08/23/2024

ACM Makes Its Journal Open-access

The reasons behind the shift may surprise you

In March 2024, Communications of the ACM, published by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), made two substantial moves. First, it shifted from a print journal with a website to an exclusively online publication. The second and bigger change was its shift to open access, leaving the journal available for free to all visitors.

In a press release about the move, ACM stressed that the shift will speed the professional community’s access to the latest computing research and help ACM reach a broader audience. But the change also represents a transformation in how publications are paid for and how ACM in general is financially supported, said Communications of the ACM editor-in-chief James Larus.

"It's not a trivial change to switch your entire economic model from consumers to producers and not go out of business while you’re doing it," Larus said.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Associations Now.