Conference Formatting Requirements
Comprehensive formatting requirements and submission guidelines for major academic conferences across disciplines.
Overview
Conference Formatting Requirements
Comprehensive formatting requirements and submission guidelines for major academic conferences across disciplines.
Last Updated: 2024
Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence
NeurIPS (Neural Information Processing Systems)
Conference Type: Top-tier machine learning conference
Frequency: Annual (December)
Formatting Requirements:
- Page Limit:
- Main paper: 8 pages (excluding references)
- References: Unlimited
- Appendix/Supplementary: Unlimited (optional, reviewed at discretion)
- Format: Two-column
- Font: Times or Times New Roman, 10pt for body text
- Line spacing: Single-spaced
- Margins: 1 inch (2.54 cm) all sides
- Column separation: 0.25 inch (0.635 cm)
- Paper size: US Letter (8.5 × 11 inches)
- Anonymization: Required for initial submission (double-blind review)
- Remove author names, affiliations
- Anonymize self-citations ("Author et al." → "Anonymous et al.")
- Remove acknowledgments revealing identity
- Citations: Numbered in square brackets [1], [2-4]
- References: Any consistent style (commonly uses numbered references)
- Figures:
- High resolution (300+ dpi)
- Colorblind-friendly palettes recommended
- Can span both columns if needed
- Tables: Clear, readable at publication size
- Equations: Numbered if referenced
- LaTeX Class:
neurips_2024.sty(updated annually) - Supplementary Materials:
- Code strongly encouraged (GitHub, anonymous repo for review)
- Additional experiments, proofs
- Not counted toward page limit
LaTeX Template: assets/journals/neurips_article.tex
Submission Notes:
- Use official style file (changes yearly)
- Paper ID on first page (auto-generated during submission)
- Include "broader impact" statement (varies by year)
- Reproducibility checklist required
Website: https://neurips.cc/
ICML (International Conference on Machine Learning)
Conference Type: Top-tier machine learning conference
Frequency: Annual (July)
Formatting Requirements:
- Page Limit:
- Main paper: 8 pages (excluding references and appendix)
- References: Unlimited
- Appendix: Unlimited (optional)
- Format: Two-column
- Font: Times, 10pt
- Line spacing: Single-spaced
- Margins: 1 inch all sides
- Paper size: US Letter
- Anonymization: Required (double-blind)
- Citations: Numbered or author-year (consistent style)
- Figures: High resolution, colorblind-safe recommended
- LaTeX Class:
icml2024.sty(updated yearly) - Supplementary: Strongly encouraged (code, data, appendix)
LaTeX Template: assets/journals/icml_article.tex
Submission Notes:
- Must use official ICML style file
- Checklist for reproducibility
- Ethics statement if applicable
Website: https://icml.cc/
ICLR (International Conference on Learning Representations)
Conference Type: Top-tier deep learning conference
Frequency: Annual (April/May)
Formatting Requirements:
- Page Limit:
- Main paper: 8 pages (excluding references, appendix, ethics statement)
- References: Unlimited
- Appendix: Unlimited
- Format: Two-column
- Font: Times, 10pt
- Anonymization: Required (double-blind)
- Citations: Numbered [1] or author-year
- LaTeX Class:
iclr2024_conference.sty - Supplementary: Code and data encouraged (anonymous GitHub)
- Open Review: Reviews and responses are public post-decision
LaTeX Template: assets/journals/iclr_article.tex
Unique Features:
- OpenReview platform (transparent review process)
- Author-reviewer discussion during review
- Camera-ready can exceed 8 pages
Website: https://iclr.cc/
CVPR (Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition)
Conference Type: Top-tier computer vision conference
Frequency: Annual (June)
Formatting Requirements:
- Page Limit:
- Main paper: 8 pages (including figures and tables, excluding references)
- References: Unlimited (separate section)
- Format: Two-column
- Font: Times Roman, 10pt
- Anonymization: Required (double-blind)
- Blur faces in images if needed
- Anonymize datasets if they reveal identity
- Paper size: US Letter
- Citations: Numbered [1]
- Figures: High resolution, can be color
- LaTeX Template: CVPR official template (changes yearly)
- Supplementary Material:
- Video demonstrations encouraged
- Additional results, code
- 100 MB limit for all supplementary files
LaTeX Template: assets/journals/cvpr_article.tex
Website: https://cvpr.thecvf.com/
AAAI (Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence)
Conference Type: Major AI conference
Frequency: Annual (February)
Formatting Requirements:
- Page Limit:
- Technical papers: 7 pages (excluding references)
- References: Unlimited
- Format: Two-column
- Font: Times Roman, 10pt
- Anonymization: Required (double-blind)
- Paper size: US Letter
- Citations: Various styles accepted (be consistent)
- LaTeX Template: AAAI official style
- Supplementary: Optional appendix
LaTeX Template: assets/journals/aaai_article.tex
Website: https://aaai.org/conference/aaai/
IJCAI (International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence)
Conference Type: Major AI conference
Frequency: Annual
Formatting Requirements:
- Page Limit: 7 pages (excluding references)
- Format: Two-column
- Font: Times, 10pt
- Anonymization: Required
- LaTeX Template: IJCAI official style
Computer Science
ACM CHI (Human-Computer Interaction)
Conference Type: Premier HCI conference
Frequency: Annual (April/May)
Formatting Requirements:
- Page Limit:
- Papers: 10 pages (excluding references)
- Late-Breaking Work: 4 pages
- Format: Single-column ACM format
- Font: Depends on ACM template
- Anonymization: Required for Papers track
- LaTeX Class:
acmartwith CHI proceedings format - Citations: ACM style (numbered or author-year)
- Figures: High quality, accessibility considered
- Accessibility: Alt text for figures encouraged
LaTeX Template: assets/journals/chi_article.tex
Website: https://chi.acm.org/
SIGKDD (Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining)
Conference Type: Top data mining conference
Frequency: Annual (August)
Formatting Requirements:
- Page Limit:
- Research Track: 9 pages (excluding references)
- Applied Data Science: 9 pages
- Format: Two-column
- LaTeX Class:
acmart(sigconf format) - Font: ACM template default
- Anonymization: Required (double-blind)
- Citations: ACM numbered style
- Supplementary: Code and data encouraged
LaTeX Template: assets/journals/kdd_article.tex
Website: https://kdd.org/
EMNLP (Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing)
Conference Type: Top NLP conference
Frequency: Annual (November/December)
Formatting Requirements:
- Page Limit:
- Long papers: 8 pages (+ unlimited references and appendix)
- Short papers: 4 pages (+ unlimited references)
- Format: Two-column
- Font: Times New Roman, 11pt
- Anonymization: Required (double-blind)
- Do not include author names or affiliations
- Self-citations should be anonymized
- Paper size: US Letter or A4
- Citations: Named style similar to ACL
- LaTeX Template: ACL/EMNLP official style
- Supplementary: Appendix unlimited, code encouraged
LaTeX Template: assets/journals/emnlp_article.tex
Website: https://www.emnlp.org/
ACL (Association for Computational Linguistics)
Conference Type: Premier NLP conference
Frequency: Annual (July)
Formatting Requirements:
- Page Limit: 8 pages (long), 4 pages (short), excluding references
- Format: Two-column
- Font: Times, 11pt
- Anonymization: Required
- LaTeX Template: ACL official style (acl.sty)
LaTeX Template: assets/journals/acl_article.tex
USENIX Security Symposium
Conference Type: Top security conference
Frequency: Annual (August)
Formatting Requirements:
- Page Limit:
- Papers: No strict limit (typically 15-20 pages including everything)
- Well-written, concise papers preferred
- Format: Two-column
- Font: Times, 10pt
- Anonymization: Required (double-blind)
- LaTeX Template: USENIX official template
- Citations: Numbered
- Paper size: US Letter
LaTeX Template: assets/journals/usenix_article.tex
Website: https://www.usenix.org/conference/usenixsecurity
SIGIR (Information Retrieval)
Conference Type: Top information retrieval conference
Frequency: Annual (July)
Formatting Requirements:
- Page Limit:
- Full papers: 10 pages (excluding references)
- Short papers: 4 pages (excluding references)
- Format: Single-column ACM format
- LaTeX Class:
acmart(sigconf) - Anonymization: Required
- Citations: ACM style
LaTeX Template: assets/journals/sigir_article.tex
Biology & Bioinformatics
ISMB (Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology)
Conference Type: Premier computational biology conference
Frequency: Annual (July)
Formatting Requirements:
- Publication: Proceedings published in Bioinformatics journal
- Page Limit:
- Typically 7-8 pages including figures and references
- Format: Two-column
- Font: Times, 10pt
- Citations: Numbered (Oxford style similar to Bioinformatics journal)
- LaTeX Template: Oxford Bioinformatics template
- Anonymization: Not required (single-blind)
- Figures: High resolution, color acceptable
