Open Access Guidance for Conference Organizers

In January 2024, ACM will be introducing a new Open Access publishing model for ICPS. Please refer to the FAQs for an overview of the new model. Full details of the publishing model are provided below, including important deadlines for ICPS application approval and publication.

The new Open Access (OA) publishing model for ICPS will apply to all conferences for which the formal Call for Papers is posted on the conference website on or after January 1, 2024.

New OA Publishing Model for ICPS

In the current model, ACM charges a production fee to conference organizers, but no publication fees are charged to individual authors. Papers are not published OA unless the organizers select one of the paid OA options for ICPS. In the new model, no production fees or optional open access fees will be charged to organizers, and all new articles from those conferences will be published OA in the ACM Digital Library.

Papers that fall into the following categories will be published in the DL at no charge:

• If the corresponding author is affiliated with an institution participating in ACM’s transformative ACM Open model.
  • A list of the 800+ institutions currently participating in ACM Open is available here.
  • Note that, by the end of 2024, we expect roughly 50% of papers published in the DL to be covered by ACM Open agreements; by the end of 2025, we expect the proportion to rise to 60%-70%; and, in the longer term, we expect to get to roughly 80%.
• If the country in which your institution is located is on this list of countries covered by ACM’s agreements with EIFL and Research4Life and/or classified by the World Bank as low-income countries.

For papers that do not fall into the above categories, the following scale of article processing charges (APCs) will apply:

• If the corresponding author is affiliated with an institution in a lower-middle-income country (as defined by the World Bank) and at least one of the paper’s authors is an ACM member, the applicable APC is $350 per paper.
• If the corresponding author is affiliated with an institution in a lower-middle-income country (as defined by the World Bank) but none of the paper’s authors is an ACM member, the applicable APC is $500 per paper.
• If the corresponding author is not affiliated with an institution in a lower-middle-income country but at least one of the paper’s authors is an ACM member, the applicable APC is $700 per paper.
• In all other cases, the applicable APC is $1,000 per paper.

Note also that authors without access to APC funding may be eligible for a needs-based waiver. To request a needs-based waiver, authors should write to [email protected].

New deadlines for ICPS approval and publication

For all conferences that fall under the new model, and for which the proceedings publication is to be simultaneous with the conference, the following new deadlines will apply:

• Applications to publish in ICPS should be submitted as early as possible, and must be received at least 60 days prior to the paper submission deadline of the conference, to allow sufficient time for review and approval of applications. If your proceeding is approved for publication in ICPS, you will be sent an email with further information for authors that must be posted on the Call for Papers page of your conference website.
• Metadata upload into the rights system for approved articles must be completed no later than 70 days before the start of the conference, and all applicable APCs are due for payment by this deadline.
• For any corresponding author who is required to pay an APC and has committed to do so, but is unable to meet the payment deadline, the paper will still be published in the proceedings. ACM will extend a reasonable grace period for those authors to make their payments. If an APC remains unpaid at the end of the grace period, ACM may decide to take further action in individual cases.