ICASSP Submission

Run this audit against the live ICASSP paper kit on the current-year CMS portal (cmsworkshops.com/ICASSP<year>/papers.php), not against memory. ICASSP reissues its kit each cycle, and because the whole review pipeline assumes a uniform IEEE two-column object, the format is checked mechanically at upload. The next major gate as of 2026-07-09 is the ICASSP 2027 full-paper deadline, reported ~16 September 2026 — verify on the live 2027 call.

The format contract: 4 + 1

An ICASSP regular paper is 4 pages of technical content — text, figures, and references all count — with an optional 5th page that may hold only references, funding acknowledgements, and the Compliance-with-Ethical-Standards statement. Consequences to internalize:

• There is no reviewed appendix or supplement that decides acceptance. Whatever a reviewer must see to accept the paper lives on the four content pages.
• References compete with content on pages 1-4 unless they spill to page 5; plan the reference budget early.
• Use the official IEEE two-column template from the paper kit with fonts, margins, and column measure untouched, and confirm the PDF passes IEEE PDF eXpress before the portal will accept it.

Single-blind: the inverted anonymity rule

ICASSP review is single-blind. Unlike OpenReview or ISCA venues, you must include the author list and affiliations in the submitted PDF; reviewers see who you are, you do not see them. The failure mode here is the opposite of an identity leak:

• A missing or wrong author block is the defect to catch, not a self-citation.
• Write self-citations in normal first person ("in our earlier work [4]"); no anonymization gymnastics are needed.
• Acknowledgements and funding are allowed and belong on page 5, not hidden.

Portal and metadata (CMS, not CMT)

• Submission is through Conference Management Services (CMS) at cmsworkshops.com, not Microsoft CMT and not OpenReview — a genuine ICASSP fingerprint.
• Choose the EDICS subject category that routes the paper to the correct technical committee; the routing decision comes from icassp-topic-selection, not from whoever uploads.
• The CMS abstract must match the PDF abstract; it is what area organizers read.
• No single author may appear on more than 9 papers in a cycle — check co-author load early.
• Answer the dual-submission attestation honestly: the same work may not be under review at another conference or journal simultaneously.

Desk-reject and triage table

Trigger	Severity at ICASSP	Repair window
Fifth page carrying content beyond references/acks/ethics	Desk reject	None after deadline
Template tampering caught by PDF eXpress	Desk reject	None
Missing author list (single-blind requires it)	Non-compliant submission	Only before deadline
Missing Compliance-with-Ethical-Standards statement	Compliance flag	Only before deadline
Author on more than 9 papers	Enforced cap	Withdraw one before deadline
Dual submission to another venue	Integrity violation	None

Final 72 hours, in order

1. Rebuild the PDF from a clean clone; confirm the paper-kit template version is current and PDF eXpress passes.
2. Confirm the author block, affiliations, and page-5 acknowledgements/ethics statement are present and correct — the single-blind checklist.
3. Verify every figure is legible at print resolution and no float pushes past four pages.
4. Set EDICS and the CMS abstract to match the PDF; declare all co-authors and their conflicts.
5. Upload, download what CMS stored, and read that file end to end.

Track choice before you submit

• Standard track — 4+1 pages, TPC review, proceedings in IEEE Xplore.
• OJSP-ICASSP — 8+1 pages, reviewed by the Open Journal of Signal Processing board, open-access publication, presented but not in the proceedings (earlier pre-registration deadline).
• SPS-journal presentation — present a recently accepted SPS-journal paper, not re-reviewed, not in proceedings.

Confirm each track's separate deadline in the current call; see icassp-workflow.

Output format

[Submission verdict] ready / fixable / not ready
[Format] 4+1 compliance, template integrity, PDF eXpress result
[Single-blind] author list present, affiliations, page-5 acks/ethics
[Metadata] EDICS, abstract match, author list, dual-submission answer, 9-paper cap
[Track] standard / OJSP-ICASSP / journal-presentation / grand-challenge
[Blockers] <ordered list>

Currency note

The 4+1 format, single-blind policy, CMS portal, and 9-paper cap were checked 2026-07-09 against ICASSP 2026 (Barcelona) renderings (see ../../resources/official-source-map.md). Every value is cycle-specific; the ICASSP 2027 Toronto cycle publishes its own kit and calendar — re-open it.