The publishing model for ACM Books was developed jointly by the ACM Publications Board and Morgan & Claypool Publishers. This page outlines the publication process from the proposal stage through peer review, decision making, author contracts, manuscript development, and publication. The marketing and selling of ACM Books is covered under the Marketing & Sales section of the site. Feedback is welcome from all prospective authors.
ACM Books is managed by Editor-in-Chief, Tamer Özsu, of the University of Waterloo, and an international editorial board comprised of world renowned subject-matter experts, each responsible for a specific area within the field of computer science.
Each proposal received will be reviewed by the appropriate editor, who will manage and oversee the peer review process for each submission, often with the help of additional reviewers enlisted from the community. Both accepted and rejected proposals will receive feedback from the editor responsible for their submission and for those submissions offered a publication contract feedback will be geared toward helping the author to refine and improve the overall quality of their finished manuscript prior to publication.
Upon acceptance, a representative of ACM Books will discuss scheduling, reviewing, and other details of the process with the author. As with all ACM Publications, authors will have a choice of either an exclusive License to Publish or a Transfer of Copyright Agreement. Authors wishing to discuss the relative merits of either Agreement should contact ACM to have such a discussion. Once the schedule is agreed and the author selects the version of the Agreement they prefer, the author will receive the appropriate Publishing Agreement for signature, along with LaTeX style files and samples.
For all books in the series, timing is critical. It is our goal to provide a superior author experience for those working with ACM Books and doing so requires expeditious decision making on both sides to move from initial proposal, to review and acceptance, to contract, and finally to the manuscript development phase within approximately one month's time.
Title Information
Primary Author Information (provide for any coauthors as well)
Product Information
Market Information
Manuscript Information
The subject area editor and a representative from ACM Books are available to work with the author throughout the development process, and during that time authors may also communicate with the compositor, either a LaTeX Guru or Word expert, or ACM Books' copyediting chief, as needed.
One goal for this period is to select a small team of reviewers for the manuscript. Reviews will be arranged for well in advance of the manuscript's completion, whenever possible, in order to reserve time with the reviewers to avoid potential delays to the publication process.
For longer manuscripts, the area editor and reviewers may decide that reviewing the manuscript in parts over time, rather than as a whole, is more efficient. If authors have particular questions or opinions to ask of reviewers, those will be included in the initial request.
Once the reviews are completed, the author and subject area editor may, at their discretion, discuss any issues raised during that process and decide on the best course of action to move forward. At that time, the author(s) and area editor will schedule the necessary amount of time to complete any revisions or corrections, and work toward that goal.
The final stage of the above process is the author's delivery of the following, which comprises the completed manuscript:
It is our expectation that all illustration files will be of high quality. Authors are requested to save all image files, individual illustrations as separate files.
ACM takes copyright and the proper attribution of intellectual property very seriously. ACM also takes the process of obtaining permissions for the inclusion of copyrighted materials in all ACM Publications very seriously. Obtaining permissions to include materials from third parties is often a complicated and time consuming process.
With this said, it is ACM's goal to simplify this process for the author of ACM Books, wherever possible. Towards this end, permissions should be treated as belonging to one of two categories, those requests made directly to ACM as the copyright holder of materials the author wishes to include in his or her manuscript and those requests to be made of third parties for materials who's rights are not held by ACM. See below.
ACM Copyrighted Materials
For authors of ACM Books who wish to use illustrations or small portions of text previously published in an ACM journal, conference, or magazine, permissions for those items shall be subject to the ACM Copyright and Permissions requirements posted at <http://authors.acm.org/main.html>.
ACM shall take a liberal approach to granting such permissions without any associated fees, although it is necessary for all authors to follow the official ACM procedures for obtaining such permissions.
Non ACM Copyrighted Materials
For authors of ACM Books who wish to use illustrations or small portions of text from works of their own or others copyrighted elsewhere, ACM Books will assist with copyright permissions, although it is ultimately the responsibility of the author to obtain these permissions prior to submission of the final manuscript for publication.
High quality production and rapid publication are important components of the value proposition ACM and Morgan & Claypool offer to those wishing to publish their manuscripts with ACM Books. One way to insure this for multiple-authored books is for co-authors to select a “responsible author” who will be responsible as the main point of contact for ACM Books staff and volunteer editors from the very beginning stages of the proposal through final manuscript delivery.
Once final manuscript files are received from the "responsible author", production will start immediately, sometimes even the same day as files are received.
For LaTeX files, this includes final formatting of the manuscript and tables, re-drawing line illustrations, if needed, and copy editing. Once those three initial tasks are complete, authors will receive formatted, copy edited page proofs for review and approval. This final review should be brief, with a quick check to insure that the author's previously requested changes were made correctly. It is expected that unless there is a serious issue prohibiting a fast turnaround, authors will provide this final sign-off within approximately 10 days or less.
When author approval is received, final files will be prepared for publication, including relinking any broken links, adding DOIs to references, and preparing various ebook and print publication files. At that point, publication is just a day or two away.
Once published, authors will be alerted and given the published file link, so that they can download and advise students and colleagues to do the same.
At that time author’s print copies are ordered, and the marketing manager and author will start to discuss promotional plans for their book, if they have not already been in communication up to that point.
Authors generally ask how long this production process takes. For ACM Books, the following is our targeted goal:
