research-paper-writing

1 2\documentclass{article} % For LaTeX2e3\usepackage{iclr2026_conference,times}4 5% Optional math commands from https://github.com/goodfeli/dlbook_notation.6\input{math_commands.tex}7 8\usepackage{hyperref}9\usepackage{url}10 11 12\title{Formatting Instructions for ICLR 2026 \\ Conference Submissions}13 14% Authors must not appear in the submitted version. They should be hidden15% as long as the \iclrfinalcopy macro remains commented out below.16% Non-anonymous submissions will be rejected without review.17 18\author{Antiquus S.~Hippocampus, Natalia Cerebro \& Amelie P. Amygdale \thanks{ Use footnote for providing further information19about author (webpage, alternative address)---\emph{not} for acknowledging20funding agencies.  Funding acknowledgements go at the end of the paper.} \\21Department of Computer Science\\22Cranberry-Lemon University\\23Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA \\24\texttt{\{hippo,brain,jen\}@cs.cranberry-lemon.edu} \\25\And26Ji Q. Ren \& Yevgeny LeNet \\27Department of Computational Neuroscience \\28University of the Witwatersrand \\29Joburg, South Africa \\30\texttt{\{robot,net\}@wits.ac.za} \\31\AND32Coauthor \\33Affiliation \\34Address \\35\texttt{email}36}37 38% The \author macro works with any number of authors. There are two commands39% used to separate the names and addresses of multiple authors: \And and \AND.40%41% Using \And between authors leaves it to \LaTeX{} to determine where to break42% the lines. Using \AND forces a linebreak at that point. So, if \LaTeX{}43% puts 3 of 4 authors names on the first line, and the last on the second44% line, try using \AND instead of \And before the third author name.45 46\newcommand{\fix}{\marginpar{FIX}}47\newcommand{\new}{\marginpar{NEW}}48 49%\iclrfinalcopy % Uncomment for camera-ready version, but NOT for submission.50\begin{document}51 52 53\maketitle54 55\begin{abstract}56The abstract paragraph should be indented 1/2~inch (3~picas) on both left and57right-hand margins. Use 10~point type, with a vertical spacing of 11~points.58The word \textsc{Abstract} must be centered, in small caps, and in point size 12. Two59line spaces precede the abstract. The abstract must be limited to one60paragraph.61\end{abstract}62 63\section{Submission of conference papers to ICLR 2026}64 65ICLR requires electronic submissions, processed by66\url{https://openreview.net/}. See ICLR's website for more instructions.67 68If your paper is ultimately accepted, the statement {\tt69  {\textbackslash}iclrfinalcopy} should be inserted to adjust the70format to the camera ready requirements.71 72The format for the submissions is a variant of the NeurIPS format.73Please read carefully the instructions below, and follow them74faithfully.75 76\subsection{Style}77 78Papers to be submitted to ICLR 2026 must be prepared according to the79instructions presented here.80 81%% Please note that we have introduced automatic line number generation82%% into the style file for \LaTeXe. This is to help reviewers83%% refer to specific lines of the paper when they make their comments. Please do84%% NOT refer to these line numbers in your paper as they will be removed from the85%% style file for the final version of accepted papers.86 87Authors are required to use the ICLR \LaTeX{} style files obtainable at the88ICLR website. Please make sure you use the current files and89not previous versions. Tweaking the style files may be grounds for rejection.90 91\subsection{Retrieval of style files}92 93The style files for ICLR and other conference information are available online at:94\begin{center}95   \url{http://www.iclr.cc/}96\end{center}97The file \verb+iclr2026_conference.pdf+ contains these98instructions and illustrates the99various formatting requirements your ICLR paper must satisfy.100Submissions must be made using \LaTeX{} and the style files101\verb+iclr2026_conference.sty+ and \verb+iclr2026_conference.bst+ (to be used with \LaTeX{}2e). The file102\verb+iclr2026_conference.tex+ may be used as a ``shell'' for writing your paper. All you103have to do is replace the author, title, abstract, and text of the paper with104your own.105 106The formatting instructions contained in these style files are summarized in107sections \ref{gen_inst}, \ref{headings}, and \ref{others} below.108 109\section{General formatting instructions}110\label{gen_inst}111 112The text must be confined within a rectangle 