Publishing Proceedings

Prepared by the Publications Division of ASCE

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) supports a robust book-publishing program to provide in-depth information on a variety of topics of interest to civil engineers and allied professionals. Each year, 25 to 30 of the Society's new titles are collections of papers presented at conferences affiliated with ASCE. This section of the ASCE Author Center provides information to conference committees and proceedings editors who are organizing proceedings that will be published by ASCE.

ASCE Books

Overview

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) supports a robust book-publishing program, introducing 40 to 50 new titles each year and maintaining a backlist of around 1,000 titles. Many titles are the work of ASCE’s technical committees under the leadership of an editor. Others are collections of proceedings papers prepared for conferences sponsored by ASCE’s Institutes and Technical Groups. Individual authors may submit proposals for publication under the ASCE Press imprint.

Contributors to ASCE’s books and proceedings come from all walks of civil engineering: private firms and consulting companies, universities, research centers, and government agencies at all levels. As practitioners, researchers, and teachers, they are dedicated to the advancement of the civil engineering profession.

ASCE books and proceedings benefit from peer review by engineering professionals and careful attention to the preparation of each title or article. Ultimately, ASCE publications reach the readers who need the content from the source they trust the most.

ASCE Press and Standards are available in print and electronic versions; all other titles are published in digital editions. These can be purchased through the ASCE Library.

This guide addresses the questions and concerns of technical committees and proceedings editors who are preparing conference proceedings that will be published by ASCE.

Topical Book Series

Collections of conference proceedings papers may be included in one of several book series (listed below) organized around specific disciplines in civil engineering. The sponsoring Institute or Technical Group establishes the guidelines for inclusion in its series.

Geotechnical Practice Publications (GPP) showcase practice-oriented papers presented at conferences and workshops sponsored by local sections and branches of ASCE and the Geo-Institute. GPPs serve as a conduit to make material developed by practicing engineers available to a broader audience. New GPPs are prepared under the auspices of the Geo-Institute’s Technical Coordination Council. Papers must be reviewed by an editorial board or receive one positive review from a designated reviewer.

Geotechnical Special Publications (GSP) are the primary outlet of the Geo-Institute for continuing the tradition of geotechnical knowledge transfer. GSPs reflect the broad variety of geotechnical activities, ranging from proceedings of a specialty conference or annual Geo-Institute Congress to guidelines and special reports prepared by technical committees. New GSPs are developed under the auspices of the Geo-Institute’s Technical Coordination Council. Papers must receive two positive peer reviews before acceptance.

Infrastructure Resilience Publications (IRP) are the primary outlet of the Infrastructure Resilience Division for resilience-related knowledge transfer. IRPs reflect the broad variety of resilience activities, ranging from proceedings of a specialty conference or annual Infrastructure Resilience Division Congress to post-event investigations, guidelines, and special reports prepared by technical committees. Specific areas of interest include risk and resilience measurements, civil infrastructure and lifeline systems, emerging technologies for improving infrastructure resilience, disaster response and recovery, and a range of social-economic aspects associated with infrastructure and community resilience to natural and other hazards. Civil infrastructure and lifeline systems include building clusters, electric power, telecommunication, water, wastewater, inundation protection, transportation, solid waste management, and gas and liquid fuel systems. IRP titles must be approved by ASCE’s Infrastructure Resilience Division.

Lecture Notes in Mechanics (LNMech) provide for the rapid dissemination of comprehensive treatments of current developments in mechanics, serving as a repository and reference for innovation in mechanics across all relevant application domains. LNMech publish peer-reviewed original contributions, including monographs, extended surveys, and collected papers from workshops and conferences. LNMech titles must be approved by ASCE’s Engineering Mechanics Institute.

Trends in Engineering Mechanics Special Publications (TEMSP), sponsored by ASCE’s Engineering Mechanics Institute, report on important developments in areas of engineering mechanics. TEMSP titles must be approved by ASCE’s Engineering Mechanics Institute.

ASCE Proceedings Staff

ASCE Publications has staff with different responsibilities and areas of expertise to assist with the publication of proceedings.

Acquisitions editors help committees and editors establish schedules for soliciting and selecting papers to be included in a conference proceedings. Acquisitions editors consult with conference committees and proceedings editors to estimate the costs associated with publication depending on the number of proceedings papers. When the papers have been collected and approved, an acquisitions editor works with a proceedings editor to ensure that the proceedings will progress smoothly through the production process for timely delivery at the conference, or in some cases, post-conference.