- Supplementary: Encouraged for additional data/methods
LaTeX Template: assets/journals/ismb_article.tex
Website: https://www.iscb.org/ismb
RECOMB (Research in Computational Molecular Biology)
Conference Type: Top computational biology conference
Frequency: Annual (April/May)
Formatting Requirements:
- Publication: Proceedings published as Springer LNCS (Lecture Notes in Computer Science)
- Page Limit:
- Extended abstracts: 12-15 pages (including references)
- Format: Single-column
- Font: Based on Springer LNCS template
- LaTeX Class:
llncs(Springer) - Citations: Numbered or author-year
- Anonymization: Required (double-blind)
- Supplementary: Appendix can be submitted
LaTeX Template: assets/journals/recomb_article.tex
Website: https://www.recomb.org/
PSB (Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing)
Conference Type: Biomedical informatics conference
Frequency: Annual (January)
Formatting Requirements:
- Page Limit: 12 pages including figures and references
- Format: Single-column
- Font: Times, 11pt
- Margins: 1 inch all sides
- Citations: Numbered
- Anonymization: Not required
- Figures: Embedded in text
- LaTeX Template: PSB official template
LaTeX Template: assets/journals/psb_article.tex
Website: https://psb.stanford.edu/
Engineering
IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)
Formatting Requirements:
- Page Limit: 8 pages (including figures and references)
- Format: Two-column
- Font: Times, 10pt
- LaTeX Class: IEEEtran
- Citations: IEEE style [1]
- Anonymization: Required for initial submission
- Video: Optional video submissions encouraged
LaTeX Template: assets/journals/icra_article.tex
IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)
Formatting: Same as ICRA (IEEE robotics template)
International Conference on Computer-Aided Design (ICCAD)
Formatting Requirements:
- Page Limit: 8 pages
- Format: Two-column
- LaTeX Class: IEEE template
- Citations: IEEE style
Design Automation Conference (DAC)
Formatting Requirements:
- Page Limit: 6 pages
- Format: Two-column
- Font: Times, 10pt
- LaTeX Class: ACM or IEEE template (check yearly guidelines)
Multidisciplinary
AAAS Annual Meeting
Conference Type: Broad scientific conference
Formatting: Varies by symposium (typically extended abstracts)
Quick Reference Table
| Conference | Pages | Format | Blind | Citations | Template |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NeurIPS | 8 + refs | Two-col | Double | [1] | neurips_article.tex |
| ICML | 8 + refs | Two-col | Double | [1] | icml_article.tex |
| ICLR | 8 + refs | Two-col | Double | [1] | iclr_article.tex |
| CVPR | 8 + refs | Two-col | Double | [1] | cvpr_article.tex |
| AAAI | 7 + refs | Two-col | Double | Various | aaai_article.tex |
| CHI | 10 + refs | Single-col | Double | ACM | chi_article.tex |
| SIGKDD | 9 + refs | Two-col | Double | ACM [1] | kdd_article.tex |
| EMNLP | 8 + refs | Two-col | Double | Named | emnlp_article.tex |
| ISMB | 7-8 pages | Two-col | Single | [1] | ismb_article.tex |
| RECOMB | 12-15 pages | Single-col | Double | Springer | recomb_article.tex |
General Conference Submission Guidelines
Anonymization Best Practices (Double-Blind Review)
Remove:
- Author names, affiliations, emails from title page
- Acknowledgments section
- Funding information that reveals identity
- Any "our previous work" citations that make identity obvious
Anonymize:
- Self-citations: "Smith et al. [5]" → "Anonymous et al. [5]" or "Prior work [5]"
- Institution-specific details: "our university" → "a large research university"
- Dataset names if they reveal identity
Keep Anonymous:
- Code repositories (use anonymous GitHub for review)
- Supplementary materials
- Any URLs or links
Supplementary Materials
Common Inclusions:
- Source code (GitHub repository, zip file)
- Additional experimental results
- Proofs and derivations
- Extended related work
- Dataset descriptions
- Video demonstrations
- Interactive demos
Best Practices:
- Keep supplementary well-organized
- Reference supplementary clearly from main paper
- Ensure supplementary is anonymized for blind review
- Check file size limits (typically 50-100 MB)
Camera-Ready Preparation
After acceptance:
- De-anonymize: Add author names, affiliations
- Add acknowledgments: Funding, contributions
- Copyright: Add conference copyright notice
- Formatting: Follow camera-ready specific guidelines
- Page limit: May allow 1-2 extra pages (check guidelines)
- PDF/A compliance: Some conferences require PDF/A format
Accessibility Considerations
For All Conferences:
- Use colorblind-safe color palettes
- Ensure suff