Submissions


As the Editors-in-Chief of Interactions, we would like to invite you to be a part of shaping public understanding of the ways in which people and computers interact in this exciting publication. More informal than an academic journal, Interactions is a place to share ideas, research, design explorations, frameworks for thinking, and more.

We invite submissions related to human-computer interaction (HCI), interaction design, (IxD), user experience (UX), service design, speculative design, and related fields.

Our vision for the magazine is to include voices from across these HCI-related disciplines and areas of focus. We especially seek submissions that explore design theory and practice, computer science and software engineering, and infrastructure and hardware design and development. Thematically, we are interested in all areas related to interactive technology and platform design: from sustainability to education to healthcare, and more. In particular, we seek contributions that bridge academic scholarship and applied practical impact. And building on the magazine’s previous foci, we encourage critical perspectives, grounded exploration, and constructive debate to reconsider HCI and design/development education and practice across the whole technology landscape. We invite “how-to” articles and thoughtful and well-researched reflections on technological “innovation,” and welcome consideration of ways to build long-lasting, sustainable, and equitable technological futures.

Please consider sharing your work and perspectives by submitting to Interactions!

Submission Policy and Guidelines

February 2024: Please note that these guidelines have been updated.

General Submissions
We encourage everyone to submit to interactions magazine, independent of affiliation or discipline. We also remind potential authors that Interactions is a magazine, not an academic journal, and authors should try to engage readers with an informal, conversational style and minimal use of jargon and few citations. To help us support a diversity of voices, we also ask authors to limit their submissions to one per year.

Please note that we do not publish detailed event (e.g., workshop) reports in the print edition of the magazine. With exceptional event reports we may consider publishing a digital report as a blog post on our website.

You are invited to submit to the content areas below. Except where otherwise specified, please use the following form to submit new content to Interactions: https://j.mp/ix-submission-form

Space: This image-heavy section offers readers an insider’s tour of studios, work sites, and research labs across the globe. Authors must submit at least 10 high-quality images documenting their space, capturing qualities of the physical environment and ways of working. Word count: 1200 words max. All images should have detailed captions that complement the main text (rather than repeating the main text) of up to 30 words. Citations: 3 essential citations max. Authorship list: 4 authors max.

Making/Breaking: This section focuses on things people have built, broken, assembled, or disassembled. We are especially interested in the process behind these makings and breakings, how they have helped in developing and refining ongoing design work. Contributors must submit high-quality photos documenting the evolution of the project. Word count: 500 words max. All images should have detailed captions that complement the main text (rather than repeating the main text) of up to 30 words. Citations: 3 essential citations max. Authorship list: 4 authors max.

Features: Feature articles can address relevant topics spanning the full breadth of human-computer interaction and interaction design, from accounts of hands-on work in design practice or field research, to summaries of new developments in design theory. Features tend to use an engaging, conversational writing style with minimal references and figures and build on existing published work by the authors (e.g., peer reviewed publications for research, awards, speaking invitations or similar recognition for creative and professional work). Features are not suitable as a first publication format for original research. Word count: 2750 words max. Any images should have captions that complement the main text (rather than repeating the main text) of up to 30 words. Please also supply three short bullet points that summarize the key points of the feature article. Authorship list: 6 authors max. Citations: 6 citations max. Authors should avoid self-citations.

Blogs: Blogs are intended for more informal personal reflections on current and topical issues in HCI, UX, and IxD. We actively encourage early ideas, responses to conferences, workshops, symposia, papers, teaching, and learning. Please note we do not publish workshop, symposia, or conference reports—only well synthesized reflections on these events. You can ask questions, promote issues, discuss confusions, provoke curiosity, or vent frustrations and more—anything that would benefit from a perspective that speaks to readers directly. Check out previous articles here: https://interactions.acm.org/blog. Word count: 1200 words max. Any images should have captions that complement the main text (rather than repeating the main text) of up to 30 words. Citations: 6 essential citations max. Authorship list: 4 authors max. Particularly timely, thoughtful, and well-researched blogs may also be published in the print magazine as Blog@IX.

NOTE: The Interactions editors-in-chief and ACM editorial team retain the right to desk-reject any submission that violates ACM publication policies or guidelines without detailed review or commentary.

In addition to our open submission content, we have a number of curated and invitation only sections.

Curated/Invited Sections

Forum: Interactions has a select group of forums, each appearing in three issues per year. Each forum has a specific topical focus but articles within any one forum can address a diverse range of viewpoints and research within that particular sub-field.  For more information on our forums, please see the Appendix below. Contributors wishing to submit forum articles should contact the appropriate forum editor (see submissions form and/or appendix A below). If you are interested in submitting a forum article, please contact the appropriate forum editor. Word count: 2200 words max. Any images should have captions that complement the main text (rather than repeating the main text) of up to 30 words. Authorship list: 6 authors max. Citations: 6 citations max. Authors should avoid self-citations. Please use the following form to submit forum content to Interactions: https://j.mp/ix-forum-submission and indicate which forum you are submitting to (see list of forums below).