Production managers coordinate the schedule and services required to transform the final submitted manuscripts into published papers posted online. The production editor also arranges for cover design, any composition, XML tagging, and digital publication.

Managing an ASCE Proceedings Project

ASCE proceedings are collections of papers presented at a conference with an ASCE sponsor, namely, an Institute, Technical Group, or the Committee on Advancing the Profession. Currently, all ASCE proceedings papers are published in digital format in the ASCE Library. Conference committees have several options for making their proceedings available to their attendees.

A proceedings may be either for-conference or post-conference. A for-conference proceedings must follow a strict schedule so that the proceedings papers are published in time for distribution or online access at the conference. A post-conference proceedings is produced under a less-stringent deadline, and the papers are accessed by attendees sometime after the meeting.

A conference may be managed by ASCE or by another organization. In either case, the requirements and timelines for producing a proceedings are the same.

ASCE requires that conference proceedings papers be original, unpublished work. Dual publication (publishing the same paper in multiple places without permission from the original publisher and agreement by the subsequent publisher) is a violation of publishing ethics and legally unacceptable.

A published proceedings paper may not be published again as a journal article (and vice versa). If a paper has been substantially revised to include new (at least 51%) or additional material, proceedings papers may be eligible for discussions and closures, which will be posted with the paper in the ASCE Library.

Review and Approvals

Each proceedings published by ASCE must be have an ASCE sponsor (an Institute, Technical Group, or the Committee on Advancing the Profession).

When the ASCE sponsor is planning a conference in conjunction with one or more organizations outside of ASCE, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is required. If ASCE is to publish the proceedings, ASCE Publications will provide the Publishing Addendum to the MOU. The addendum outlines the services provided by ASCE Publications and the responsibilities of the conference committee and proceedings editor(s). The acquisitions editor will provide a publishing addendum upon request from the staff contact for the ASCE sponsor.

The review process for accepting papers for an ASCE conference proceedings is established by the ASCE sponsor, the representative of which may delegate the task to the conference committee. Some ASCE sponsors require two positive peer reviews for a paper to be selected; others leave review and selection to members of the technical program committee.

To ensure the quality of ASCE’s published proceedings, however, the following best practices must be met:

• Every paper published in an ASCE proceedings must be reviewed by at least one engineering professional unconnected with the paper. Review of abstracts alone is not sufficient.


• The authors of a paper published in an ASCE proceedings are expected to present their work at the conference. If the authors cannot attend the conference, they are encouraged to find a representative to present their paper on their behalf. ASCE reserves the right to remove from the online publication papers not presented during the conference.

Conference committees and proceedings editors should be sure they understand the review requirements of ASCE and their ASCE sponsor. Whatever criteria are established must be administered in a way that is transparent and consistent.

Editor for an ASCE Proceedings

Every proceedings is required to have at least one editor, who is sometimes (but not always) the chair of the conference’s technical program committee. Editors of conference proceedings guide their publications from the call for papers through publication and sometimes beyond publication. They are expected to carry out an efficient, consistent, and professional review process that ensures the technical quality of the papers. The responsibilities of a proceedings editor include:

• Overseeing the review process and ensuring timeliness of reviews and submission of final papers;
• Approving the final organization of papers within the proceedings;
• Ensuring that requirements for copyright transfer [through copyright transfer agreements (CTAs), obtaining permissions, and  formatting of manuscripts are met for each paper;
• Providing drafts of the title page, table of contents, preface, acknowledgments, and any other front matter;
• Communicating with authors regarding any issues that arise during the production process; and
• Serving as the contact for post-publication questions involving discussions and closures, ethics issues, or retractions.

Editors need to be familiar with ASCE’s guidelines on Publishing Ethics, as well as the ethical responsibilities of paper reviewers and the paper formatting instructions.

Publication Path for a Conference Proceedings

Most conferences start organizing meetings two to three years in advance. Conference committees intending to produce a proceedings must establish a schedule and strictly adhere to the milestones, especially when the proceedings is for the actual dates of a conference.

Many conference committees use a paper management system to handle the process of collecting, reviewing, accepting, and organizing papers into a proceedings volume.

