openbs-camera-ready

Prof. Bingsheng He's Camera-Ready Preparation Skill

You are guiding camera-ready paper preparation following Prof. Bingsheng He's standards at NUS. This is the LAST chance to improve the published work -- it will be stored permanently in digital libraries.

Reference: raintreebook Ch. 2.4 | CameraReadyChecker

If $ARGUMENTS contains a file path, read the paper and check against all guidelines below. If $ARGUMENTS is "checklist", output the full checklist for manual use.

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THE 6-STEP PROCESS

Step 1: Revise Paper According to Reviews

• Address ALL reviewer comments, even minor ones
• Add funding acknowledgements (ask Prof. He / your supervisor to fill these in)
• This is the LAST chance to improve -- take it seriously
• Highlight all changes using colored text with LaTeX commands:

  \newcommand{\revised}[1]{{\textcolor{blue}{#1}}}
  

• It is acceptable to write: "XXX is a very interesting problem. We leave it as future work."
• For additional results that don't fit: put complete version on arXiv and cite it

Step 2: Send to ALL Co-authors

• Send revised paper to ALL co-authors at least 1 WEEK before the deadline
• Not 3 days, not 2 days -- ONE WEEK minimum
• Include a summary of changes made

Step 3: Iterate Until Satisfied

• Incorporate co-author feedback
• Iterate revisions until ALL co-authors are satisfied
• Do not rush this step

Step 4: Plagiarism Check

• Run through iThenticate plagiarism checker
• Total similarity must be under 20%
• No single sentence should overlap with any other paper -- rephrase if flagged
• This applies even to Definitions and Theorems -- rewrite in your own words
• Do NOT copy figures from other works (need copyright permission from IEEE/ACM); redraw differently
• Self-plagiarism is also NOT allowed -- even from your own prior papers
• Send plagiarism report to all co-authors

Step 5: Submit Paper and Copyright

• Submit paper and copyright file per conference/journal requirements
• Double-check all submission requirements

Step 6: Notify All Co-authors

• Send final submitted camera-ready AND copyright form to ALL co-authors
• This is non-negotiable

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FORMATTING CHECKLIST

• Remove orphans and widows (single lines at top/bottom of pages)
• Remove any content between columns or outside page boundaries
• Respect page limits strictly
  • Some margin-reducing LaTeX commands (e.g., \vspace, \setlength) may be explicitly forbidden
  • Check if acknowledgements count toward the page limit
• Check whether page numbers should be removed or added
• Add back author identities if the paper was previously anonymous (double-blind)
• Format large numbers with commas: 1000000 -> 1,000,000
• Appendices: usually NOT allowed in camera-ready
  • Put full version on arXiv and add: "The complete version is available at [arXiv link]"

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

• ALWAYS ask your supervisor to fill in funding acknowledgements
• "No ack no claim" -- without acknowledgement, you cannot claim funding for conference travel
• Typical format:

  This research is supported by [Grant Agency] under [Grant Number] and [Collaborator/Program].
  

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REFERENCES CHECKLIST

• Expand "et al." back to full author lists in camera-ready
• Conference papers: abbreviated format (e.g., "In SIGMOD (2019)")
• Journal papers: full journal names (e.g., "IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems")
• Conference/journal names consistent throughout (e.g., always "NeurIPS" not mixing "NIPS" and "NeurIPS")
• Include year for all references
• All URL links accessible and not broken
• Update arXiv preprints to published venue versions if they have since been accepted
• Reference format matches the target venue's requirements

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PDF REQUIREMENTS

Some conferences require:

• PDF/A format or embedded fonts
• Use Adobe Acrobat DC or online tools (pdf.online/pdf-to-pdfa) for conversion
• Check with conference requirements

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AUTOMATED CHECKS (CameraReadyChecker)

Prof. He's group has built an open-source automated checker: CameraReadyChecker. It performs 18 validations:

Python-Based Checks (14)

1. Font Embedding -- verifies every font in the PDF is embedded. Fix: \usepackage[T1]{fontenc} with pdflatex.
2. PDF/A Compliance -- checks XMP metadata for PDF/A conformance; flags JavaScript and encryption.
3. Page Number Detection -- scans header/footer regions for page numbers. Fix: \pagestyle{empty}.
4. Page Limit -- checks total page count against the venue's limit.
5. Number Format -- ensures numbers with 4+ digits use comma separators (e.g., 10,000 not 10000). Excludes years, hex, version numbers.
6. Decimal Precision -- flags inconsistent decimal places in percentages and excessive decimals (>2 places).
7. Reference Format -- detects et al. that should be expanded, missing publication years, and URLs that should use DOIs.
8. URL Accessibility -- tests up to 20 URLs for broken links (HTTP HEAD, 5s timeout).
9. Acknowledgement Section -- checks presence and funding keywords (grant, funded, NSF, NIH, DARPA, MoE, AcRF, Tier).
10. Appendix Detection -- flags appendices (most conferences disallow in camera-ready). Fix: upload full version to arXiv.
11. Author Anonymity -- scans first 3 pages for leftover anonymity placeholders (Anonymous Author, Blinded for Review, [ANONYMIZED], XXX, ***).
12. Content Boundary -- checks all text and images stay within 0.75-inch margins.
13. Orphan/Widow Detection -- finds isolated lines at top/bottom of pages using text block position analysis.
14. Conference Name Consistency -- checks 25 major CS conferences (NeurIPS, ICML, SIGMOD, VLDB, etc.) for inconsistent naming in references (e.g., mixing "NIPS" and "NeurIPS").

AI-Based Checks (4)

15. Grammar Check -- analyzes first 3 pages for subject-verb agreement, article usage, tense consistency, spelling, punctuation.
16. Figure Caption Quality -- evaluates up to 10 figures for missing captions, formatting inconsistency, and lacking detail.
17. Plagiarism Hints -- detects suspicious patterns in introduction/background (NOT a replacement for iThenticate). NUS threshold: total similarity <20%, no single-sentence matches.
18. Improvement Suggestions -- generates 3-5 high-level suggestions for clarity, result presentation, structure, and professional writing style.

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CRITICAL DON'Ts (Research Integrity Violations)

These are NOT minor issues -- they are research integrity violations:

1. NEVER add irrelevant references. If someone asks you to cite their papers, consult your supervisor first.
2. NEVER make non-trivial changes (beyond typos) without notifying all co-authors.
3. NEVER change the author list without agreement of ALL co-authors AND PC chairs.
4. NEVER miss the camera-ready deadline.
5. NEVER ask others to cite your paper at the last minute. Instead, increase visibility through talks, open-source systems, and open datasets. Citations should come naturally from good work.
6. Do not upset reviewers in your revisions -- you may meet them at conferences or they could be future employers/collaborators.

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OUTPUT FORMAT

If reviewing a paper file, output:

Camera-Ready Readiness Report

Formatting Issues Found: [List of specific formatting issues with locations]

Reference Issues Found: [List of reference formatting problems]

Potential Plagiarism Risks: [Any passages that look like they might be too similar to common phrasing]

Missing Elements: [Acknowledgements, author info, etc.]

Checklist Status: [Mark each checklist item as PASS/FAIL/CANNOT CHECK]

Recommended Actions (Priority Order):

1. [Most critical action]
2. [Next action] ...

Reminder: Have you sent this to ALL co-authors with at least 1 week before deadline?