--- name: conext-submission description: Use when auditing an ACM CoNEXT submission for HotCRP readiness, covering the choice between the December and June cycles, the mandatory paper-registration step, the ACM acmart page budget (long ≤16 + ≤4 appendix; short ≤10 + ≤2 appendix), double-anonymous review, the reproducibility badge opt-in due at submission, PACMNET publication, and desk-reject triage before the cutoff. --- # CoNEXT Submission Run this audit before uploading to the CoNEXT HotCRP site. CoNEXT research papers are published as **journal articles in PACMNET** (Proceedings of the ACM on Networking), so the submission is judged like a journal manuscript that also earns a conference slot. Every number below was read from the CoNEXT 2026 call and the CoNEXT 2025 CFP on 2026-07-09 via search renderings (see [`../../resources/official-source-map.md`](../../resources/official-source-map.md)); treat them as a one-cycle snapshot and reopen the live call first. ## Pick the cycle first CoNEXT runs **two submission cycles a year**, and choosing the wrong one costs months: - The **December cycle** (for CoNEXT 2026: registration 5 Dec 2025, submission 12 Dec 2025) gives an earlier notification (31 Mar 2026) and, if you earn a major revision, a spring resubmission path. - The **June cycle** (submission 5 Jun 2026) is the later entry point into the *same* annual program and the same rolling PACMNET volume. Both feed one conference and one journal volume, so the decision is about *readiness and calendar*, not prestige — submit to the nearer honest deadline your evidence is actually ready for. See [`conext-workflow`](../conext-workflow/SKILL.md) for the full backward plan from each cutoff. ## The two-step deadline within a cycle CoNEXT separates **paper registration** from **paper submission**: - **Registration** locks in title, abstract, authors, and conflicts a week early (December cycle: 5 December 2025). Miss it and the system will not accept the PDF later. - **Submission** uploads the anonymized PDF (December cycle: 12 December 2025). Register with the *real* title and abstract, not a placeholder — the abstract drives reviewer bidding, and a registered abstract that diverges from the final paper quietly worsens your TPC match. ## Format and page budget - **ACM `acmart` template**, unmodified. This is the ACM path — do not carry an IEEE two-column habit over from a sibling venue's kit. - **Page budget (verify per cycle; 2025 numbers, 待核实 for 2026):** - **Long papers:** ≤ **16 pages** of text and figures, **unlimited references**, up to **4 pages of appendices**. - **Short papers:** ≤ **10 pages** of text and figures, **unlimited references**, up to **2 pages of appendices**. - Appendices are for material that supports but does not decide the paper; nothing a reviewer must read to accept the paper should live only in an appendix or the artifact (see [`conext-supplementary`](../conext-supplementary/SKILL.md)). ## Double-anonymous sweep CoNEXT runs **double-anonymous** review: authors and reviewers are mutually hidden. Because networking papers lean on testbeds, deployments, traces, and operator relationships, the leak surface is wide: ```bash # Mechanical pass on the submission PDF and any anonymized artifact archive pdfinfo paper.pdf | grep -Ei 'author|creator|producer' pdftotext paper.pdf - | grep -nEi 'github\.com/[a-z0-9-]+|gitlab|zenodo\.org/record|acknowledg|grant|our (testbed|deployment|university)' | head unzip -l artifact.zip | grep -Ei '\.git/|\.DS_Store|/home/|/Users/' | head grep -rniE 'university|@[a-z0-9.]+\.edu|internal hostname|AS[0-9]+ .*our' artifact/ --include='*.md' | head ``` The networking-specific leaks: a testbed or deployment named after your lab, a topology figure showing internal hostnames or an AS you operate, a trace whose capture point identifies your institution, a data-availability link pointing at a personal GitHub, and commit metadata inside a zipped repository. Re-host artifacts behind an anonymizing service *before* upload. ## Reproducibility opt-in at submission time The optional ACM reproducibility badges are administered by CoNEXT's **reproducibility committee**, and the critical timing trap is here: - You must **opt in for ACM badging before the paper submission deadline** — it cannot be added later. - Within a week of acceptance you send a **one-page** artifact description with pointers to code and other artifacts. - Even if you skip badging, include a data-availability posture: pinned traces/configs and a runnable artifact strengthen the review (see [`conext-reproducibility`](../conext-reproducibility/SKILL.md)). ## Desk-risk triage | Finding at audit time | Severity | Real fix | |---|---|---| | Main text over the page budget | Desk-reject-grade | Cut or move to the appendix; references are unlimited but do not absorb body text | | Template altered (margins, shrunk font, wrong `acmart` option) | Named desk-reject ground | Recompile clean, recover space editorially | | Identity leak in PDF, artifact, topology figure, or testbed name | Anonymity violation | Re-anonymize and re-host; scrub PDF metadata | | Abstract/paper not registered by the earlier date | No submission slot exists | Nothing fixes this post-deadline — calendar it now | | Wanted a badge but did not opt in before submission | Ineligible for badging | Opt in *now*, before the cutoff | | Same study under review at SIGCOMM/NSDI/IMC | Dual-submission exposure | Withdraw one venue; verify the current concurrent-submission wording | ## Final-week order of operations 1. Confirm which cycle (December/June) you are targeting and its exact cutoff and time zone. 2. Freeze the body early; references can churn, the argument cannot. 3. Register title/abstract/authors/conflicts well before the registration cutoff. 4. Decide badging and **opt in before submission** if you want it. 5. Build the anonymized artifact and place its (anonymized) link in the paper. 6. Run the mechanical anonymity checks on the *final* PDF and the *final* archive, not drafts. 7. Fill every HotCRP field — topics that match your evidence, conflicts for every coauthor's institution and recent collaborators — a day early; late conflicts are the classic midnight failure. 8. Re-download the uploaded PDF and read it cold to confirm it is the file you meant. ## Reverify each cycle - Both cycles' exact dates and time zones, and which cycle you are entering. - The page budget and which `acmart` variant is required. - Appendix handling, the reproducibility badge set and opt-in deadline, dual-submission wording, and any AI-disclosure rule — all cycle-volatile; none should be assumed stable. ## Output format ```text [CoNEXT submission status] ready / blocked / needs work [Cycle] December / June, cutoff date + time zone [Registration] title/abstract/authors/conflicts locked by the earlier deadline? yes/no [Format] pages used (body/appendix/refs), acmart compliance [Anonymity] clean / leaks: [Reproducibility] badge opt-in done before submission? artifact link present? [Fix queue] ```