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Communications of the ACM

Communications of the ACM (CACM) is the flagship monthly journal of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). First published in 1957, CACM is sent to all ACM members. The articles are intended for readers with backgrounds in all areas of computer science and information systems management. The focus is on the practical implications of advances in information technology and associated management issues; ACM also publishes a variety of more theoretical journals.

CACM straddles the boundary of a science magazine, professional journal, and a scientific journal. While the content is subject to peer review (and is counted as such in many university assessments of research output), the articles published are often summaries of research that may also be published elsewhere. Material published must be accessible and relevant to a broad readership. At the publisher's website, CACM is filed in the category "magazines".

Influential Articles

Although Communications no longer publishes primary research, and is not considered a prestigious venue, many of the great debates and results in computing history have been published in its pages. Examples include:

Edsger W. Dijkstra's famous letter inveighing against the use of GOTO ("Go To statement considered harmful", CACM 11(3):147-148, March 1968). The original letter might be impossible (or difficult) to find on the web, but it was reprinted in Jan 2008 in the 60th anniversary edition of CACM.
Dijkstra's original paper on the THE operating system. This paper's appendix, arguably even more influential than its main body, introduced semaphore-based synchronization ("Structure of the 'THE'-Multiprogramming System", CACM 11(5):341-346, May 1968).
Ronald L. Rivest, Adi Shamir, and Leonard M. Adleman's first public-key cryptosystem (RSA) ("A Method for Obtaining Digital Signatures and Public-Key Cryptosystems", CACM 21(2):120-126, February 1978).
The "Revised report on the algorithm language ALGOL 60": A landmark paper in programming language design describing the result of the international ALGOL committee (CACM 6(1):1-17, January 1963).
Kristen Nygaard and Ole-Johan Dahl's original paper on Simula-67 ("Simula: An ALGOL-based simulation language", CACM 9(9):671-678).
the issue of what to call the then-fledgling field of computer science.
the issue of changing ACM's name, since the "machinery" in question is no longer the size of a house and is now measured in micrometres (all three attempts at changing ACM's name have failed).