editor’s letter
DOI: 10.1145/1435417.1435418
Moshe Y. Vardi
“how are We Doing?”
A rabbinical story tells about an angry
reader who stormed into a newspaper office
waving the day’s paper, asking to see the
editor of the obituary column.

He showed him his name in the obit-

uary listing. “You see,” he said, “I am

very much alive. I demand a retrac-

tion!” The editor replied, “I never re-

tract a story. But I’ll tell you what I’ll

do; I’ll put you in the birth announce-

ments and give you a fresh start!”

Communications has had a fresh

start; indeed, you hold the seventh is-

sue of the “new CACM.” By now, read-

ers should have a fairly solid idea of

the new editorial format of Commu-

nications. When Ed Koch was mayor

of New York City, he was famous for

asking, “How am I doing?” It is time

for Communications to ask its mem-

bership: “How are we doing?”

Over the last few months we have

received hundreds of messages from

readers offering us their feedback,

which was overwhelmingly, though

not universally, positive. Over the

coming months, however, we will em-

bark on much more detailed reader

surveys, trying to get an in-depth

sense of what readers like, or do not

like, about the current format of this

publication.

In previous letters, I discussed

the editorial content model in terms

of the new sections we’ve created

and how the articles fit within. Here,

I’d like to offer you a peek behind the

scenes, and explain how this content

is generated. As you know, Com-

munications is divided into several

sections. Analogously, our Editorial

Board is divided into several sections,

each operating in a somewhat dis-

tinct fashion. (See http://cacm.acm.

org/communications?pageIndex=5

for a full listing of the Editorial

Board.) Readers should also consult

http://cacm.acm.org/guidelines/

cacm-author-guidelines/ for de-

tailed author guidelines.

Our News section board is co-

chaired by Marc Najork and Prabha-

kar Raghavan, and supported by Se-

nior Editor/News Jack Rosenberger.

This team holds monthly brainstorm-

ing teleconferences in which they dis-

cuss story ideas. They select three sto-

ries for each issue, one with a science

focus, one with a technology focus,

and one with a societal-impact focus.

For each story they identify an expert

who can serve as initial source for the

writer who will ultimately write the

story. Jack, who has built up a net-

work of freelance writers, then iden-

tifies a writer for each story and puts

the writer in contact with the expert.

Communications welcomes ideas for

news stories; please contact news@

cacm.acm.org.

The Viewpoints section board is

co-chaired by Susanne Hambrusch,

John Leslie King, and J Strother

Moore, and supported by Executive

Editor Diane Crawford and Managing

Editor Thomas Lambert. The View-

points section is a forum for the ex-

pression of opinion and analysis of a

vast range of computing topics, typi-

cally of a non-technical nature, and

features a combination of regular col-

umns with contributed (solicited and

unsolicited) short opinion articles, as

well as editorial debates in a point/

counterpoint format. This section is

intentionally less “scholarly” than

the other sections of the magazine,

reflecting opinions and viewpoints

that are not always backed by schol-

arly evidence. Regular Viewpoints col-

umns are handled by section board

members, who solicit writers who

are experts in their fields. Several of

these columnists appear regularly;

other columns are shared by different

writers. Contributed opinion essays

(both solicited and unsolicited) are

subject to peer review. The co-chairs

do the first round of filtering, select-

ing for further review only those that

are well written, focus on topics of a

very broad interest, and offer sound

arguments. Selected articles are then

assigned to a section board member,

who oversees the review process.

The last few pages of each issue of

Communications consist of the Last

Byte section, which is overseen by Se-

nior Editors Andrew Rosenbloom and

Jack Rosenberger. This section alter-

nates content between the Puzzled

column, where Peter Winkler pres-

ents mathematic brainteasers; Future

Tense, where science fiction writers

contribute thought-provoking essays;

and Q&A, where Leah Hoffman offers

brief interviews with computing per-

sonalities.

In my next letter, I will describe the

editorial model of the four technical

sections of Communications: Practice,

Contributed Articles, Review Articles,

and Research Highlights.

Moshe Y. Vardi, EDITor-IN-CHIEF