submission-validation

name	submission-validation
description	Skill for validating submission folder structure, metadata completeness, abstract quality, claim falsifiability, code presence, and paper compilation.

Submission Validation

Use this skill when validating a paper submission before review begins. All checks must pass (or explicitly warn) before dispatching reviewers.

Required Submission Structure

submission/
├── paper.tex or paper.md          # Manuscript (REQUIRED)
├── abstract.txt                   # Standalone abstract (REQUIRED)
├── cover-letter.md                # Motivation, claimed contributions (REQUIRED)
├── metadata.yaml                  # Structured metadata (REQUIRED)
├── paper.pdf                      # Compiled PDF (optional)
├── code/                          # Source code (recommended for empirical)
│   ├── README.md                  # Setup and reproduction instructions
│   ├── requirements.txt           # Dependencies
│   └── ...
├── data/                          # Datasets or generation scripts
│   ├── README.md                  # Data provenance
│   └── ...
├── experiments/                   # Experiment configs and results
│   ├── configs/
│   ├── results/
│   └── figures/
└── supplementary/                 # Appendices, proofs, extended tables
    └── ...

Validation Checks

1. Structure Check (BLOCKING)

validate_structure() {
  SUBMISSION="$1"
  ERRORS=0

  # Paper manuscript
  if [ ! -f "$SUBMISSION/paper.tex" ] && [ ! -f "$SUBMISSION/paper.md" ]; then
    echo "✗ MISSING: paper.tex or paper.md (required)"
    ERRORS=$((ERRORS + 1))
  fi

  # Abstract
  if [ ! -f "$SUBMISSION/abstract.txt" ]; then
    echo "✗ MISSING: abstract.txt (required)"
    ERRORS=$((ERRORS + 1))
  fi

  # Cover letter
  if [ ! -f "$SUBMISSION/cover-letter.md" ]; then
    echo "✗ MISSING: cover-letter.md (required)"
    ERRORS=$((ERRORS + 1))
  fi

  # Metadata
  if [ ! -f "$SUBMISSION/metadata.yaml" ]; then
    echo "✗ MISSING: metadata.yaml (required)"
    ERRORS=$((ERRORS + 1))
  fi

  return $ERRORS
}

On failure → DESK REJECT with specific missing files listed.

2. Abstract Quality Check (BLOCKING)

validate_abstract() {
  WORDS=$(wc -w < "$SUBMISSION/abstract.txt" | tr -d ' ')

  if [ "$WORDS" -gt 300 ]; then
    echo "✗ Abstract too long: $WORDS words (max 300)"
    return 1
  fi

  # Check for methods and results keywords
  if ! grep -qi "method\|approach\|algorithm\|technique\|framework" "$SUBMISSION/abstract.txt"; then
    echo "⚠ Abstract may be missing methods description"
  fi

  if ! grep -qi "result\|achieve\|outperform\|improve\|show\|demonstrate" "$SUBMISSION/abstract.txt"; then
    echo "⚠ Abstract may be missing results description"
  fi

  echo "✓ Abstract: $WORDS words"
}

On failure → RETURN FOR REVISION with specific issues.

3. Claims Check (BLOCKING)

validate_claims() {
  CLAIMS=$(yq '.claims | length' "$SUBMISSION/metadata.yaml" 2>/dev/null || echo 0)

  if [ "$CLAIMS" -eq 0 ]; then
    echo "✗ No falsifiable claims found in metadata.yaml"
    return 1
  fi

  echo "✓ Found $CLAIMS claims"
  yq '.claims[]' "$SUBMISSION/metadata.yaml"
}

On failure → RETURN FOR REVISION.

4. Metadata Completeness

Required fields in metadata.yaml:

Field	Required	Default
title	Yes	—
authors	Yes	—
domain	Yes	—
subdomain	Yes	—
venue_target	Yes	—
paper_type	Yes	—
claims	Yes	—
keywords	Recommended	[]
reproducibility	Recommended	{}

5. Code Check (WARNING)

validate_code() {
  if [ -d "$SUBMISSION/code" ]; then
    [ -f "$SUBMISSION/code/README.md" ] && echo "✓ code/README.md" || echo "⚠ code/README.md missing"
    ([ -f "$SUBMISSION/code/requirements.txt" ] || [ -f "$SUBMISSION/code/pyproject.toml" ] || [ -f "$SUBMISSION/code/package.json" ]) \
      && echo "✓ Dependencies declared" || echo "⚠ No dependency file found"
  else
    echo "⚠ No code/ directory (optional for non-empirical papers)"
  fi
}

Not blocking — produces warnings only.

6. Compilation Check (BLOCKING)

validate_compilation() {
  if [ -f "$SUBMISSION/paper.tex" ]; then
    cd "$SUBMISSION" && pdflatex -interaction=nonstopmode paper.tex > /dev/null 2>&1
    if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
      echo "✓ LaTeX compiles successfully"
    else
      echo "✗ LaTeX compilation failed"
      return 1
    fi
  elif [ -f "$SUBMISSION/paper.md" ]; then
    # Markdown always "compiles" — just check it's valid
    if [ -s "$SUBMISSION/paper.md" ]; then
      echo "✓ Markdown paper found and non-empty"
    else
      echo "✗ paper.md is empty"
      return 1
    fi
  fi
}

On failure → DESK REJECT.

Validation Report Format

validation_report:
  submission: "<title from metadata>"
  timestamp: "<ISO 8601>"
  result: "pass" | "desk_reject" | "revision_needed"
  checks:
    structure: "pass" | "fail"
    abstract: "pass" | "fail" | "warning"
    claims: "pass" | "fail"
    metadata: "pass" | "incomplete"
    code: "pass" | "warning" | "not_applicable"
    compilation: "pass" | "fail"
  errors:
    - "<specific error message>"
  warnings:
    - "<specific warning message>"