[COFF] [TUHS] ACM goes Open Access

[Clem Cole via COFF]

I'm thrilled to hear ACM is finally doing this.  I will always be proud of
USENIX.  I was President when we went open access. We were the first
computer society to undertake this initiative. It was terrifying because it
meant losing a significant revenue stream.  However, the Board realized
that if we truly believed in our principles, we had to do it.  I hope that
people on this list are also members of USENIX and ACM.
Clem

On Sun, Nov 16, 2025 at 12:45 PM Douglas McIlroy via COFF <coff at tuhs.org>
wrote:

> Way back when, I served as associate editor for several ACM journals
> and member of the publications planning committee. But when the ACM
> turned CACM into a magazine and hived off all scholarly content into
> extra-cost journals, I quit the organization. They earned my support
> again when they granted public access to all their pre-2000
> publications.That is worth the price.
>
> ACM's bold new move deserves widespread support. If you have hung back
> as I did for decades, consider joining. The whole publishing world
> will be watching to see whether their fears of open access are
> justified. I hope they are pleasantly surprised.
>
> Doug
>