The ACM Electronic Publishing Plan and Interim Copyright Policies

Abstract

Publishing has reached an historic divide. Ubiquitous networks, storage servers, printers, and document and graphics software are transforming the world from one in which only a few publishing houses print and disseminate works, to one in which any individual can print or offer for dissemination any work at low cost and in short order. This poses major challenges for publishers of scientific works and for the standard practices of scientific peer review. The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) aims to be one of the first scientific society publishers to cross the divide. ACM has embarked on an ambitious electronic publication plan, co-authored by Peter Denning and Bernard Rous, Deputy Director of ACM Publications, and has established new copyright policies to accompany it.