I’ve contributed to TOCHI—as a reviewer, author, Associate Editor, and now Editor-in-Chief—for almost 20 years.
And although I recognize that not everyone is totally comfortable with the idea of best paper awards for journals, I think it’s high time that we also acknowledge that TOCHI publishes a lot of truly excellent work.
When I assumed the helm of TOCHI, I embarked on a quick survey of the other Transactions-level journals. I also studied a number of status reports authored by their various Editors-in-Chief.
Several Transactions already have established “best paper” (and other) awards.
Most of our leading SIGCHI conferences have had best paper awards for many years now.
And the ACM Publications Board already has a well-documented process in place for establishing Best Paper Awards for its journals.
I therefore decided that it was time.
And submitted a formal proposal.
Which has now been approved.
As a mark of distinction at an already highly selective journal, the annual ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction Best Paper Award will bring considerable prestige to the authors thus distinguished.
The purpose of the award is to recognize and bring greater attention to the excellence of top papers published in TOCHI. This helps build the careers of our authors as well as the stature and desirability of publication in the TOCHI journal itself.
In addition to giving authors further incentive to submit their best work, this affords carry-over benefits to publicity, downloads, and citations to the journal, thereby enhancing the influence of the award winners as well as the impact factor all of the excellent papers that we publish.
We will play no favorites here, and in fact the formal proposal bars the Editor-in-Chief from consideration. The sole criteria shall be the overall merit of the work, in terms of technical excellence, significance to the research community, impact, clarity of presentation, and scope of the contribution—among many other criteria of outstanding research.
You can find all the details, and the formal documentation of the rules governing the selection committee, at:
http://tochi.acm.org/awards
Okay.
There you have it.
We are thrilled to start recognizing our very best.
I really hope that you will submit us your best work, to keep our pipeline bubbling with great contributions from our vibrant community.
And that you will also take a moment to nominate impactful TOCHI papers as they come to your attention over the course of the year; we accept nominations from anyone in the community. A brief statement of why you think the paper should be considered for an award is appreciated but not required.
With the New Year upon us, I am really looking forward to 2016.
And I hope that you are too.