Conference Paper Checklists

This reference documents the mandatory checklist requirements for major ML/AI conferences. All major venues now require paper checklists—missing them results in desk rejection.

Contents

• NeurIPS Paper Checklist
• ICML Paper Checklist
• ICLR Requirements
• ACL Requirements
• AAAI Requirements
• COLM Requirements
• Universal Pre-Submission Checklist

NeurIPS Paper Checklist

Mandatory Components

All NeurIPS submissions must include a completed paper checklist. Papers lacking this element face automatic desk rejection. The checklist appears after references and supplemental material, outside the page limit.

16 Required Checklist Items

1. Claims Alignment

Authors must verify that abstract and introduction claims match theoretical and experimental results, with clearly stated contributions, assumptions, and limitations.

What to check:

• Abstract claims match actual results
• Introduction doesn't overclaim
• Contributions are specific and falsifiable

2. Limitations Discussion

Papers should include a dedicated "Limitations" section addressing strong assumptions, robustness to violations, scope constraints, and performance-influencing factors.

What to include:

• Dedicated Limitations section
• Honest assessment of scope
• Conditions where method may fail

3. Theory & Proofs

Theoretical contributions require full assumption statements and complete proofs (main paper or appendix with proof sketches for intuition).

What to check:

• All assumptions stated formally
• Complete proofs provided (main text or appendix)
• Proof sketches for intuition in main text

4. Reproducibility

Authors must describe steps ensuring results verification through code release, detailed instructions, model access, or checkpoints appropriate to their contribution type.

What to provide:

• Clear reproducibility statement
• Code availability information
• Model checkpoints if applicable

5. Data & Code Access

Instructions for reproducing main experimental results should be provided (supplemental material or URLs), including exact commands and environment specifications.

What to include:

• Exact commands to run experiments
• Environment specifications (requirements.txt, conda env)
• Data access instructions

6. Experimental Details

Papers must specify training details: data splits, hyperparameters, and selection methods in the main paper or supplementary materials.

What to document:

• Train/val/test split details
• All hyperparameters used
• Hyperparameter selection method

7. Statistical Significance

Results require error bars, confidence intervals, or statistical tests with clearly stated calculation methods and underlying assumptions.

What to include:

• Error bars or confidence intervals
• Number of runs/seeds
• Calculation method (std dev vs std error)

8. Compute Resources

Specifications needed: compute worker types (CPU/GPU), memory, storage, execution time per run, and total project compute requirements.

What to document:

• GPU type and count
• Training time per run
• Total compute used

9. Ethics Code Compliance

Authors confirm adherence to the NeurIPS Code of Ethics, noting any necessary deviations.

What to verify:

• Read NeurIPS Code of Ethics
• Confirm compliance
• Note any deviations with justification

10. Broader Impacts

Discussion of potential negative societal applications, fairness concerns, privacy risks, and possible mitigation strategies when applicable.

What to address:

• Potential negative applications
• Fairness considerations
• Privacy implications
• Mitigation strategies

11. Safeguards

High-risk models (language models, internet-scraped datasets) require controlled release mechanisms and usage guidelines.

What to consider:

• Release strategy for sensitive models
• Usage guidelines if needed
• Access controls if appropriate

12. License Respect

All existing assets require creator citations, license names, URLs, version numbers, and terms-of-service acknowledgment.

What to document:

• Dataset licenses cited
• Code licenses respected
• Version numbers included

13. Asset Documentation

New releases need structured templates documenting training details, limitations, consent procedures, and licensing information.

For new datasets/models:

• Datasheet or model card
• Training data documentation
• Known limitations

14. Human Subjects

Crowdsourcing studies must include participant instructions, screenshots, compensation details, and comply with minimum wage requirements.

What to include:

• Task instructions
• Compensation details
• Time estimates

15. IRB Approvals

Human subjects research requires documented institutional review board approval or equivalent, with risk descriptions disclosed (maintaining anonymity at submission).

What to verify:

• IRB approval obtained
• Risk assessment completed
• Anonymized at submission

16. LLM Declaration

Usage of large language models as core methodology components requires disclosure; writing/editing use doesn't require declaration.

What to disclose:

• LLM used as core methodology component
• How LLM was used
• (Writing assistance doesn't require disclosure)

Response Format

Authors select "yes," "no," or "N/A" per question, with optional 1-2 sentence justifications.

Important: Reviewers are explicitly instructed not to penalize honest limitation acknowledgment.

ICML Paper Checklist

Broader Impact Statement

ICML requires a Broader Impact Statement at the end of the paper, before references. This does NOT count toward the page limit.

Required elements:

• Potential positive impacts
• Potential negative impacts
• Mitigation strategies
• Who may be affected

ICML Specific Requirements

Reproducibility Checklist

• Data splits clearly specified
• Hyperparameters listed
• Search ranges documented
• Selection method explained
• Compute resources specified
• Code availability stated

Statistical Reporting

• Error bars on all figures
• Standard deviation vs standard error specified
• Number of runs stated
• Significance tests if comparing methods

Anonymization

• No author names in paper
• No acknowledgments
• No grant numbers
• Prior work cited in third person
• No identifiable repository URLs

ICLR Requirements

LLM Disclosure Policy (New for 2026)

ICLR has a specific LLM disclosure requirement:

"If LLMs played a significant role in research ideation and/or writing to the extent that they could be regarded as a contributor, authors must describe their precise role in a separate appendix section."

