How are Editor‐in‐Chief conflicts of interest managed? - acm-toce/documentation GitHub Wiki

Any Editor-in-Chief of the journal can have a range of conflicts of interest, including but not limited to:

• Being at the same institution as an author
• Advising a doctoral student author
• Collaborating with someone who is an author
• Having a financial interest in a submission's publication
• Having a personal reason to see an author succeed or fail
• The EiC is themselves as an author

ACM TOCE manages EiC conflicts by evaluating each submission for a potential conflict, and if one is identified, immediately assigning the paper to the Deputy EiC, who is themselves appointed by the EiC with oversight from the ACM Publications Board. The Deputy serves a Editor of the submission, doing the normal duties of the Editor, deciding whether to desk reject, selecting an Associate Editor, conducting a full review process if appropriate, and making the final publication decision. The EiC does not have access to any information about the submission once it is assigned to the Deputy EiC; they only see further information if they are an author on the submission, and have no ability to affect its publication decision.