5.5~inches (33~picas) wide and1139~inches (54~picas) long. The left margin is 1.5~inch (9~picas).114Use 10~point type with a vertical spacing of 11~points. Times New Roman is the115preferred typeface throughout. Paragraphs are separated by 1/2~line space,116with no indentation.117 118Paper title is 17~point, in small caps and left-aligned.119All pages should start at 1~inch (6~picas) from the top of the page.120 121Authors' names are122set in boldface, and each name is placed above its corresponding123address. The lead author's name is to be listed first, and124the co-authors' names are set to follow. Authors sharing the125same address can be on the same line.126 127Please pay special attention to the instructions in section \ref{others}128regarding figures, tables, acknowledgments, and references.129 130 131There will be a strict upper limit of \textbf{9 pages} for the main text of the initial submission, with unlimited additional pages for citations. This limit will be expanded to \textbf{10 pages} for rebuttal/camera ready.132 133\section{Headings: first level}134\label{headings}135 136First level headings are in small caps,137flush left and in point size 12. One line space before the first level138heading and 1/2~line space after the first level heading.139 140\subsection{Headings: second level}141 142Second level headings are in small caps,143flush left and in point size 10. One line space before the second level144heading and 1/2~line space after the second level heading.145 146\subsubsection{Headings: third level}147 148Third level headings are in small caps,149flush left and in point size 10. One line space before the third level150heading and 1/2~line space after the third level heading.151 152\section{Citations, figures, tables, references}153\label{others}154 155These instructions apply to everyone, regardless of the formatter being used.156 157\subsection{Citations within the text}158 159Citations within the text should be based on the \texttt{natbib} package160and include the authors' last names and year (with the ``et~al.'' construct161for more than two authors). When the authors or the publication are162included in the sentence, the citation should not be in parenthesis using \verb|\citet{}| (as163in ``See \citet{Hinton06} for more information.''). Otherwise, the citation164should be in parenthesis using \verb|\citep{}| (as in ``Deep learning shows promise to make progress165towards AI~\citep{Bengio+chapter2007}.'').166 167The corresponding references are to be listed in alphabetical order of168authors, in the \textsc{References} section. As to the format of the169references themselves, any style is acceptable as long as it is used170consistently.171 172\subsection{Footnotes}173 174Indicate footnotes with a number\footnote{Sample of the first footnote} in the175text. Place the footnotes at the bottom of the page on which they appear.176Precede the footnote with a horizontal rule of 2~inches177(12~picas).\footnote{Sample of the second footnote}178 179\subsection{Figures}180 181All artwork must be neat, clean, and legible. Lines should be dark182enough for purposes of reproduction; art work should not be183hand-drawn. The figure number and caption always appear after the184figure. Place one line space before the figure caption, and one line185space after the figure. The figure caption is lower case (except for186first word and proper nouns); figures are numbered consecutively.187 188Make sure the figure caption does not get separated from the figure.189Leave sufficient space to avoid splitting the figure and figure caption.190 191You may use color figures.192However, it is best for the193figure captions and the paper body to make sense if the paper is printed194either in black/white or in color.195\begin{figure}[h]196\begin{center}197%\framebox[4.0in]{$\;$}198\fbox{\rule[-.5cm]{0cm}{4cm} \rule[-.5cm]{4cm}{0cm}}199\end{center}200\caption{Sample figure caption.