area chairs in specified year)
• Review Committee/Review Board (1-year term; equivalent to program committee members or similar in specified year)
• Artifact Review Committee (1-year term, if applicable)

To submit a proposal or for further information contact [email protected].