Ranking of ACM SIGCOMM computer communication review
Authors: Crovella Mark , Diot Christophe 
Published: April 2008

ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review (CCR - www.sigcomm.org/ccr/) fills a unique niche in the spectrum of computer communications literature. It seeks to quickly publish articles containing high-quality research, especially new ideas and visions, in order to allow the community to react and comment. CCR is unique in that its reviewing process turn-over is less than 3 months, which guarantees a timely publication of high quality scientific articles.

CCR is a quarterly publication of ACM SIGCOMM, with a broad readership of ACM SIGCOMM members. And indeed, CCR is neither a journal nor a magazine. It is referred to by ACM as a newsletter, which makes it difficult to rank among the multitude of publications whose quality is often not a function of the type of publication. CCR accepts two types of submissions: technical papers and editorial contributions. In broad terms, technical papers are carefully prepared presentations of technical material within the field, while editorial contributions are short, less formal presentations on topics of broad interest to the research community

Technical papers published in CCR are subject to a rigorous reviewing process, with an acceptance rate of between 10-25% (median around 15%).

Technical papers published in CCR are therefore more stringently reviewed than papers in technical magazines, such as IEEE Computer Networks and IEEE Communications. Furthermore, CCR is different from a magazine in that CCR does not publish tutorial papers; there is a requirement for novelty in order to meet CCR's publication standards. For example, CCR will not publish a paper that is simply a slightly expanded version of a previously published paper.

ACM CCR also has important differences with traditional journals such as IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking (ToN). CCR favors papers that propose new directions or visions; the focus of CCR is on novelty of ideas.

However, while the innovation and timeliness of the content is key for the acceptance of a paper, technical robustness and readability receive high consideration in the review process.

Another important difference between CCR and a journal like ToN is the review process used by CCR. While traditional journals have a long review cycle and submissions often go through several revision phases, the CCR review process is modeled like a high-quality ACM conference. Papers are submitted according to 4 pre-defined deadlines per year and each paper is either accepted or rejected. There are no conditional acceptances. Each paper is reviewed by at least three experts in the field and around 15% of submissions are accepted in each review cycle

There are a number of other differences between CCR and journals such as ToN. CCR is also broader in scope than journals such as ToN. Further, it does not have an archiving purpose as authors of articles published in CCR retain their own copyright. Another significant difference between CCR and traditional journals is that accepted papers are published along with a public review written by the paper's assigned area editor. The public review provides insights (based on the reviews and possibly an independent third party comment) and motivation for accepting the paper -- for example, pointing out the contributions and interesting aspects of the paper, mentioning perceived shortcomings, identifying broader issues raised by the work, and so forth

Over the years, papers published in ACM CCR have had significant impact in the field of Computer Networks and Communication. Many papers published in CCR have hundreds of citations. In fact, seminal CCR papers such as "Congestion Avoidance and Control" by Jacobson and Karels, "Development of the DNS system" by Mockapetris and Dunlap, and "The Design Philosophy of the DARPA Internet Protocols" by Clark are among the most cited papers in Computer Science with thousands of citations. In 2007, a CCR paper received the ACM SIGCOMM "test-of-time" award

While there is no definitive ranking of publications that is specific to the field of computer networking, the review process and impact of CCR suggest that it should be ranked in the top category, comparable to venues such as IEEE Networks and IEEE Communications magazines and conferences such as IEEE INFOCOM.

In the past three years according to the ISI Web of Knowledge, CCR's Impact Factor has increased sharply, and CCR's ranking has risen accordingly. Therefore, we believe that the current ISI ranks (64 out of 87) for the field "Computer Science, Information Systems" does not match the real impact of CCR content. On the other hand, the ISI Web of Knowledge considers CCR as a journal.

We hope this note will help clarify the CCR situation, and we take this opportunity to thank all authors who submit their papers to CCR. This is with your help that we can make CCR an event better and more exciting publication.