}201\end{figure}202 203\subsection{Tables}204 205All tables must be centered, neat, clean and legible. Do not use hand-drawn206tables. The table number and title always appear before the table. See207Table~\ref{sample-table}.208 209Place one line space before the table title, one line space after the table210title, and one line space after the table. The table title must be lower case211(except for first word and proper nouns); tables are numbered consecutively.212 213\begin{table}[t]214\caption{Sample table title}215\label{sample-table}216\begin{center}217\begin{tabular}{ll}218\multicolumn{1}{c}{\bf PART}  &\multicolumn{1}{c}{\bf DESCRIPTION}219\\ \hline \\220Dendrite         &Input terminal \\221Axon             &Output terminal \\222Soma             &Cell body (contains cell nucleus) \\223\end{tabular}224\end{center}225\end{table}226 227\section{Default Notation}228 229In an attempt to encourage standardized notation, we have included the230notation file from the textbook, \textit{Deep Learning}231\cite{goodfellow2016deep} available at232\url{https://github.com/goodfeli/dlbook_notation/}.  Use of this style233is not required and can be disabled by commenting out234\texttt{math\_commands.tex}.235 236 237\centerline{\bf Numbers and Arrays}238\bgroup239\def\arraystretch{1.5}240\begin{tabular}{p{1in}p{3.25in}}241$\displaystyle a$ & A scalar (integer or real)\\242$\displaystyle \va$ & A vector\\243$\displaystyle \mA$ & A matrix\\244$\displaystyle \tA$ & A tensor\\245$\displaystyle \mI_n$ & Identity matrix with $n$ rows and $n$ columns\\246$\displaystyle \mI$ & Identity matrix with dimensionality implied by context\\247$\displaystyle \ve^{(i)}$ & Standard basis vector $[0,\dots,0,1,0,\dots,0]$ with a 1 at position $i$\\248$\displaystyle \text{diag}(\va)$ & A square, diagonal matrix with diagonal entries given by $\va$\\249$\displaystyle \ra$ & A scalar random variable\\250$\displaystyle \rva$ & A vector-valued random variable\\251$\displaystyle \rmA$ & A matrix-valued random variable\\252\end{tabular}253\egroup254\vspace{0.25cm}255 256\centerline{\bf Sets and Graphs}257\bgroup258\def\arraystretch{1.5}259 260\begin{tabular}{p{1.25in}p{3.25in}}261$\displaystyle \sA$ & A set\\262$\displaystyle \R$ & The set of real numbers \\263$\displaystyle \{0, 1\}$ & The set containing 0 and 1 \\264$\displaystyle \{0, 1, \dots, n \}$ & The set of all integers between $0$ and $n$\\265$\displaystyle [a, b]$ & The real interval including $a$ and $b$\\266$\displaystyle (a, b]$ & The real interval excluding $a$ but including $b$\\267$\displaystyle \sA \backslash \sB$ & Set subtraction, i.e., the set containing the elements of $\sA$ that are not in $\sB$\\268$\displaystyle \gG$ & A graph\\269$\displaystyle \parents_\gG(\ervx_i)$ & The parents of $\ervx_i$ in $\gG$270\end{tabular}271\vspace{0.25cm}272 273 274\centerline{\bf Indexing}275\bgroup276\def\arraystretch{1.5}277 278\begin{tabular}{p{1.25in}p{3.25in}}279$\displaystyle \eva_i$ & Element $i$ of vector $\va$, with indexing starting at 1 \\280$\displaystyle \eva_{-i}$ & All elements of vector $\va$ except for element $i$ \\281$\displaystyle \emA_{i,j}$ & Element $i, j$ of matrix $\mA$ \\282$\displaystyle \mA_{i, :}$ & Row $i$ of matrix $\mA$ \\283$\displaystyle \mA_{:, i}$ & Column $i$ of matrix $\mA$ \\284$\displaystyle \etA_{i, j, k}$ & Element $(i, j, k)$ of a 3-D tensor $\tA$\\285$\displaystyle \tA_{:, :, i}$ & 2-D slice of a 3-D tensor\\286$\displaystyle \erva_i$ & Element $i$ of the random vector $\rva$ \\287\end{tabular}288\egroup289\vspace{0.25cm}290 291 292\centerline{\bf Calculus}293\bgroup294\def\arraystretch{1.5}295\begin{tabular}{p{1.25in}p{3.25in}}296% NOTE: the [2ex] on the next line adds extra height to that row of the table.297% Without that command, the fraction on the first line is too tall and collides298% with the fraction on the second line.299$\displaystyle\frac{d y} {d x}$ & Derivative of $y$ with respect to $x$\\ [2ex]300$\displaystyle \frac{\partial y} {\partial x} $ & Partial derivative of $y$ with respect to $x$ \\301$\displaystyle \nabla_\vx y $ & Gradient of $y$ with respect to $\vx$ \\302$\displaystyle \nabla_\mX y $ & Matrix derivatives of $y$ with respect to $\mX$ \\303$\displaystyle \nabla_\tX y $ & Tensor containing derivatives of $y$ with respect to $\tX$ \\304$\displaystyle \frac{\partial f}{\partial \vx} $ & Jacobian matrix $\mJ \in \R^{m\times n}$ of $f: \R^n \rightarrow \R^m$\\305$\displaystyle \nabla_\vx^2 f(\vx)\text{ or }\mH( f)(\vx)$ & The Hessian matrix of $f$ at input point $\vx$\\306$\displaystyle \int f(\vx) d\vx $ & Definite integral over the entire domain of $\vx$ \\307$\displaystyle \int_\sS f(\vx) d\vx$ & Definite integral with respect to $\vx$ over the set $\sS$ \\308\end{tabular}309\egroup310\vspace{0.25cm}311 312\centerline{\bf Probability and Information Theory}313\bgroup314\def\arraystretch{1.5}315\begin{tabular}{p{1.25in}p{3.25in}}316$\displaystyle P(\ra)$ & A