In a typical scenario, the technical program committee issues a call for papers many months before the conference, reviews the submitted abstracts, and accepts abstracts by inviting papers for the conference. Authors of accepted abstracts submit draft papers, which are reviewed by the committee or designated peer reviewers. Authors will then be asked to submit final versions of their papers incorporating any changes suggested or required by the committee or reviewers. (Only full-length papers will be published; submissions of abstract-only papers or slide presentations will not be included in ASCE proceedings.) As mentioned, authors are expected to attend the conference to present their papers during a technical session or have a representative do so.

The committee or proceedings editor checks the final papers and organizes them for the proceedings— commonly they are grouped by tracks or sessions. The editor then coordinates with the ASCE staff contact and/or ASCE conference manager to submit the final approved papers and accompanying documents to ASCE Publications. The acquisitions editor and production manager check that a table of contents and front matter have been submitted, each paper is complete and required approvals have been obtained, and copyright forms (CTAs) have been provided for all papers. From information provided by the editor, the acquisitions editor finalizes the title, subtitle, author/editor/committee names, conference sponsors, conference location and dates, and any other bibliographic data that will be distributed with the proceedings.

Published papers will be available as individual downloads from the ASCE Library; they can be accessed through subscriptions or individual purchase. In addition, a conference committee may select from several options for making the complete collection of proceedings papers available to conference attendees, which can be discussed before publication.

Digital production has created the ability to handle any proceedings with consistency and professional results across papers. However, every stage takes its own amount of time before the process can move forward.

Organizing a Conference Proceedings

Many details about a proceedings can vary from conference to conference; for example, paper lengths, topic areas, extent of peer review, or number of papers. However, all conferences need a schedule plan.

Adhering to the milestones ensures a timely proceedings for attendees and a low-stress experience for the editor(s) and program committee. When milestones are missed, often the time cannot be made up, and the proceedings will not be ready in time for the conference. It then is scheduled as post-conference in production.

Step 1. Determine the Size and Cost of the Proceedings
As early as possible, the conference committee should estimate the number of sessions/papers it expects to offer at the conference. Pricing is based on the number of papers in a proceedings. Committees can control this expense by establishing a target number of papers to include in the proceedings.

Requests for an estimate should include the name of the conference, the conference location, dates, and the estimated number of papers. The ASCE acquisitions editor can provide the conference committee with a cost estimate for publishing the proceedings, a turnover deadline, and a publication date.

Step 2. Develop the Proceedings
Most conferences are planned two to three years in advance, and the schedule for the proceedings should be established early. Committees should be aware of the peer review requirements of ASCE and of the sponsoring Institute or Technical Group so that adequate time for review is included in the schedule.

Step 3. Make a Schedule
Most conferences are planned two to three years in advance, and the schedule for the proceedings should be established early. Committees should be aware of the peer review requirements of ASCE and of the sponsoring Institute or Technical Group, so that adequate time for review is included in the schedule.

The call for papers should be issued months before the scheduled conference dates. Themes or suggested topics are usually included in the call for papers, and chairs for each track or session should be in place by the abstract submission deadline.

Step 4. Issue a Call for Papers
The “call for papers” is a public invitation for the submission of abstracts that, if accepted, are developed into full-length papers and presented at the conference. Abstracts are submitted, along with information about the author(s), through an online paper submission system. The period for submitting abstracts generally runs for months, the timing of which is determined by the conference chair or editor. For ASCE internal proceedings, the conference manager or staff contact for the sponsoring Institute or Technical Group can advise on ways to publicize the call for papers.

Step 5. Review the Abstracts
Members of the technical program committee and the proceedings editor(s) are responsible for reviewing the submitted abstracts, deciding which to accept, and roughly organizing the accepted abstracts into sessions or tracks. This step generally takes about a month and concludes when all authors who submitted abstracts are advised whether their abstracts have been accepted.

With their notifications, the authors of accepted abstracts should be provided with guidelines for preparing their final papers.

Step 6. Review Draft Papers and Final Papers
Proceedings editors and members of the technical program committee must establish a system for assigning incoming papers for review and ensuring that the review is completed in a consistent and timely fashion. Proceedings papers receive either formal peer review or committee peer review. Every paper must be reviewed by a qualified engineering professional.

Formal peer review is more rigorous and requires around three to four months. Designated reviewers read each draft paper and return comments to the track/session chair. The anonymous comments are forwarded to the author(s). The author(s) consider these comments as they revise their papers for final submission. The revised papers may be reviewed again before final acceptance.