When disclosure is required:

• LLM used for significant research ideation
• LLM used for substantial writing
• LLM could be considered a contributor

When disclosure is NOT required:

• Grammar checking
• Minor editing assistance
• Code completion tools

Consequences of non-disclosure:

• Desk rejection
• Potential post-publication issues

ICLR Specific Requirements

Reproducibility Statement (Optional but Recommended)

Add a statement referencing:

• Supporting materials
• Code availability
• Data availability
• Model checkpoints

Ethics Statement (Optional)

Address potential concerns in ≤1 page. Does not count toward page limit.

Reciprocal Reviewing

• Authors on 3+ papers must serve as reviewers for ≥6 papers
• Each submission needs ≥1 author registered to review ≥3 papers

ACL Requirements

Limitations Section (Mandatory)

ACL specifically requires a Limitations section:

What to include:

• Strong assumptions made
• Scope limitations
• When method may fail
• Generalization concerns

Important: The Limitations section does NOT count toward the page limit.

ACL Specific Checklist

Responsible NLP

• Bias considerations addressed
• Fairness evaluated if applicable
• Dual-use concerns discussed

Multilingual Considerations

If applicable:

• Language diversity addressed
• Non-English languages included
• Translation quality verified

Human Evaluation

If applicable:

• Annotator details provided
• Agreement metrics reported
• Compensation documented

AAAI Requirements

Formatting (Strictest of All Venues)

AAAI enforces formatting rules more strictly than any other major venue. Papers that deviate from the template are desk-rejected.

• Use the exact AAAI style file without modification — no \setlength, no \vspace hacks, no font overrides
• 7 pages main content (8 for camera-ready with author info)
• Two-column format, Times font (set by template)
• References and appendices do not count toward page limit
• Abstract must be a single paragraph
• Do not modify margins, column widths, or font sizes

Required Sections

• Abstract (single paragraph, no math or citations)
• Introduction with clear contribution statement
• References in AAAI format (uses aaai2026.bst)
• Appendix (optional, unlimited)

Ethics and Reproducibility

• Broader impact statement (encouraged but not always mandatory — check current year's CFP)
• Reproducibility details (datasets, code availability)
• Acknowledge use of AI writing tools if applicable

Key Differences from Other Venues

• No separate limitations section required (unlike ACL), but discussing limitations is recommended
• Strictest formatting enforcement — the style checker will reject non-compliant PDFs
• No paper checklist like NeurIPS has, but the universal checklist below still applies
• Unified template covers main paper and supplementary in the same file

COLM Requirements

Overview

COLM (Conference on Language Modeling) focuses specifically on language model research. Framing must target this community.

Formatting

• 9 pages main content (10 for camera-ready)
• Use COLM template (based on ICLR template with modifications)
• Double-blind review
• References and appendices unlimited

Required Sections

• Abstract
• Introduction framed for language modeling community
• Conclusion
• References

Content Expectations

• Contribution must be relevant to language models (broadly interpreted: training, evaluation, applications, theory, alignment, safety)
• If the method is general, frame with language model examples
• Baselines should include recent LM-specific methods where applicable

Key Differences from Other Venues

• Narrower scope than NeurIPS/ICML — must frame for LM community
• Template derived from ICLR — similar formatting rules
• Newer venue — reviewer norms are still establishing; err on the side of thorough evaluation
• No mandatory checklist like NeurIPS, but broader impact discussion is expected
• LLM disclosure: If LLMs were used in research (code generation, data annotation, writing assistance), disclose this

Universal Pre-Submission Checklist

Before Every Submission

Paper Content

• Abstract ≤ word limit (usually 250-300 words)
• Main content within page limit
• References complete and verified
• Limitations section included
• All figures/tables have captions
• Captions are self-contained

Formatting

• Correct template used (venue + year specific)
• Margins not modified
• Font sizes not modified
• Double-blind requirements met
• Page numbers (for review) or none (camera-ready)

Technical

• All claims supported by evidence
• Error bars included
• Baselines appropriate
• Hyperparameters documented
• Compute resources stated

Reproducibility

• Code will be available (or justification)
• Data will be available (or justification)
• Environment documented
• Commands to reproduce provided

Ethics

• Broader impacts considered
• Limitations honestly stated
• Licenses respected
• IRB obtained if needed

Final Checks

• PDF compiles without errors
• All figures render correctly
• All citations resolve
• Supplementary material organized
• Conference checklist completed

Quick Reference: Page Limits

Template Locations

All conference templates are in the templates/ directory:

templates/
├── icml2026/       # ICML 2026 official
├── iclr2026/       # ICLR 2026 official
├── neurips2025/    # NeurIPS 2025
├── acl/            # ACL style files
├── aaai2026/       # AAAI 2026
└── colm2025/       # COLM 2025