A Message to the Computing Community About ACM's Transition to Full Open Access
November 11, 2025
Dear Members of the Computing Community,
We are pleased to share an important milestone for our field. Beginning January 2026, all ACM publications and related artifacts in the ACM Digital Library will be made open access. This change reflects the long-standing and growing call across the global computing community for research to be more accessible, more discoverable, and more reusable.
By transitioning to open access, ACM is supporting a publishing environment where:
- Authors retain the intellectual property to their Work — All ACM authors retain the copyright to their published Work while ACM remains committed to defending those Works against copyright and integrity related violations.
- Published Work will benefit from broader visibility and impact — Research will be freely available to anyone in the world, increasing readership, citations, and real-world application.
- Students, educators, and researchers everywhere benefit — Whether at well-resourced institutions or in emerging research communities, everyone will have direct access to the full breadth of ACM-published work.
- Innovation accelerates — Open access fosters collaboration, transparency, and cumulative progress, strengthening the advancement of computing as a discipline.
This transition is the result of extensive dialogue with authors, SIG leaders, editorial boards, libraries, and research institutions worldwide. We are grateful for the community’s consistent advocacy for openness and its commitment to ensuring that computing knowledge is shared widely.
As we move toward January 2026, here is some additional information and guidance:
Our goal is to make this transition smooth and supportive for everyone who contributes to ACM’s publications and conferences.
Thank you for your ongoing dedication to advancing computing research and practice. We look forward to continuing this work, together, in a more open and accessible future.
ACM