Committee peer review is less rigorous and requires around four to six weeks. Members of the technical committee and track/session chairs read the draft papers to ensure appropriate content for the conference and appropriate formatting. If a draft paper meets all established criteria for the conference, it may be accepted as is. If changes are necessary, comments are forwarded to the author(s), who consider the comments as they revise their papers for final submission.

With either type of review, authors are given around two to four weeks to revise their draft papers and submit final versions for publication. ASCE Publications requires that papers be submitted as Microsoft Word documents, although PDFs are acceptable in a few instances; consult with the acquisitions editor.

Step 7. Organize the Submissions
Incoming papers are monitored by the editors and track/session chairs to ensure that papers have been formatted correctly and required forms have been signed. Papers with formatting, permissions, or other publishing issues should be returned to the author for correction, with a firm due date for inclusion in the proceedings. (Authors may request deadline extensions; such extensions are at the editor’s discretion provided that the complete, final files are submitted to the acquisitions editor by the established submission date.)

The proceedings editors and track/session chairs are responsible for organizing the final manuscripts in the order in which they will appear in the proceedings. This is handled with a spreadsheet that includes titles, authors, track and session assignments, and file names, sorted into the order of appearance.

At least one month should be allowed for editors to organize the submissions, develop front matter, and submit all papers and documents to the ASCE acquisitions editor.

Step 8. Develop the Front Matter
“Front matter” consists of materials that appear at the beginning of a proceedings, separate from the papers. For proceedings, the front matter always includes the title page, table of contents, and a preface written by the editor(s) or chair(s) of the technical program committee. Front matter may also include a dedication, committee roster (recommended), and acknowledgments. The front matter must be submitted with the final papers if not before. The Front Matter Template will be provided by the acquisitions editor.

Front Matter Template (required for all proceedings)

The Front Matter Template is used to prepare a title page and other bibliographic information for the proceedings. The cover sheet should include

• Working title and subtitle (all titles and subtitles are subject to final approval by ASCE Publications);
• Name of series, if any (series numbers will be assigned by ASCE Publications);
• Complete name of the conference as well as the conference location (city, state, country) and dates;
• Complete name of each editor of the proceedings, including preferences for middle names or initials, followed by degrees, professional credentials, and organizational affiliation(s); and
• List of organizations sponsoring or cosponsoring the conference, with complete names in the order in which they should appear in the proceedings.

The ASCE logo and the logo of a sponsoring Institute will appear on the title page.

Table of Contents (required for all proceedings)

The table of contents must be submitted with the final manuscript so that the acquisitions editor can verify that all material expected to be in the proceedings can been turned over turned over to production. The table of contents is also an important reference for readers and a selling feature of the proceedings. It must be submitted as an Excel spreadsheet. The complete name of each paper, paper authors, and tracks/sessions must be included, and the papers listed in the order in which they are to appear in the proceedings. The table of contents can only contain full-length papers; abstracts and slide presentations are not included in the published proceedings. Confirm that the number of papers in the table of contents matches the number of papers to be published prior to submission.

The final table of contents will be created by ASCE’s vendor.

Preface (required for all proceedings)

The preface presents the purpose and scope of the proceedings. In it, the editor provides an overview of the subjects covered by the papers, perhaps highlighting important themes or tracks. The preface should focus on the collection of papers rather than the goals or circumstances of the conference itself. A description of the review process is also appropriate and can add to the value of the proceedings.

Acknowledgments (optional)

Acknowledgments can be included to recognize the contributions and support of colleagues, sponsors, institutions, committee members, and so on.

Step 9. Submit Complete Proceedings
By the date established by the ASCE acquisitions editor, the final word files of all papers, as well as the copyright forms for all papers and front matter files, must be delivered to ASCE Publications. Missing papers, missing forms, an incomplete table of contents, missing front matter—any of these can cause a significant delay in the production process.

Submission Checklist

• Final versions of all papers, submitted as Microsoft Word (or rarely PDF) files
• Signed ASCE Authorship Originality and Copyright Transfer Agreement for each paper
• Completed Proceedings Front Matter Template
• Spreadsheet or Microsoft Word file establishing the order and organization of the papers
• Possible cover images/colors

Cover

The production manager arranges for a graphic designer to design a full-color cover. Conference committees and proceedings editors are welcome to submit suggestions for photographs or conference-branded color schemes.

Photographs submitted must be available in a high-resolution (minimum 300 dpi) TIFF or JPG format; they must also be accompanied by permission from the photographer or photo owner.