Exhibit X: This highly visual section highlights artifacts, performances, exhibitions and other projects that exemplify new and different forms of engagement. In addition to a short description of the project, authors must submit at least three high-quality images with detailed captions. Word count: 500 words max. Citations: 4 essential citations max. All images should have detailed captions that complement the main text (rather than repeating the main text) of up to 30 words. Authorship list:4 authors max.  Please use the following form to submit to Exhibit X: https://j.mp/ix-submission-form. Please also contact our Exhibit X curator, Marie Luce Lupetti.

Exit: Exit is the last page of every Interactions magazine. This is a gallery section, with the idea to highlight and promote visual thinking, using the medium of still, possibly post-processed digital imagery in keeping with the role of interaction design as a design discipline. We invite imagery that invites reflection around technological imaginaries, possibilities, actualities, residues, and our interactions with designing, building, and experiencing technological interactions. One high resolution image is needed, with a caption explaining the image. Word count: 100 words max.  Please use the following form to submit Exit content: https://j.mp/ix-submission-form. Please also email our Exit curators.

Columns: Interactions hosts a number of columnists who write on various topics. With a maximum length of 1400 words and a limited number of relevant references where needed, these columns offer well-thought-out insights by scholars in HCI-related areas. Citations: 4 essential citations max. If you are interested in becoming a columnist in the future, please email the Editors in Chief at [email protected].

What Are You Reading? This invitation-only section of the magazine reflects what researchers and practitioners working in areas related or adjacent to HCI, UX, and IxD have been reading or reviewing. Invited authors discuss books, articles, magazines, and podcasts that have inspired or are currently inspiring them. Authors are invited to provide a list of three or four works, each followed by a short reflection, and can recommend book covers or illustrations as needed.

Editing and Review Processes

Articles go through several rounds of editing: first with the magazines editors-in-chief and forum editors for relevance, clarity, and groundedness and then with ACM’s managing editor and copy editor for grammar, punctuation, and length.

ACM staff will send authors the copyedited version for their review. Once they have approved the copyedited version, authors will not review the copy again.

Authors may be asked to review any redrawn figures.

Authors will not receive page proofs or final pdfs.


Images

We strongly encourage all authors to supply photos, illustrations, or illustrative concepts along with their manuscripts. All images must be supplied in-line so that placement near associated text is clear, and as separate files.

All images must be in JPEG or TIFF format and at least 300 DPI (and ideally at least 4800 pixels wide) with copyright clearance for use in the magazine. Please note that gaining copyright clearance for third-party material is the responsibility of the author(s); ACM will not seek clearance or cover cost that may be associated with clearance. For more information on procedures for securing third-party material, visit http://www.acm.org/publications/third-party-material

Interactions does not guarantee that all submitted images/illustrations will be published; such decisions are at the discretion of the editors-in-chief and ACM’s art department.


Submission Checklist

A complete submission to ACM Interactions should contain the following:

1. Word document (minimally formatted text and graphics) that includes a short, crisp working title or headline, and a standard byline: author name, affiliation, email address.

2. Separate graphics files in JPEG or TIFF format (at least 300 DPI/4800 px with copyright clearance).

3. Brief author biography (50-word maximum) for each author listed in the byline. A bio generally includes the author’s current affiliation and his/her research interests.


Current Forums
After Veillance: Being watched means more than being seen. This forum investigates information flows of sensing culled from sources as diverse as temperature check and iris scans to sound and movements sensors across terrains. After Veillance discusses how these systems distribute risk unevenly and shape the lives of populations across the globe. Sareeta Amrute, Editor

Community + Culture: Community + Culture features practitioner perspectives on designing technologies for and with communities. We highlight compelling projects and provocative points of view that speak to both community technology practice and the interaction design field as a whole. Sheena Erete, Editor

Designing at the Intersections: In this forum we explore different perspectives for how to apply intersectionality as a critical framework for design across multiple contexts. Yolanda Rankin and Jakita Thomas, Editors

Meaningful Design Processes: This forum is dedicated to exploring the notion of meaningfulness in design processes, taking the perspectives of community groups, nongovernmental organizations, and those who are marginalized in society as starting points. Authors will reflect conceptually and methodologically on practical engagements. Rosanna Bellini and Angelika Strohmayer, Editors

Play Time: This forum features game-practitioner perspectives on the interaction design process, techniques, and evaluation involved in creating playful experiences. We focus on how technology advancement, infrastructure, and constraints shape the player experience. Pejman Mirza-Babaei, Editor

Tech Labor: This forum focuses on the conditions and futures of the labor underpinning technology production and maintenance. We welcome standalone articles as well as interviews and conversations about all tech labor within the global supply chain of digital technologies. Seyram Avle and Sarah Fox, Editors

If you are interested in curating a Forum or contributing a Column in the future, please email [email protected] for further information.


As a published ACM author, you and your co-authors are subject to all ACM Publications Policies, including ACM’s new Publications Policy on Research Involving Human Participants and Subjects.

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