ICALP Submission

Run this audit before uploading to the ICALP HotCRP site. ICALP — the EATCS International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming — is a pure theory venue publishing open-access in LIPIcs, with a single annual deadline and two tracks on separate HotCRP servers. The paper is judged on its theorems and proofs, so this audit is about format, anonymity, and the body/appendix split, not about a runnable artifact. Every number below was read from the ICALP 2026 (53rd, Royal Holloway) call on 2026-07-09 via search renderings of the CFP (see resources/official-source-map.md); treat them as a one-cycle snapshot and reopen the live call.

Pick the right track first

ICALP has two tracks on two different HotCRP sites — submitting to the wrong one is a real, avoidable failure:

• Track A — Algorithms, Complexity and Games → icalp2026-a.hotcrp.com.
• Track B — Automata, Logic, Semantics and Theory of Programming → icalp2026-b.hotcrp.com.

If you are unsure, resolve it with icalp-topic-selection before touching HotCRP; the tracks have different program committees, and Track B carries a rebuttal while Track A does not.

The two-step deadline

ICALP separates abstract registration from full submission, both AoE:

• Abstract registration (ICALP 2026: 3 February 2026) locks title, abstract, authors, and conflicts a few days early. Miss it and the system will not take the PDF later.
• Full submission (ICALP 2026: 6 February 2026, AoE) uploads the anonymized PDF.

Register with the real title and abstract — the abstract drives PC bidding, and a placeholder quietly worsens your reviewer match.

Format and page budget

• Extended abstract of at most 15 pages, excluding the bibliography and a clearly labelled appendix. The appendix may hold omitted proofs or a full version, read at the PC's discretion.
• LIPIcs lipics-v2021 document class is an option but not required at submission in recent cycles (confirm per cycle); the camera-ready must be LIPIcs — so many authors write in LIPIcs from the start.
• The 15-page limit is on the main body; do not pad the body to 15 and dump every proof into an unread appendix (see icalp-supplementary). Reviewers judge on the body.

Lightweight double-blind sweep

ICALP runs lightweight double-blind review: submissions are anonymous and self-references must be third person. This is a lightweight regime — the goal is an unbiased first read, not making authorship undiscoverable — but the mechanical leaks still cost you:

# Mechanical pass on the submission PDF
pdfinfo paper.pdf | grep -Ei 'author|creator|producer'        # scrub identifying metadata
pdftotext paper.pdf - | grep -nEi 'acknowledg|thanks|this work was supported|grant (no|number)' | head
pdftotext paper.pdf - | grep -nEi 'in our (previous|earlier) (work|paper)|as we showed in' | head
pdftotext paper.pdf - | grep -nEi 'github\.com/[a-z0-9-]+|/home/|/Users/' | head

The theory-specific leaks: an acknowledgements block, a grant number, "in our previous work [12]" (rewrite as "in the work of [12]"), and an arXiv/ECCC identifier that de-anonymizes. It is fine for a full version to exist on arXiv — just do not point at it in a way that breaks the blind.

The no-simultaneous-submission rule

ICALP forbids prior publication and simultaneous submission to any other conference or journal. A paper concurrently under review at STOC, FOCS, SODA, LICS, or a journal is ineligible. Posting a full version on arXiv/ECCC/HAL is allowed and normal — that is not "publication."

Desk-risk triage

Finding at audit time	Severity	Real fix
Body over 15 pages (excluding refs + appendix)	Format-reject-grade	Compress the body; move detail to the appendix, not into the body count
Submitted to the wrong track	Mis-review / reject	Withdraw and resubmit to the correct HotCRP server before the deadline
Author identity leaks (metadata, acks, first-person self-cite)	Anonymity violation	Scrub metadata, remove acks, rewrite self-citations in third person
Abstract not registered by the earlier date	No submission slot exists	Nothing fixes this post-AoE — calendar it now
Headline theorem has no complete proof anywhere	Soundness-fatal	Write the full proof into the appendix / full version before upload
Same result under review at another venue	Dual-submission violation	Withdraw one venue

Final-week order of operations

1. Confirm the track and the correct HotCRP server.
2. Register title/abstract/authors/conflicts before the earlier registration cutoff.
3. Freeze the 15-page body; make sure every theorem it states is fully proved in the appendix / full version.
4. Run the anonymity + page-budget sweep on the final PDF, not a draft.
5. Flag student-only authorship in HotCRP if eligible for the best student paper award.
6. Re-download the uploaded PDF and read it cold to confirm it is the file you meant.

Reverify each cycle

• Both tracks' exact AoE dates and whether they share one deadline.
• The page budget and whether the LIPIcs class is mandatory at submission this cycle.
• The anonymity wording, the no-simultaneous-submission wording, and any AI-disclosure rule — all cycle-volatile.

Output format

[ICALP submission status] ready / blocked / needs work
[Track] A (algorithms/complexity/games) / B (automata/logic/semantics) — correct server? yes/no
[Registration] title/abstract/authors/conflicts locked by the earlier deadline? yes/no
[Format] body pages (<=15 excl. refs + appendix), LIPIcs class y/n
[Anonymity] clean / leaks: <where>
[Proofs] every headline theorem fully proved in appendix / full version? yes/no
[Fix queue] <ordered, with owners and dates before the AoE cutoff>