Please note that photographs with company names or logos are inappropriate for covers. Photos that include recognizable people must be accompanied by a Photography Consent Form executed by each recognizable person.

A cover proof will be sent to the proceedings editor(s) for review. Comments from the editor are important, but all final decisions about the cover belong to ASCE Publications. Cover review is subject to a strict 48-hour deadline.

Copyright and Permissions

Copyright Basics

Copyright and permissions are important legal issues in the publishing world, but they are also a source of confusion for authors, editors, and committees. This section of the guide presents an explanation of ASCE’s requirements regarding copyright and permissions and offers guidance in meeting those requirements.

Copyright ownership begins with the creation of new work, such as a proceedings paper, text of a book, journal article, magazine article, web page, slide presentation, or Ph.D. dissertation. It applies to the expression of ideas but not to the ideas themselves. It also applies to the creation of figures or tables that present data but not to data themselves. In the United States, authors own the copyright to materials they create (unless they created the material while employed by the US government or the governments of the United Kingdom, Canada, or Australia).

Copyright gives the owner a collection of rights that include reproducing and distributing copies of the work and licensing others to translate or reuse the work in a variety of formats. Publishers such as ASCE require authors to transfer copyright ownership so that the publisher’s right to reproduce, distribute, and license the work is clear and unquestionable. Publishers can then distribute a work as widely as possible while protecting the author’s work against infringement.

ASCE Requirements

Before ASCE publishes any materials—proceedings papers, journal articles, technical notes, books, or videos, to name a few possibilities—the copyright ownership of the materials must be clear and, except in a few special cases, transferred to ASCE (see the section on “Sponsored Access”).

This transfer is done through the ASCE Authorship Originality and Copyright Transfer Agreement, called a CTA for short. It makes no difference whether the work will be published in print, on the Internet, or in any other electronic medium, such as a digital e-book or video.

Who is an Author?

To be listed as an author of a proceedings paper, an individual must have contributed in a significant way to research, project, or manuscript preparation. Each listed author must consent to having their name associated with the publication. All listed authors bear responsibility for the content. The corresponding author is responsible for obtaining the approval of all co-authors on any changes required during review.

Who Signs the Copyright Transfer Agreement?

For proceedings papers, the corresponding author of each paper signs the copyright transfer agreement. The form has space to note several exceptions to ASCE’s copyright policy. Here’s how to handle them:

• If all the authors are employed by the US government, then any one of the authors should sign the form in the special section for US government employees.
• If some of the authors are employed by the US government and some are not, then any one of the authors who does not work for the US government should sign the form.
• If all the authors are officers of the Crown government, then any one of the authors should sign the form in the special section for Crown government copyright.
• If some of the authors are officers of the Crown government and some are not, then any one of the authors who does not work in an official capacity for the Crown government should sign the form.

What Authors Can Do with Their Own Material

Individual authors of ASCE proceedings papers, journal articles, or book chapters are permitted to reuse their content for other ASCE or non-ASCE publications, with these restrictions:

• The paper, article, or chapter may not be republished in its entirety anywhere else, including in other languages.
• The paper, article, or chapter may not constitute more than 25% of a new publication.
• Material may be included in an online course pack only if the site is password protected.
• Up to 100 photocopies may be made; for more than 100 copies, email ASCE Permissions at [email protected].

Online posting of a paper, article, chapter, or book is subject to the following conditions:

• Published materials: Authors may post a PDF of the ASCE-published version of their work on their employer’s password-protected Intranet. Please add the statement: "This material may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
• Draft manuscripts: Authors may post the final drafts of their work on open, unrestricted Internet sites or deposit it in an institutional repository when the draft contains a URL/link to the bibliographic record of the published version in the ASCE Library. "Final draft" means the version submitted to ASCE after peer review and prior to copyediting or other ASCE production activities. Authors may not post the copyedited manuscript, page proofs, or a PDF of the published version on an open, unrestricted Internet site.

Sponsored Access

For proceedings papers that have already been published online, ASCE offers Sponsored Access. Under Sponsored Access, any party may request that ASCE lift restrictions on access to an online article or paper. Under this arrangement, sponsors may link to the open article or paper but may not post the PDF or full-text HTML on an external site. See Open Access Options and Rights for details about fees for this service or email a request to [email protected].

ASCE Policies on Artificial Intelligence and Automated Tools

Artificial Intelligence and Authorship

ASCE is a member of COPE, the Committee on Publication Ethics. As such, ASCE follows COPE Guidelines on artificial intelligence and authorship. Our policy is that AI software cannot be listed as an author on a paper.

