If you work in computer science, electrical engineering, or a related technical field, virtually every conference you consider will be either IEEE- or ACM-sponsored — or both. The two organisations have genuine differences that should influence where you submit. Here is how to tell them apart.
The Organisations at a Glance
IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) is the world's largest professional organisation for technology, with 420,000+ members across engineering, physics, computing, and related disciplines. Its publishing arm, IEEE Xplore, hosts over 5 million technical documents.
ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) is focused specifically on computing and information technology, with 100,000+ members. The ACM Digital Library is the definitive archive for CS conference proceedings and journals.
Scope and Disciplinary Home
The clearest difference is disciplinary focus:
- IEEE: Stronger in electrical engineering, electronics, communications, power systems, signal processing, hardware, and applied/systems computing. If your work touches circuits, antennas, power grids, or embedded systems, IEEE is almost certainly your community.
- ACM: Stronger in software, algorithms, theory of computing, human-computer interaction, programming languages, databases, and internet systems. If you write proofs, build software systems, or design user interfaces, ACM is likely your home.
The overlap is significant. Machine learning, networking, and security conferences exist under both umbrellas — and many flagship events are co-sponsored by both.
Prestige and Rankings
Neither organisation is universally more prestigious than the other. It depends entirely on the subfield:
- In systems, SOSP (ACM) and OSDI (USENIX, not IEEE/ACM per se) outrank most IEEE systems conferences
- In signal processing and communications, IEEE's flagship journals and conferences (IEEE TCOM, INFOCOM, ICC) are the definitive venues
- In AI, neither IEEE nor ACM sponsors the absolute top venues (NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR are independent) — but AAAI (independent) and IJCAI (independent) are the closest society equivalents
- In security, IEEE S&P, ACM CCS, and USENIX Security are all "Big Four" — no single organisation dominates
- In HCI, ACM CHI is the definitive flagship with no IEEE equivalent at comparable prestige
Publication Rights and Open Access
An important practical difference:
- IEEE: Papers are published in IEEE Xplore. Authors retain copyright but grant IEEE a licence. Author posting rights: you can post the accepted (pre-publication) version on your personal website or institutional repository, but the IEEE-formatted version requires access through Xplore. Open access is available via the IEEE OA programme (fee-based).
- ACM: The ACM Open programme launched in recent years has made many ACM publications open access through institutional agreements. If your institution is an ACM Open member, your paper may be automatically open access at no author cost. Otherwise, an APC (article processing charge) applies for Gold OA.
For researchers in regions where open access mandates apply (UK UKRI, EU Horizon), check your target conference's OA policy before submitting.
Paper Format Differences
- IEEE templates: Two-column format typical; strict margin and font requirements enforced via PDF compliance checking. LaTeX template: IEEEtran.
- ACM templates: Single-column for review, two-column for camera-ready (or "sigconf" template). ACM has recently updated templates — always download fresh rather than reusing an old copy.
Membership Benefits
Student membership fees:
- IEEE: ~$32/year for students; grants access to IEEE Xplore and reduced conference registration rates
- ACM: ~$19/year for students; ACM Digital Library access and reduced CHI, SIGCOMM, and other SIG conference rates
Both are worth the investment if you attend their conferences regularly. The registration discount alone typically covers the membership fee.
Practical Recommendation
Do not choose between IEEE and ACM as organisations — choose the specific conference that best matches your work, then note which organisation sponsors it. Talk to senior researchers in your group about which venues they read and cite. The conference where the papers you most admire are published is almost always the right target for your own submission.