Editorial Charter
Editorial CharterThe primary purposes of the ACM Computing Surveys are to present new specialties and help practitioners and researchers stay abreast of all areas in the rapidly evolving field of computing. Computing Surveys focuses on integrating and adding understanding to the existing literature. This is accomplished by publishing surveys, tutorials, and symposia on special topics of interest to the membership of ACM.
Computing Surveys does not publish ``new'' research. This is left to the Transactions and other specialized publications of the ACM. Instead, Computing Surveys focuses on surveys and tutorials that integrate the existing literature and put its results in context.
The main difference between a survey and a tutorial is emphasis. A survey article assumes a general knowledge of the area; it emphasizes the classification of the existing literature, developing a perspective on the area, and evaluating trends. A tutorial assumes its audience is inexpert; it emphasizes the basic concepts of the field and provides concrete examples that embody these concepts.
Both surveys and tutorials must develop a framework or overall view of an area that integrates the existing literature. Frequently, such a framework exposes topics that need additional research; a good Computing Surveys article can fill such a void, but that is not its major purpose. Basically, a Computing Surveys article answers the questions, ``What is currently known about this area, and what does it mean to researchers and practitioners?'' It should supply the basic knowledge to enable new researchers to enter the area, current researchers to continue developments, and practitioners to apply the results.
Computing Surveys also publishes Symposia on special topics. These consist of collections of short articles solicited by one or more guest editors from a group of invited contributors or by open invitation to the professional community. These are reviewed in a manner similar to regular submissions but on an accelerated schedule.
The Editor-in-Chief welcomes suggestions for topics and questions about contemplated submissions. Potential authors should consult the Information for Authors. A number of the ACM Special Interest Groups describe their scope and tutorial needs in Computing Surveys Volume 27, Number 1, pp. 121-137. Authors and readers both are encouraged to peruse the Computing Surveys World Wide Web (WWW) pages (http://www.acm.org/surveys/) for related information, including lists of past and future articles and links to published algorithms. These pages also can be reached through the ACM WWW pages at http://www.acm.org/.
ACM Computing Surveys. This page is
http://www.acm.org/surveys/Charter.html.
Last modified: Tue May 29 16:46:20 EDT 2007