After January 1, 2026, to publish a paper in an ACM publication and SIGDOC Proceedings, the corresponding author will either need to be affiliated with an ACM Open institution or pay the applicable Article Processing Charge (APC). Authors will then retain copyright and get Creative Commons licensing for all papers.
Why is ACM making this change?
- There was overwhelming support from the computer science community.
- Open Access articles are downloaded 100-150% more and cited 70% more frequently.
- The change aligns with ACM’s mission as a non-profit organization.
What should I know about ACM Open Institutions?
Rather than paying a subscription to access ACM publications, institutions will now pay for a membership to allow their faculty to publish in ACM publications.
- Please check if your institution is already a participant in ACM Open: https://libraries.acm.org/acmopen/open-participants.
- If your institution is not already a member, reach out to your library (and perhaps your computer science program) to see about interest in an institutional membership.
- The cost of institutional membership is divided into tiers based institutional article output.
What if my institution is not a member of ACM Open?
If your institution is not a member of ACM Open and you want to publish an article in an ACM publication, you (or the corresponding author for the article) will need to pay an individual APC.
- The expected APC for ACM/SIG Members without institutional subscription is $700 per article.
- The new APC payment system will allow authors to share the APC cost in a flexible way with co-authors or third parties (as necessary).
- Some authors are eligible to receive an automatic or discretionary waiver: https://www.acm.org/publications/policies/policy-on-open-access-apc-waivers-and-discounts.
What Actions Should I Take?
If you haven’t checked the impacts on your own institution, we recommend that you contact your library.
As an example case, SIGDOC’s Chair, Dr. Huiling Ding, contacted NCSU’s library and learned that the new subscription model will cost the university $50k more than the existing model. In response to this cost increase, NCSU’s library is currently discussing the matter with the Engineering and Computer Science departments to see if they can pay a part of the fees. We suspect this may be the case for many STEM-focused universities with larger Computer Science departments.
How do I find more information?
Website: https://www.acm.org/publications/openaccess.
Email ACM Open with questions: acmopen@hq.acm.org