ACM TOCE recognizes up to 1% of it's submitted papers each year with a ACM TOCE Distinguished Paper award. This page details policy and process for the award. Other documents such as the review template and Associate Editor guidelines implement parts of this process as well.

The award is annual and eligibility periods span September 1st to August 31st of the following year (inclusive). Up to 1% of research articles published (DOI issued), rounded up to the nearest integer percentage, will be awarded. For example, between September 1, 2022 and August 31, 2023, 44 submissions were published, and so at most 1 article would have been granted the ACM TOCE 2023 Distinguished Paper Award. If annual TOCE published submissions rose to 101, then there would be two papers awarded.

Papers for which the EiC or Board members have conflicts of interest are eligible to be nominated and awarded, to avoid disincentivizing future EiCs and Board members from taking the roles, as ineligibility would discourage collaboration and journal service. These conflicts of interest are managed as described below in the selection process.

The award was approved by the ACM Publications Board in June of 2024, and so the first period of eligibility begins September 1st, 2024 and continues through August 31st, 2025, with the first award possible at the end of 2025.

Papers nominated and selected for this award should be exemplary in all of the TOCE reviewing criteria: soundness, significance, clarity, and grounding in prior work.

"Exemplary" means that a submission is not just sufficient for publication on each dimension, but is:

1. a model for other papers to follow
2. is notable for its significance to research and/or practice, and
3. is remarkable in the clarity and insight of its communication.

Not everyone must agree that all of these criteria are met; our diverse community may assess these criteria differently. Rather, there must be some recognition that some in our community believe these criteria are met.

Anyone may nominate a journal submission for the award. Reviewers and Associate Editors of papers, however, are expected to nominate if they believe a paper meets the criteria above.

Nominations should be sent to the editor-in-chief, and include the following:

• Name and contact details of the nominator
• The paper’s DOI
• A <=250 word statement of how the nomination meets the award criteria

If the nominator is a reviewer or Associate Editor, they may simply include a <=250 word nomination statement in the confidential comments to the editor.

The EiC will organize these nominations throughout the eligibility period in a board-restricted spreadsheet in the journal's Google Shared Drive.

At the beginning of July of each year, the TOCE EiC will solicit interest from the TOCE Editorial Board for the award selection committee annually. As an incentive, volunteers will not be assigned new submissions during the award decision period of September and October. Three members will be required, one serving as chair, and all will be selected from the ACM TOCE Editorial Board. If one of the EiC’s papers is being considered for the award, then the Deputy EiC, who handles EiC conflicts, will appoint the committee. From these, the committee will self-appoint a chair, and if no one volunteers, the EiC or Deputy EiC will appoint a chair.

As the TOCE Editorial Board is fluid, if someone leaves the board during its decision period, the EiC will replace them with a new board editor, including appointing a new chair if necessary. The committee will be finalized by the beginning of September each year, after the nominations for the year are closed.

If any member of the selection committee has a real or perceived conflict of interest with authors of nominated papers (e.g. committee members must not share an institution with any authors of any nominated papers, must not be close collaborators with any of the authors, etc.) they will notify the EiC and be replaced with an alternate.

The EiC or Deputy EiC will provide the committee with a packet of the eligible published papers and their nominations. The Committee will use the criteria described above to select a nominated paper that best exemplifies the criteria. They must provide the decision to the EiC by the end of October, in time to include the winners in the process for SIGCSE Technical Symposium speaker invitations. While the award committee chair ultimately decides the process, the following steps are recommended:

1. Committee members review the criteria on this page and meet to discuss their interpretation of the criteria
2. Committee members independently and privately read each nominated paper in relation to the criteria, decide whether each meets the award criteria, and develop a ranking and rationale
3. Committee members meet one last time to share rankings and attempt to arrive at consensus on the awarded papers

If the committee does not believe any nominated papers meet the criteria, or cannot come to consensus on award papers, no papers are award for the year.

The award form will be a physical plaque, mailed to the authors of the awarded paper(s). The award will be announced at the first TOCE Session at the SIGCSE Technical Symposium and on the TOCE website where a register of all past award winners will be maintained. Authors of award winning papers will be eligible for an invitation to present their paper at a TOCE session, assuming capacity is available at the Technical Symposium.

Awarded papers will appear on the ACM TOCE Digital Library page and also noted in the digital library on the awarded paper's page. The EiC notifies the production team of the award, enabling the award badge.