AgentSkillsCN

acl-format-check

检查论文是否符合 ACL 提交的格式要求。在提交前进行检查，及时发现可能引发退稿的格式违规问题。

SKILL.md
--- frontmatter
name: acl-format-check
description: Check paper compliance with ACL submission formatting requirements. Use before submitting to catch formatting violations that would trigger desk rejection.
allowed-tools: Read, Grep, Glob, Bash

ACL Format Compliance Check

Verify the paper meets ACL submission requirements. A formatting violation can mean desk rejection regardless of paper quality.

Structural Requirements

Check that these sections exist (in order):

  • • Abstract (within \begin{abstract})
  • • Introduction
  • • Related Work (can be titled "Background" or placed before or after methods)
  • • Methodology / Approach / Method
  • • Experiments / Evaluation
  • • Results (can be merged with Experiments)
  • • Conclusion
  • • Limitations section (REQUIRED for ACL 2024+, does NOT count toward page limit)
  • • Ethics Statement (if applicable, does NOT count toward page limit)

Page Limits

Compile the paper and count pages:

  • •Long paper: 8 pages content + unlimited references + limitations + ethics
  • •Short paper: 4 pages content + unlimited references + limitations + ethics
  • •Appendices: check if the venue allows them (ACL main does, some workshops don't)

Report: "Paper is N pages of content (limit: 8). References start on page N."

Anonymization

Search for violations:

bash
# Author names or affiliations in the text
grep -rni 'university of\|institute of\|@.*\.edu\|@.*\.ac\.' paper/*.tex

# Self-citations that break anonymity
grep -rni 'our previous work\|our prior\|we previously\|in \[our\|in our earlier' paper/*.tex

# URLs containing identifying info
grep -rnoE 'github\.com/[^ }]+|gitlab\.com/[^ }]+|huggingface\.co/[^ }]+' paper/*.tex

# Check \author{} is anonymized
grep -n '\\author' paper/*.tex

CRITICAL violations:

  • •Author names visible in \author{}
  • •GitHub/lab URLs in the paper body
  • •"Our previous work [X]" where [X] is self-citation
  • •Acknowledgments section present (should be removed for review)

Typography & Formatting

  • • Uses the correct style file (acl2025.sty, or appropriate year)
  • • \aclfinalcopy is NOT set (for submission; should be set for camera-ready)
  • • Font: Times New Roman or similar serif (check style file handles this)
  • • Two-column format
  • • Figures and tables don't overflow column width
  • • No manual page breaks or column breaks that could break with edits
  • • Captions below figures, above tables (ACL convention)

Citations & References

  • • Uses \citep{} and \citet{} correctly (natbib)
  • • No bare \cite{} — ACL style requires parenthetical vs textual distinction
  • • References are complete (no "et al." in the bib entry, include all authors)
  • • Conference/journal references include year, venue, pages
  • • ArXiv preprints: include arXiv ID, note if published version exists
  • • No duplicate bib entries (same paper, different keys)
  • • Bib entries have consistent formatting

Common Desk-Rejection Issues

  • • Paper compiles without errors
  • • No "??" in the PDF (undefined references)
  • • PDF is within file size limits (typically 10-20MB)
  • • Fonts are embedded in the PDF: pdffonts output.pdf should show all embedded
  • • No colored hyperlinks visible (some styles show blue links — check \hypersetup)

Output

code
ACL FORMAT CHECK
================
Style: acl2025 ✅
Pages: 7/8 ✅
Anonymized: ❌ Found "github.com/username/repo" on line 234
Sections: ✅ All required sections present
  ⚠️  Missing: Limitations section (REQUIRED)
Citations: ✅ 
  ⚠️  3 uses of bare \cite{} — should be \citet{} or \citep{}
References: 
  ❌ 2 entries missing venue/year
  ⚠️  1 apparent duplicate: "smith2023" and "smith2023a" cite same paper
Compilation: ✅ No errors, 2 warnings (minor overfull hboxes)

MUST FIX BEFORE SUBMISSION:
1. Remove GitHub URL from line 234
2. Add Limitations section
3. Complete bib entries for [keys]