podc-submission

name	podc-submission
description	Use when auditing an ACM PODC submission for HotCRP readiness, covering the two-step abstract-registration then full-paper deadline, the ACM Master template with the 10-page-merits budget and unbounded full version, lightweight double-blind anonymization, the regular-paper-vs-Brief-Announcement choice, and desk-risk triage before the AoE cutoff.

PODC Submission

Run this audit before uploading to the PODC HotCRP site (podc26.hotcrp.com for the 2026 cycle). PODC — the ACM Symposium on Principles of Distributed Computing — judges a model, a theorem, and a proof, so the submission is read as a mathematical argument, not as a system or a study. Every number below was read from the PODC 2026 call for papers on 2026-07-09 via search renderings (see resources/official-source-map.md); treat them as a one-cycle snapshot and reopen the live call first.

The two-step deadline

PODC 2026 separates abstract registration from full-paper submission, and both are AoE:

• Abstract registration locks in title, abstract, authors, and conflicts a few days early (PODC 2026: 11 February 2026). Miss it and the system will not accept the PDF later.
• Full-paper submission uploads the anonymized PDF (PODC 2026: 16 February 2026, 23:59 AoE).

Register with the real title and abstract, not a placeholder — the abstract drives reviewer bidding among a specialized PC, and a registered abstract that diverges from the final paper quietly worsens your match.

Regular paper or Brief Announcement — decide before formatting

PODC has two tracks, and choosing wrong wastes the slot:

Situation	Track	Limit
Complete result with full proofs, ready for archival publication	Regular paper	Submission unbounded; first 10 pages after the title page carry the merits; published ≤10 pages
Work in progress, a result whose full version is (or will be) published elsewhere, or a small self-contained contribution	Brief Announcement	Submission ≤5 pages incl. title/abstract/references; published ≤3 pages

A Brief Announcement is a real strategic option — it timestamps a result, reaches the community, and does not bar a later full paper elsewhere — not a demotion. But a regular result padded into a BA, or an incomplete result stretched into a regular paper, both read as misjudged. See podc-supplementary for the content split.

Format and page budget

• ACM Master template (acmart), two-column proceedings format, unmodified. This is the ACM path — do not carry an LNCS/LIPIcs habit over from a DISC or OPODIS submission.
• The 10-page-merits rule: a regular submission has no page limit, but only the abstract and the first 10 pages following the title page are guaranteed to be read. Everything after is read at the committee's discretion. So the first 10 pages must contain: the model, the result statement, the positioning against prior work, and the key technical/conceptual ideas — enough to decide acceptance. Authors are encouraged to submit the full version (all proofs) as the submission; the extra pages hold the proofs a convinced reviewer will check.
• Published length: accepted regular papers appear in ≤10 pages two-column; Brief Announcements in ≤3 pages. Plan the compression now, not in May.

Lightweight double-blind sweep

PODC 2026 runs lightweight double-blind review: the submission must not reveal author names, affiliations, or email addresses anywhere. This is a change from PODC's historically single-blind practice — do not carry a prior single-blind habit forward, but also do not over-anonymize past what the call asks.

# Mechanical pass on the submission PDF
pdfinfo paper.pdf | grep -Ei 'author|creator|producer'          # scrub identifying metadata
pdftotext paper.pdf - | grep -nEi 'university|@[a-z0-9.]+\.edu|acknowledg|grant|thanks' | head
pdftotext paper.pdf - | grep -nEi 'our (previous|prior|earlier) (work|paper)|we showed in \[' | head

The theory-specific leaks: a self-citation phrased as "in our earlier paper [12] we proved..." (make it third-person "[12] proves..."), a named funding grant, an acknowledgements block, a non-anonymized arXiv link, or a repository/author page for an optional simulation. Neutralize self-references and remove the acknowledgements until camera-ready.

The proof is the deliverable

Because PODC has no artifact track, the reviewers' object of scrutiny is the proof. Before upload, confirm:

• Every theorem invoked on the first 10 pages has its proof present in the submission/full version.
• The model box (network, timing, fault model, adversary, cost measure) is fixed before the first theorem and no proof silently changes it.
• Lemmas are stated where used and proved, not gestured at; a "proof sketch" in the body has its full version in the appendix.

Desk-risk triage

Finding at audit time	Severity	Real fix
Merits case not made within the first 10 pages	Effectively unreviewable	Restructure so model+result+delta+key ideas fit in 10 pages
Template altered / not acmart two-column	Format-reject grade	Recompile clean in the ACM Master template
Identity leak in PDF, self-citation, or linked repo	Anonymity violation	Third-person self-cites, strip metadata/acknowledgements, anonymize links
Abstract not registered by the earlier date	No submission slot exists	Nothing fixes this post-AoE — calendar it now
Proof gap or missing lemma in a first-10-pages theorem	Soundness risk	Close the proof or weaken the claim before submitting
Regular result forced into a ≤5-page Brief Announcement (or vice versa)	Misrouted	Re-choose the track before formatting
Same result under review at DISC/SPAA/a journal	Dual-submission exposure	Withdraw one venue; a preprint on arXiv is allowed, a concurrent submission is not

Final-week order of operations

1. Freeze the model box and theorem statements early; the proof text can be polished, the claims cannot churn.
2. Register title/abstract/authors/conflicts before the 11 Feb cutoff.
3. Decide regular vs. Brief Announcement and format to the right budget.
4. Run the anonymization checks on the final PDF; make every self-citation third-person.
5. Confirm the first 10 pages make the full merits case and that all invoked proofs are present in the full version.
6. Fill every HotCRP field — topics that match your model/subarea, conflicts for every coauthor's institution and recent collaborators — a day early.
7. Re-download the uploaded PDF and read it cold to confirm it is the file you meant.

Reverify each cycle

• The exact dates and whether abstract registration precedes the full-paper deadline.
• The double-blind wording and how strictly it is enforced (recently changed).
• Whether the cycle runs an author-response/rebuttal phase (待核实 for 2026).
• The Brief Announcement limits and the 10-page-merits wording.
• Any generative-AI-use disclosure policy (待核实).

Output format

[PODC submission status] ready / blocked / needs work
[Track] regular paper / brief announcement
[Registration] title/abstract/authors/conflicts locked by the earlier deadline? yes/no
[Format] first-10-pages merits case complete? acmart two-column? published-length plan?
[Anonymity] clean / leaks: <where>  (self-cites third-person? metadata scrubbed?)
[Proofs] every first-10-pages theorem has a present proof? model box fixed? yes/no
[Fix queue] <ordered, with owners and dates before the AoE cutoff>