Read and Publish: ACM OPEN
This guide covers how academics can access journals the library subscribes to, and we support our researchers to publish gold open access papers in these journals.
BCU Library has a Read & Publish deal with ACM from 1st January 2023 to 31st December 2025.
This deal covers the fees for the following:
- Read access to the ACM Digital Library
- Publishing articles Gold Open Access in ACM conferences, journals and magazines
Criteria and Restrictions
Author eligibility
- You must be the corresponding author
- You must declare your affiliation with BCU
Article eligibility
Eligible article types include:
- Interview
- Note/editorial note/technical note
- Research article
- Review article
- Short paper
- Survey article
- Tutorial
The following article types are not covered:
- Abstract
- Announcement
- Article commentary
- Book review
- Column
- Correction
- Course material
- Demonstration
- Extended abstract
- Forum
- Introduction
- Invited talk
- Keynote
- Letter
- Newsletter
- Opinion
- Panel
- Poster
- Work in progress
Journal eligibility
Eligible journals are:
- All journals, conferences and magazines published exclusively by the ACM
The following journals are not covered:
- Collective Intelligence, a fully-OA journal published in collaboration with Sage
- 38 conference proceedings published in collaboration with IEEE
Eligible ACM journals and exceptions (webpage)
How to Access
- When you submit your article, you need to list BCU as your first affiliation.
- You will also need to use your BCU email address and supply your ORCID iD
- You will receive a confirmation email confirming your eligibility for this deal and including a link to the ACM eRights form
- Review the form and select your rights and permissions
- You will then receive a confirmation email
More Information
ACM has several resources to help you navigate this agreement:
- Author workflow document (pdf)
- ACM Open FAQ
- The Blue Diamond, ACM's newsletter for January 2025, with articles on their progress to Open Access and implications for authors.
Approaching the End of the Deal
This deal ends on 31st December 2025:
- UK university libraries and Jisc are currently exploring the possibilities after this point, but do not have a deal in place at present.
- We recommend submitting your articles early enough for an acceptance date before 31st December.
- ACM has committed to being fully-OA from 1st January 2026, so publishing for free behind paywalls will no longer be available.
Please be aware of this upcoming deadline and check review timeframes when using this deal in 2025. We will keep the Next Gen OA page updated with the latest developments.