---
name: academic-venue-formatting
source: https://app.decimal.ai/s/academic-venue-formatting@1/SKILL.md
source_sha256: 0c66b5cff23d
---

# Academic venue formatting

## Contract
When a task names an academic venue (NeurIPS, Nature, CVPR, ACL, NSF, ...), emit that
venue's EXACT spec for layout, body font, citation markers, anonymization, page limits,
figures, and posters. Do not emit a generic article; the generic default is usually the
wrong choice for at least one of these dimensions.

## Rules (the complete spec, by dimension)

### 1. Column layout and body font
- NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR: SINGLE-column, 10pt body.
- CVPR / ICCV: TWO-column, 10pt body.
- IEEE Transactions and IEEE conferences: TWO-column, 10pt body.
- ACM (sigconf): TWO-column, 9pt body.
- ACL / EMNLP / NAACL: TWO-column, 11pt body.
- Nature, Science: SINGLE-column manuscript for the submission version.

### 2. Citation marker style (venue-specific, NOT a universal default)
- Nature: numbered, raised SUPERSCRIPT, e.g. `text^1`. Not bracketed, not author-year.
- Science: numbered, parenthetical numerals, e.g. `(1)`. Not superscript, not author-year.
- IEEE, ACM, PLOS, NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, CVPR: numbered in SQUARE BRACKETS, e.g. `[1]`.
- Cell Press: AUTHOR-YEAR, e.g. `(Smith, 2021)`. Not numbered.
- ACL / EMNLP / NAACL: AUTHOR-YEAR inline, e.g. `(Devlin et al., 2019)`. Not numbered.

### 3. Anonymization (double-blind review)
- ANONYMIZE the INITIAL submission for: NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, CVPR/ICCV, ACL/EMNLP/NAACL.
  Remove author names and affiliations (use "Anonymous Author(s)" / blank author block) and
  anonymize self-citations so authorship is not revealed.
- DO NOT anonymize journals: Nature, Science, IEEE Transactions, PLOS, Cell Press, PNAS.
  Author names and affiliations stay on the manuscript.

### 4. Page limits (main text; references and appendix usually excluded)
- NeurIPS / ICML / CVPR: 8 pages main text; references and appendix unlimited.
- ICLR: 9 pages main text.
- ACL / EMNLP: 8 pages for a long paper, 4 pages for a short paper; references unlimited.
- Nature Article: ~3000 words (~5 pages including references).
- PLOS ONE: NO page or length limit.
- NSF Project Description: 15 pages, 11pt minimum font, 1-inch margins.
- NIH R01 Research Strategy: 12 pages.

### 5. Figures
- Nature / Science / IEEE: 300+ dpi. Nature accepts RGB or CMYK.
- PLOS: 300-600 dpi.

### 6. Posters
- A0 = 841 x 1189 mm; A1 = 594 x 841 mm (portrait, taller than wide).
- Title 60-85pt, section headers 36-48pt, body 24-32pt.
- Include a QR code linking to the paper / supplementary material.

## Worked examples (BEFORE = base default, AFTER = conforming)

### Layout + font (NeurIPS)
BEFORE: `\documentclass[twocolumn]{article}` at 10pt.
AFTER: `\documentclass{article}` (SINGLE-column) at 10pt body, `\usepackage{neurips_2024}`.

### Layout + font (ACM sigconf)
BEFORE: two-column at 10pt.
AFTER: two-column at 9pt body (`\documentclass[sigconf]{acmart}`).

### Citation marker (Nature)
BEFORE: "...as shown by prior work [12]."
AFTER: "...as shown by prior work^12." (raised superscript numeral, no brackets).

### Citation marker (Science)
BEFORE: "...prior work^12." (superscript).
AFTER: "...prior work (12)." (parenthetical numeral).

### Citation marker (ACL/EMNLP)
BEFORE: "...prior work [12]."
AFTER: "...prior work (Devlin et al., 2019)." (author-year inline).

### Anonymization (ICML submission)
BEFORE: `\author{Jane Doe (MIT) \and John Smith (Stanford)}`.
AFTER: `\author{Anonymous Author(s)}` with no affiliations; self-cites written as
"prior work (Anonymous, 2023)" rather than "our earlier work [4]".

### Page limit (CVPR)
BEFORE: "Aim for about 12 pages total."
AFTER: "8 pages of main text; references and appendix do not count toward the limit."

### Page limit (NSF Project Description)
BEFORE: "15 pages, any readable font."
AFTER: "15 pages, 11pt minimum font, 1-inch margins on all sides."

### Figures (Nature)
BEFORE: "Export figures at screen resolution (72 dpi), RGB only."
AFTER: "Export at 300+ dpi; RGB or CMYK is accepted."

### Poster (A0)
BEFORE: "Make it A0, roughly 1 x 1.5 m, font ~18pt."
AFTER: "A0 = 841 x 1189 mm; title 60-85pt, headers 36-48pt, body 24-32pt; add a QR code."

## Edge cases & exceptions
- "Conference" does not imply two-column. NeurIPS/ICML/ICLR are conferences but are
  SINGLE-column. Decide column count per venue, never by paper-vs-journal.
- Anonymization applies to the INITIAL/review version only. The camera-ready / final
  version restores author names for the same double-blind venues.
- Nature and Science are both "numbered," but the MARKERS differ: Nature superscript `^1`
  vs Science parenthetical `(1)`. Do not collapse them into bracketed `[1]`.
- PLOS ONE has no length limit, but still uses numbered bracket `[1]` (Vancouver) citations.
- ACL "long" vs "short" page limits differ (8 vs 4); always ask or state which track.
- IEEE has many sub-venues; default IEEE Transactions/conference = two-column, 10pt,
  bracket `[1]`, not anonymized.

## Do / Don't
- DO single-column for NeurIPS/ICML/ICLR. DON'T two-column them.
- DO superscript `^1` for Nature. DON'T use `[1]` or `(Author, year)` for Nature.
- DO parenthetical `(1)` for Science. DON'T use superscript for Science.
- DO author-year for Cell Press and ACL/EMNLP. DON'T number them.
- DO anonymize NeurIPS/ICML/ICLR/CVPR/ACL initial submissions. DON'T anonymize journals.
- DO exclude refs/appendix from the conference page count. DON'T count them against it.
- DO enforce NSF 11pt min + 1-inch margins. DON'T leave font/margins unspecified.

## Common mistakes (wrong base defaults)
- Defaulting every paper to two-column (breaks NeurIPS/ICML/ICLR).
- Using bracketed `[1]` everywhere (wrong for Nature, Science, Cell Press, ACL/EMNLP).
- Forgetting to anonymize a double-blind submission, or leaving self-citations identifying.
- Counting references/appendix against an 8-page conference limit.
- Using author-year for IEEE/ACM (they are bracket-numbered).
- Treating Nature and Science citation markers as identical.

## Quick checklist
- [ ] Column count correct for THIS venue (single vs two).
- [ ] Body font correct (ACM 9pt, ACL/EMNLP 11pt, else 10pt).
- [ ] Citation marker matches venue (^1 / (1) / [1] / author-year).
- [ ] Anonymized iff a double-blind venue's initial submission.
- [ ] Page limit stated with what is excluded.
- [ ] Figures/poster specs applied when relevant.