Joining ACM and IEEE

Question

I am a software developer in France and I've realized that I am more interested in research and advanced topics more than just programming. So I decided to go back to the university next year for graduate studies and I would like to join ACM, IEEE and IEEE computer society to start preparing from now.

However I still have some questions :

1) Will I have to send documents to prove that I meet the membership requirements?

2) There are many options when subscribing (access to libraries, SIGS, ...), which ones should I subscribe to? (This is not really the reason for which I am joining them, but once I have the two emails, this becomes an issu :) )

Any other remarks are welcome.

PS. I am not a student currently.

Answer 1

Check to see what your school offers. For example, my school offers a free membership to ACM, so I use that. I think the engineering department does something similar to IEEE. And through the library, we have access to both groups libraries.

tl;dr Don't pay for it yourself, school should take care of it for you.

Answer 2

I am a recent Computer Science graduate and I am an ACM member. From my time in school IEEE seemed to be more geared toward Electrical Engineers and Computer Engineers. ACM seems to be more geared towards Computer Science. I know ACM offers a student membership, which for me is only $20 a year, and it seems to have a variety of things that come with it.

Talk to people at your school and see what they say. Something you may want to look into if you want to go with ACM is their annual programming content. I think it is an international event. If I remember right participating gets you a free ACM membership.

Keep in mind that you can also be a member of both ACM and IEEE. So if you can't decide then you could always go with both.

Answer 3

It's been a long time since I joined each, but I don't remember sending in anything documenting my qualifications for either organization. ACM's sign up page for Professional membership doesn't seem to require any documentation; neither does the IEEE Computer Society's. Nor do I see any requirement for documentation on their student membership forms. However, I wouldn't be surprised if they would want something certifying you as a student if you are getting the discounted dues.

You may want to join the Special Interest Groups (SIG's) for the areas of your research and interests. Personally I am in 3 ACM SIG's and find I can't keep up the with reading for everything I get, thus I don't subscribe to the digital libraries; however, if you are doing research, they may come in useful to you. Note that standard membership provides access to the Safari and 24x7 online libraries, as well as online training resources.

Samoz' answer has a good point that your institution may provide access to these resources. However, I would expect this to be an institutional membership, not a personal one, so the benefits may be limited. Thus, investigate all the options you have in both regards.

Answer 4

I don't think you need to be an ACM member at this point. The main benefit that comes from that is discounted conference registration, and access to the digital library.

Honestly, the vast majority of conference papers are accessible via creative googling. You don't need to DL (digital library) for that. In fact, the search engine leaves a lot to be desired so you'd be using google anyway. Most researches publish their stuff via PDFs to make it more accessible. Your university can usually provide you with a DL connection anyway.

Also, until you have your own papers, you don't need to go to conferences so you won't benefit from the discount.

Wait until you're a student and get the discounted rate then. If you want the ACM after you graduate, you'll have a discounted price.