probability distribution over a discrete variable\\317$\displaystyle p(\ra)$ & A probability distribution over a continuous variable, or over318a variable whose type has not been specified\\319$\displaystyle \ra \sim P$ & Random variable $\ra$ has distribution $P$\\% so thing on left of \sim should always be a random variable, with name beginning with \r320$\displaystyle  \E_{\rx\sim P} [ f(x) ]\text{ or } \E f(x)$ & Expectation of $f(x)$ with respect to $P(\rx)$ \\321$\displaystyle \Var(f(x)) $ &  Variance of $f(x)$ under $P(\rx)$ \\322$\displaystyle \Cov(f(x),g(x)) $ & Covariance of $f(x)$ and $g(x)$ under $P(\rx)$\\323$\displaystyle H(\rx) $ & Shannon entropy of the random variable $\rx$\\324$\displaystyle \KL ( P \Vert Q ) $ & Kullback-Leibler divergence of P and Q \\325$\displaystyle \mathcal{N} ( \vx ; \vmu , \mSigma)$ & Gaussian distribution %326over $\vx$ with mean $\vmu$ and covariance $\mSigma$ \\327\end{tabular}328\egroup329\vspace{0.25cm}330 331\centerline{\bf Functions}332\bgroup333\def\arraystretch{1.5}334\begin{tabular}{p{1.25in}p{3.25in}}335$\displaystyle f: \sA \rightarrow \sB$ & The function $f$ with domain $\sA$ and range $\sB$\\336$\displaystyle f \circ g $ & Composition of the functions $f$ and $g$ \\337  $\displaystyle f(\vx ; \vtheta) $ & A function of $\vx$ parametrized by $\vtheta$.338  (Sometimes we write $f(\vx)$ and omit the argument $\vtheta$ to lighten notation) \\339$\displaystyle \log x$ & Natural logarithm of $x$ \\340$\displaystyle \sigma(x)$ & Logistic sigmoid, $\displaystyle \frac{1} {1 + \exp(-x)}$ \\341$\displaystyle \zeta(x)$ & Softplus, $\log(1 + \exp(x))$ \\342$\displaystyle || \vx ||_p $ & $\normlp$ norm of $\vx$ \\343$\displaystyle || \vx || $ & $\normltwo$ norm of $\vx$ \\344$\displaystyle x^+$ & Positive part of $x$, i.e., $\max(0,x)$\\345$\displaystyle \1_\mathrm{condition}$ & is 1 if the condition is true, 0 otherwise\\346\end{tabular}347\egroup348\vspace{0.25cm}349 350 351 352\section{Final instructions}353Do not change any aspects of the formatting parameters in the style files.354In particular, do not modify the width or length of the rectangle the text355should fit into, and do not change font sizes (except perhaps in the356\textsc{References} section; see below). Please note that pages should be357numbered.358 359\section{Preparing PostScript or PDF files}360 361Please prepare PostScript or PDF files with paper size ``US Letter'', and362not, for example, ``A4''. The -t363letter option on dvips will produce US Letter files.364 365Consider directly generating PDF files using \verb+pdflatex+366(especially if you are a MiKTeX user).367PDF figures must be substituted for EPS figures, however.368 369Otherwise, please generate your PostScript and PDF files with the following commands:370\begin{verbatim}371dvips mypaper.dvi -t letter -Ppdf -G0 -o mypaper.ps372ps2pdf mypaper.ps mypaper.pdf373\end{verbatim}374 375\subsection{Margins in LaTeX}376 377Most of the margin problems come from figures positioned by hand using378\verb+\special+ or other commands. We suggest using the command379\verb+\includegraphics+380from the graphicx package. Always specify the figure width as a multiple of381the line width as in the example below using .eps graphics382\begin{verbatim}383   \usepackage[dvips]{graphicx} ...384   \includegraphics[width=0.8\linewidth]{myfile.eps}385\end{verbatim}386or % Apr 2009 addition387\begin{verbatim}388   \usepackage[pdftex]{graphicx} ...389   \includegraphics[width=0.8\linewidth]{myfile.pdf}390\end{verbatim}391for .pdf graphics.392See section~4.4 in the graphics bundle documentation (\url{http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/required/graphics/grfguide.ps})393 394A number of width problems arise when LaTeX cannot properly hyphenate a395line. Please give LaTeX hyphenation hints using the \verb+\-+ command.396 397\subsubsection*{Author Contributions}398If you'd like to, you may include  a section for author contributions as is done399in many journals. This is optional and at the discretion of the authors.400 401\subsubsection*{Acknowledgments}402Use unnumbered third level headings for the acknowledgments. All403acknowledgments, including those to funding agencies, go at the end of the paper.404 405 406\bibliography{iclr2026_conference}407\bibliographystyle{iclr2026_conference}408 409\appendix410\section{Appendix}411You may include other additional sections here.412 413 414\end{document}415