ACM Computing Surveys Submission Guide

Source: Clarivate JCR 2024, ACM editorial disclosures (accessed April 2026).

Source: ACM Computing Surveys author guidelines, ACM.

CSUR's upload step is deceptively simple because the decisive check is the survey architecture, not the form. Use ACM Manuscript Central at ScholarOne submission portal only after the package can show its taxonomy, reference boundary, and recent-survey differentiation in the first read. The editor and associate editor should not have to infer whether the manuscript is a CSUR survey rather than a long literature review.

Day 0: submit the manuscript, cover letter, suggested reviewers, conflict disclosures, ACM rights and authorship information, source files, figures, and supplementary material through Manuscript Central.

Day 1 to 7: administrative and editorial-office checks confirm that the file set is usable, the author list is stable, conflicts are declared, and the paper can be routed.

Day 7 to 21: the editor or associate editor reads for CSUR fit: original taxonomy, comprehensive scope, overlap with recent CSUR surveys, and whether the paper advances an organizing argument.

Day 21 to 60: if the fit screen is passed, reviewers are recruited for breadth, methodology, and topic coverage. Specialized or very new areas can take longer.

Day 60 to 120: the first decision usually separates reject, major revision, and continue-review paths. Edge cases are slower when reviewer recruitment is difficult or the manuscript spans several computing communities.

Use this page when you are still deciding:

• whether your proposed survey has an original taxonomy or framework, not just a literature catalog

• whether the scope justifies comprehensive treatment

• whether reference coverage is truly comprehensive

• how to position the cover letter to establish the original contribution

Before a credible CSUR submission goes into the system:

• a clear original taxonomy, framework, or comparison methodology

• comprehensive reference coverage (100-300+ references typical)

• a comparison table or analytical figure that organizes the literature

• a discussion section identifying open problems or future research directions

• a cover letter that establishes the original contribution beyond literature aggregation

• Literature review framing without original taxonomy. A chronological catalog of recent papers without an original organizing structure is the most common rejection.

• Scope too narrow. A survey on a topic with only 30-50 relevant papers typically doesn't justify CSUR's 30-50 page treatment.

• Reference coverage gaps. A survey claiming to cover [topic] without referencing key foundational papers or recent state-of-the-art work.

• Comparable recent CSUR coverage. A survey overlapping a CSUR piece from the last 3-5 years without a clearly distinct angle.

• Cover letter argues comprehensiveness, not contribution. Editors look for what's new about your survey, not just that you covered many papers.

CSUR is the flagship comprehensive-survey venue in computer science, with an editorial standard tuned to original organizing structure rather than literature aggregation.

Taxonomy or framework requirement: CSUR surveys must contribute an original way of organizing the field's knowledge, not just compile recent work. This distinguishes CSUR from IEEE journal review issues or workshop survey papers.

The 100-300+ reference standard: comprehensive reference coverage is expected. Surveys with 50-100 references are routinely flagged as insufficient.

The 3-5 year timing window: CSUR rarely accepts a survey on a topic covered in a recent CSUR piece without a clearly distinct angle.

The package needs:

• an original taxonomy or framework figure in the introduction

• a comparison table organizing the surveyed literature

• comprehensive reference coverage

• a discussion identifying open research directions

Before submitting to ACM Computing Surveys, an ACM Computing Surveys submission readiness check identifies whether the package meets the editorial bar before you commit to the submission.

The strongest CSUR cover letters establish the original contribution upfront.

They usually:

• state the survey's original taxonomy or framework in one sentence

• explain why this organizing structure is needed (existing surveys lack it, the field has fragmented, new techniques require new categorization)

• distinguish from existing CSUR or IEEE survey coverage briefly

• establish comprehensive reference coverage scope

• Is ACM Computing Surveys a good journal?

• ACM Transactions on Graphics submission guide

Before upload, run your manuscript through an ACM Computing Surveys taxonomy and reference-coverage readiness check.

This page handles the public submission rules; the draft still needs a journal-specific fit check. The review tells you whether your paper clears the ACM Computing Surveys fit check before upload, especially around literature review framing without original organizing structure, reference coverage below the comprehensive bar, and topic overlap with recent CSUR pieces. Paid Manusights reviews include a 60-day money-back guarantee, and we do not train models on submitted manuscripts.

Source limitations: official journal and publisher pages define scope, article types, and submission mechanics, but they do not publish manuscript-level desk decisions; the patterns below combine public guidance, recent issue review, and anonymized Manusights pre-submission review work.

Across CS survey manuscripts targeting CSUR, three patterns generate the most consistent rejections.

Manusights pre-submission pattern analysis shows many CSUR rejections trace to literature-review framing without original taxonomy or framework. The same pattern analysis often finds these cases involve insufficient reference coverage relative to the topic's comprehensive scope. A related pattern is that these cases often arise from topic overlap with recent CSUR pieces.

Literature review framing without original organizing structure

CSUR editors specifically look for taxonomy, framework, or comparison methodology that organizes the surveyed literature in an original way. We observe that submissions framed as "a comprehensive review of recent work in [topic]" without an original organizing contribution are routinely rejected. SciRev community data on ACM journals consistently shows the original-structure requirement as the dominant filter.

Check literature review framing without original organizing structure before submitting to ACM Computing Surveys →

Reference coverage below the comprehensive bar

CSUR reviewers consistently expect 100-300+ references for a comprehensive survey. We see many manuscripts with 50-100 references that claim comprehensive coverage but lack foundational citations or recent state-of-the-art. These are routinely returned with requests to expand bibliography substantially.

Check reference coverage below the comprehensive bar before submitting to ACM Computing Surveys →

Topic overlap with recent CSUR pieces

Editors at CSUR check the journal's recent volumes. We find that submissions on topics covered in CSUR within the last 3-5 years are routinely rejected unless the new submission articulates a clearly distinct angle (a new taxonomy, a methodological reframing, an emerging subfield). A CSUR taxonomy and reference-coverage readiness check can identify whether the original-contribution case and reference completeness support a CSUR-level submission.

Clarivate JCR 2024 bibliometric data places CSUR among the highest-impact computer science journals. SciRev author-reported data confirms 2-4 month first-decision windows.

Check topic overlap with recent csur pieces before submitting to ACM Computing Surveys →

Use these nearby guides when the target journal is still uncertain:

• Cement and Concrete Research Submission Guide

• IEEE Transactions On Industrial Informatics Submission Guide

• IEEE Transactions On Evolutionary Computation Submission Guide

• IEEE Transactions On Image Processing Submission Guide

• Nature Chemistry Submission Guide

• Journal of Materials Chemistry A Submission Guide

• Nano Energy Submission Guide

• Carbohydrate Polymers Submission Guide

• Biomedicine and Pharmacotherapy Submission Guide

• Chemosphere Submission Guide

For the related journal overview, see Acm Computing Surveys submission guide. In our work on Acm Computing Surveys submissions, we observe that editors specifically screen the abstract, first figures, cover letter, and evidence package for whether the manuscript answers the journal's stated fit test; our analysis of Acm Computing Surveys pages treats those checks as submission-risk signals, not as official guidance.