The ACM Transactions on Computing Education (TOCE) publishes high quality, peer-reviewed, archival papers in computing education. Papers published in TOCE take a scholarly approach to teaching and learning, establish a clear connection to student learning, and appeal to a broad audience interested in computing education: instructors, researchers, curriculum designers, and administrators.
The topics covered by TOCE will range across diverse aspects of computing education including
Guidelines for Authors
Reviewers evaluate manuscripts according to the following criteria. These criteria relate to the appropriateness of the paper to the journal, the significance of its content, and the quality of the presentation. Manuscripts are expected to:
- have content that can be directly applied by classroom instructors or curriculum designers;
- appeal to a broad audience interested in computing education;
- address significant problem(s) of lasting value;
- build upon (and cite) relevant references;
- adequately evaluate any teaching intervention (e.g. tool, visualization, instructional method) in terms of its impact on learning in actual use
- use appropriate methodology, both for the teaching intervention and its evaluation;
- provide sufficient detail to replicate and evaluate;
- be clearly and carefully written; and
- adhere to accepted standards of style, usage, and composition.
Each submitted paper is initially reviewed by one of the Editors-in-chief, who makes an evaluation as to the suitability of the paper for this journal. If the paper fits the scope of the journal, the editor assigns the manuscript to an Associate Editor. The Associate Editor assigns the paper to at least three reviewers, and, based on these, makes a recommendation to the Editors-in-Chief. The Editors-in-chiefs' decision is based on these reviews and the Associate Editor's recommendation.
Submissions should follow the online guidelines for Electronically Submitting Articles to ACM Journals. All manuscripts and revisions are to be submitted electronically using ACM's Manuscript Central interface.
Papers are subject to the ACM copyright policy. If a paper is accepted, each author will be asked to sign an ACM copyright form.
No paper submitted to TOCE may be under review elsewhere. A paper that is based on previously-published work (a conference or workshop paper, e.g.) is expected to contain at least 30% new material, and the original paper should be cited as a footnote to the paper title. All papers are subject to the ACM policy on plagiarism.
We also expect that all authors have read and understand the ACM Author Representations Policy found at: http://www.acm.org/publications/policies/author_representations
ACM has published new Fair Use Guidelines for authors whose manuscripts i nclude third-party material. They can be found at http://www.acm.org/publications/guidance-for-authors-on-fair-use. If you are using third-party materials, please obtain permissions for it as specified here: http://www.acm.org/publications/third-party-material
It is expected that authors who have their papers published in TOCE will contribute to the futher development of by serving as reviewers of manuscripts within their area(s) of expertise.
We also invite authors to take advantage of the ACM Author-Izer Service. This new service extends ACM's support for self-archiving by enabling authors to generate and post links in their own bibliographies that they maintain on either their personal home page or institutional repository. For more information please see http://www.acm.org/publications/acm-author-izer-service
ACM has partnered with American Journal Experts (AJE) to provide language editing (and translation) services to ACM authors. AJE has helped thousands of researchers around the world to present their research in polished English suitable for publication in journals such as those published by ACM. Editing is available for both Word and LaTeX files.
To take advantage of this partnership, visit http://www.aje.com/ and enter referral code ACM15 for a 15% discount off all AJE services. (Editing services are at author expense and do not guarantee publication of a paper.)
Please note that formatting assistance is provided at no charge to authors by Aptara, as specified on the author style guide pages: http://www.acm.org/publications/article-templates/acm-latex-style-guide and http://www.acm.org/publications/article-templates/word-style-guide.
Author Rights
Working Underline with the computing community, ACM leadership has responded to calls to make scholarly articles more openly accessible, to enable authors to exercise greater control of their published works, and to comply with the increasing demands placed on authors by funding agencies.
ACM authors now have three ways to manage their publication rights with ACM:
- A license granting ACM non-exclusive permission to publish—by choosing to pay for perpetual open access from the ACM Digital Library, authors may opt to self-manage all rights to their work.
- A new Publishing License Agreement granting ACM exclusive publication rights—in choosing this license authors grant ACM the right to serve as the exclusive publisher of their work and to manage ongoing rights and permissions associated with the work, including the right to defend it against improper use by third parties. This exclusive license is roughly the equivalent of ACM’s traditional Copyright Transfer Agreement except that the author continues to hold copyright.
- ACM's traditional Copyright Transfer Agreement—for authors comfortable with the existing agreement.
Learn more by visiting the Information for Authors webpage.
Author-izer
ACM is also implementing changes to to allow for more free access to the content of ACM journals and Special Interest Group conference proceedings in the ACM Digital Library and other online venues:
- SIGs may choose to enable open access to the most current proceedings volume of their sponsored conferences from the conference or SIG site.
- SIGs may make conference proceedings freely available via the ACM DL platform for up to two weeks before the event, and for a total of one month.
These options will facilitate access to proceedings content by conference attendees. They will also enable the community at large to learn about the latest developments as they are presented at the conferences.
Authors can post an Author-Izer link enabling free downloads of the Definitive Version of the work permanently maintained in the ACM Digital Library.
ACM Computing Classification System (CSS)
An important aspect of preparing your paper for publication by ACM Press is to provide the proper indexing and retrieval information from the ACM Computing Classification System (CCS). This is beneficial to you because accurate categorization provides the reader with quick content reference, facilitating the search for related literature, as well as searches for your work in ACM's Digital Library and on other online resources.
Please read the HOW TO CLASSIFY WORKS USING ACM'S COMPUTING CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM for instructions on how to classify your document using the 2012 ACM Computing Classification System and insert the index terms into your LaTeX or Microsoft Word source file.
Language Service
ACM has partnered with American Journal Experts (AJE) to provide language editing (and translation) services to ACM authors. AJE has helped thousands of researchers around the world to present their research in polished English suitable for publication in journals such as those published by ACM. Editing is available for both Word and LaTeX files.
To take advantage of this partnership, visit http://www.aje.com/c/acm15. When using this link, you will get a 15% discount for all AJE services. (Editing services are at author expense and do not guarantee publication of a paper.)
Templates
Word Template Page
http://www.acm.org/publications/article-templates/word-style-guide
LaTeX Template Page
http://www.acm.org/publications/article-templates/acm-latex-style-guide
For further assistance
- Questions regarding editorial review process should be directed to the Editor-in-Chief.
- Questions regarding the post-acceptance production process should be addressed to the Publisher, Laura A. Lander.