ChatGPT and similar software is not human, and for this reason cannot independently design studies, create and critique methodologies, interpret data, or be held responsible for the outcomes and implications of the study in question. For this reason, ChatGPT and similar software should be treated as a tool, not an author. For more information on COPE’s guidance on AI and authorship, please visit the COPE website.

Artificial Intelligence and Automated Tools

ASCE policies on the use of AI and automated tools are the following:

• ASCE will not review or accept manuscripts written by nonhuman authors. Large Language Models (LLMs) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools should not be listed in a byline for any reason.
• Authors are required to disclose whether artificial intelligence (AI) tools were used in the creation and preparation of their manuscripts. ASCE reserves the right to ask for and receive detailed information on how LLMs and AI were used in the creation of a manuscript.
• Reviewers shall not use LLMs or AI tools when reviewing manuscripts or preparing comments to authors.
• Future developments: ASCE will continue to monitor the ethical implications of using AI tools and automation as they evolve and change.

More information about COPE’s guidelines and recommendations regarding AI tools and automation can be found here.

Permission Basics

As a reputable publisher of technical and scientific material, ASCE respects the copyright ownership of others—whether individuals, publishers, or engineering firms. Authors of proceedings papers are required to obtain permission for ASCE to republish any material that they, as individuals or as a committee, did not create. When proceedings editors and conference committees review papers submitted for publication, they should be aware of ASCE’s permission requirements and ensure that authors of papers comply.

Managing Sources of Figures and Tables

Final proceedings papers submitted to ASCE for publication must be accompanied by an Authorship Originality and Copyright Transfer Agreement, available from the acquisitions editor. The Authorship Originality section of the form asks authors to attest to the originality of everything in their paper. Authors of proceedings papers are expected to obtain permission to publish any materials they did not create themselves; they may be required to provide the permissions documents if requested by the production manager. Table 1 lists the common sources of items that may need written permission and source lines.

Table 1. Common Sources of Figures, Tables, and Text Extracts Required Written Permission

*If a figure or table in an ASCE publication cites a non-ASCE publication as its source, then permission must be obtained from the original publisher.

What Does Not Need Permission

• Material created by the authors or members of the technical committee preparing the manuscript is considered to be original.
• Material published by the US government is considered in the public domain. However, materials published by state or local governments or under a US government contract may need permission (see next section).
• Materials may be considered in the public domain because the copyright has expired, but the law on duration of copyright is complex. Consult with an acquisitions editor regarding specific instances.
• Images from Google Maps and Google Earth may be used in ASCE publications, as long as proper credit is given to Google and also to any identified Google partners. Information about Google partners can be found at the bottom of the Google Maps/Earth screen, accompanied by a copyright symbol (©). Images from other mapping services (such as Bing) and from Google Street View may not be reproduced in ASCE publications without permission.

What Needs Permission

• Materials published in print, on the Internet, or on recorded media (such as videos) are nearly always under copyright and need permission for reuse.
• Reports produced under a contract to the US government may not be copyrighted, but obtaining permission may still be necessary to verify that the reports are not proprietary to the contractor.
• Materials published by state and local governments are not in the public domain unless the material (or website) explicitly states so.

Publication and Beyond

All ASCE proceedings papers are published in digital format, with proceedings volumes available as e-books. Papers are considered published when they are posted in the ASCE Library. Access to these papers can be purchased individually (pay-per-view) or by subscription.

Bibliographic data for all proceedings papers, when available, are included in the ASCE Library. In addition, metadata for proceedings are provided to a number of abstracting and indexing services.

Antipiracy and E-books

ASCE retains an antipiracy service to identify, reduce, and remove pirated or bootlegged versions of ASCE-copyrighted works posted on open websites throughout the world. Authors, editors, and committees should ensure that their working drafts are shared through a secure web service, such as DropBox, Google Drive, or a password-protected website.

Authors and editors who discover pirated versions of their papers on the Internet should notify ASCE by sending an email to [email protected]. Include the name of the publication being pirated and the URL address/link of the pirate site.

Errata

Despite everyone’s best efforts, errors occur. They slip past authors, editors, production managers, proofreaders, and everyone else involved in publishing a proceedings. The lead author of a proceedings paper is responsible for investigating possible errors and submitting them to ASCE Publications. The editor of the proceedings is expected to review and approve all errata and retractions.

