Restore Fully Free and Open Access to the ACM Digital Library

Please restore open access. As a student with an interest in computing I have found this a key and useful resource.

Keeping access to scientific information and features free and open is the least we can do to combat misinformation. If not, we are adding to the ever-increasing problem.

Long time member and academic contributor. Do the right thing ACM.

I had high hopes for open access.

The audacity of this bait-and-switch by ACM decision makers should be surprising, but it isn't. The organization has fought tooth-and-nail to prevent the fruition of open access demanded by a large majority of the membership. Every ACM venue and event is organized by volunteers, and submissions are reviewed by volunteers. ACM funds no research; most is supported by tax dollars or private companies. Authors pay ACM membership fees, mandatory conference registrations, and more recently so-called "Open Access" article charges. Authors receive no royalties or other compensation for their intellectual property. Universities have been paying 5-figure subscription fees for access to these publications. In return, the ACM provides online PDF hosting and minimal publication support (mostly limited to ensuring fonts and margins are correct) through an inflexible process provided by a third party. ACM does not provide copy-editing or detailed editorial services. They do not print research papers, only magazines that are paid for by separate subscription fees. They charge venues to use the ACM name but provide no logistical support to organizers. They are unwilling to hold bad-faith actors accountable for fraud or other misconduct (even if that work is also done by volunteers). And somehow the millions of dollars paid into ACM annually isn't enough to provide the bare-minimum service to the community we've come to expect? As a long-time ACM member, author, reviewer, and conference organizer, the ACM needs to go way beyond taking down the paywall and providing full financial transparency about where our money is going.

As a member I am distressed by this direction.

This is an obstacle to academic inquiry at a time when academia itself is under profound threat.

ACM Open

I support the spirit of "ACM Open," the Association for Computing Machinery's vaunted, long awaited transition to full open access for all publications:

Open Access and no paywells. MS CS.

ACM Open must succeed

This is unFAIR - this is the wrong action at the worst time. Wake up!

It is so important for everyone to have free and open access to knowledge and information.

I support continued free (gratis) access to the ACM digital library. For the several reasons stated in the petition, it's vital that this gratis access be re-enabled and guaranteed in the future.

Access to scientific endeavours should be free.

The way you cut it in proves you know how wrong it is. Do the right thing and belay that order.

Open access to knowledge is not a privilege; it’s a prerequisite for progress, innovation, and fair scientific advancement. Research should remain accessible to the society that supports it.

The need for access to the archives stretches beyond scientists or ed tech professionals. Open access is also important to chronically underfunded scholars and students of media, information, and digital literacy education. Please remove the paywall.

This is not the time to minimize access to scientific research and information. This is the time we must ensure that even more people have access to credible, lifesaving information.

Please no gatekeeping.