ACM Author-Izer: it is for you, it is for the ACM

A win-win, absoultely. The ACM has developed a new service, now live, named "Author-Izer". A relatively long explanation of the service is there, but I strongly recommend to take a look at the presentation; it will give you an idea of what you get, and how to get it. However, and in few words, you make the final version of your papers at ACM publications available for free to your readers, and in turn, you allow the ACM to get a more precise account of cites and downloads. A win-win, because you benefit from knowing (and posting) your (registered) cites and downloads, as well.

It would be redundant to explain the process here, but although it seems easy, it takes a while. And that is important, because you may want to get your papers made public for free instantly. But well, it does not work so quickly. Some hints of the process:

1. All right, you are told to create an ACM Digital Library Web user account. That is easy, just sign up. But the user name is automatically generated, so do not forget it or you will have to answer your secret question as you filled in the registration and read your email (delay!), or to re-create the account.
2. Then you are requested to make at least a change to your "author profile". But where is it? You can not find it in the ACM DL page, nor even being logged. That is because there is no link between you as a Web user and you as an author. So the quickest way to find the profile is to search for your name in the DL, and click on your author name at one of your papers. Then you edit it (suggestion, fill the form completely), and your changes stay pending until somebody at the DL authorizes them. Wait. It took a day on my case, but it can be hours if you ar in the same time frame as the ACM - it means, the US.
3. Once your changes are admitted, you can access your author profile page. This should be mine: ACM DL author profile for Jose Maria Gomez Hidalgo. If you are logged as a user, you will see a new export link at your pubs in the ACM journals/conferences: "ACM Author-Izer Service". You can export all of them with the same link at the begining of the page, but unless you have dozens and dozens, I do not recommend it. It is more easy going one by one.
4. When you click one of the Author-Izer links, you get a popup for filling some details, and you get the code to insert in your papers page. Beware, you cave to write the URL of the page that will be hosting your paper page, or it will not be working. In my case, I tried several times until I got it: http://www.esp.uem.es/jmgomez/papers/. Copy the code in your page, and that is it. It is done instantly.

So that is all. Now you can have a link to your camera-ready version, and the citation stats, in your page. Simple but with some delays. As a note, every time you make a change at your author profile, it is manually reviewed, so it may take time to get it live.