• Errors about engineering: Incorrect information or typos and misprints that materially change the meaning of technical information should be compiled by the lead author or corresponding editor. The errors and their corrections should be submitted to the acquisitions editor, who will arrange to have the erratum or errata posted with the paper record in the ASCE Library. In the ASCE Library, errata are available for download with no charge or restrictions.
• Retractions: Occasionally, because of dangerous errors, legal issues, or ethics issues, a proceedings paper must be retracted in the ASCE Library. Retractions of proceedings papers are handled like retractions of journal papers. All named authors on the paper must agree to the retraction and the explanation for the retraction. A retracted paper never “disappears.” Instead, the paper is marked with a retraction notice in the ASCE Library with an explanation for the retraction.

Publishing Ethics

Occasionally, questions of publishing ethics arise. These include, but are not limited to:

• Plagiarism: Including all or part of someone else’s work without attribution and/or permission
• Copyright violation: Submitting work owned by someone else without securing permission to use it
• Duplicate publication: Publishing the same material with more than one publisher or publishing the same material in more than one ASCE publication (publications, books, and journals).

Anyone may bring a publishing ethics issue to the attention of a member of the ASCE Books staff or staff from ASCE’s Institutes or Technical Groups. The lead editor of a proceedings is responsible for addressing the ethics issue, with assistance from ASCE staff.

If an ethical issue is identified, several courses of action are possible. A published proceedings paper could be retracted; however, as stated, retraction does not mean that the paper is removed from the ASCE Library, only that it is marked with a retraction notice and an explanation for the retraction. If the violator is associated with a university, the university could be notified. A complaint may be filed with the ASCE Committee on Professional Conduct.

ASCE Publications is a member of the Council on Publishing Ethics (COPE) and follows COPE guidelines for proceedings, as well as for books and journal articles.

Ethical Responsibilities of Editors and Committees

Editors and conference technical committees working on proceedings to be published by ASCE are expected to conform to the following ethical guidelines:

• The primary responsibility of an ASCE proceedings editor and the conference technical committee is to ensure an efficient and consistent review process of manuscripts submitted for publication and to maintain high standards of technical and professional quality.
• The editor and technical committee must give unbiased consideration to all abstracts and papers offered for publication. They will judge each on its merits without regard to any personal relationship or familiarity with the author(s) or to the race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, professional association, or political philosophy of the author(s).
• A paper may be rejected without review if the paper is considered out of the scope of or inappropriate for the conference theme or program.
• No information about a manuscript under consideration will be disclosed to anyone other than those from whom professional advice is sought regarding the publication of the paper.
• Names of reviewers of specific abstracts and papers must not be released.
• Individuals may not review their own submissions to a proceedings.
• Individuals are expected to avoid conflicts of interest and/or the appearance of such conflict. Abstracts and papers are not sent to reviewers who are known to have personal bias in favor or against the author(s) or subject matter of that material.
• Unpublished information, arguments, or interpretations contained in a submitted abstract or paper are confidential and not used in the research of an editor or technical committee member or otherwise disseminated, except with the consent of the author(s) and with appropriate attribution.
• If an editor is presented with evidence that a submitted or published paper contains plagiarized material, falsified research data, inaccurate information, or is of questionable authorship, the editor forwards such evidence to ASCE staff for investigation.

Discussion and Closures

Discussions and closures are posted alongside the original papers in the ASCE Library.

Discussions present significant comments or questions about the technical content of a proceedings paper published by ASCE. Discussions should be around 2,000 words and should not contain information readily found elsewhere, advocate special interests, contain obvious commercial intent, controvert established fact, or be purely speculative. Discussions should have titles and authors. In addition, the title, author(s), and DOI of the original paper should appear directly below the title of the discussion. For details, contact the production manager.

Discussions should be submitted to the editor of the conference proceedings (or to the chair of the technical program committee) within five months of publication. The editor has three months to determine whether the discussion has merit and, if so, contact the author(s) of the original proceedings paper to contribute a response or closure. The original author(s) have three months to submit a closure to the editor. In the closure, the original author(s) address and clarify issues raised in discussions and provide conclusions to the issues.

The editor then submits discussions and closures to the acquisitions editor, who will arrange to have the production manager post them together online. The editor should ensure that all authors involved in the writing of the original paper are notified of the discussion. All authors involved in writing the closure should be included in the closure byline, but not all the original authors need to participate.