Contribution Policies and Guidelines

We invite contributions to the SIGSOFT Blog on topics related to software engineering or relevant to the SIGSOFT community.

General

• Please refer to the post Welcome to the ACM SIGSOFT Blog! for more information about the scope of the blog.
• Non-technical posts should debate issues relevant to the SIGSOFT community, in a respectful way.
• Blog posts should be short (300–1300 words) and to the point on a specific topic.
• An informal writing style is encouraged, though some technical material is welcome, as appropriate.
• Posts should be written with interested outsiders in mind, who can be assumed to have some SE background and undergraduate-level training in computing.
• The posts in the SIGSOFT Blog are written by individual contributors and any views or opinions represented in their posts are personal, belong solely to the blog authors and do not necessarily represent those of ACM SIGSOFT or ACM.

When Writing a Post

• Avoid relying on technical terms, when possible; provide definitions and link to details (e.g., on Wikipedia) when needed.
• The title should be concise and descriptive of the post.
• Posts are meant to cover the topic generally, so please refrain from many self-citations.
• Embed links to papers if you cite something, not as citations/bibliography as in papers.
• Use (sub) headings to make the content easy to read.
• Include figures and videos, when possible.
• Include links to externally published items.
• Obtain permission for any content that does not belong to the author.
• Use a JPEG/SVG format for pre-formatted text (e.g., code) or equations, and embed it in the post so that it scales correctly across devices.

Policies

1. The editorial board determines which proposed posts are published. Contributors can appeal the EiC’s decision to the SIGSOFT Chair.
2. The editor may consult with the SIGSOFT Executive Committee when evaluating if a proposed post should be published.
3. Authors retain copyright to their content.
4. Comments may be removed or disabled at the discretion of the editor at any time.
5. Posts with inappropriate or offensive content as deemed by the editor will not be accepted.

Logistics and blog post process

1. Please send an intention to submit to sigsoft-blog@acm.org, using a subject beginning with “[SIGSOFT Blog]“. Your message should contain the following information:
   a) Proposed title
   b) Your idea (in a sentence or two)
   c) What material you will draw on to write it (e.g., a class you teach, papers you wrote, work you’ve done)
   d) Links to writing samples, ideally that show things you’ve written for a more general audience
2. If your idea is approved, start writing the blog post and notify the editors when it is ready.
3. The editors review the article, suggest any modifications and possibly perform light editing. Sometimes the process might involve several iterations before the blog post is approved.
4. Select an image to use as a featured image for the blog post from a source which allows images to be used on the SIGSOFT Blog, such as Pixabay.
5. Send the editors your Twitter and/or Mastodon handles, if you have them, to be used by the SIGSOFT web chair to promote your blog post.

This guidelines are taken and adapted, with permission, from those used by SIGPLAN for their blog.