Peter J. Denning

For the past three years, the ACM Publications Board has been developing its vision for the future of publication in the electronic age and a program to achieve it. I am pleased to present that plan here. We envisage a diminishing role for print journals and exciting new programs around an ACM digital library. The plan raises important policy questions regarding the treatment of copyright. Our interim answers to these policy questions are discussed in two additional documents—the ACM Interim Copyright Policies and the ACM Author's Guide to the Interim Copyright Policies. Our overall intention is to move aggressively into electronic publishing and to preserve the traditional openness of ACM publications in the new media. Authors and readers should find these policies at least as hospitable as the traditional ones.