Itcs Reproducibility

ITCS Reproducibility

"Reproducibility" at a pure-theory venue means one thing: a competent, skeptical reader can verify every central claim from the paper alone. There is no code to rerun and no dataset to re-mine — the analogue of a reproducibility package is a complete, self-contained, correctly attributed proof. ITCS makes this concrete in its call: submissions must include complete proofs of all central claims (in an appendix if needed). This skill is the discipline that makes the mathematics checkable, which — since ITCS has no rebuttal — is also your only defense against a reviewer who gets stuck.

Completeness: every central claim is fully proved

• No "proof omitted," no "proof is standard," no "see the full version" for anything a reviewer must check to believe the result. Deferring a routine calculation to an appendix is fine; deferring the load-bearing lemma is a reproducibility failure and, at ITCS, a likely reject.
• Distinguish proved from assumed. Every step is either proved here or cited to a precise prior result. A theorem that quietly relies on an unproved claim is the theory analogue of a package that silently calls a missing dependency.
• Prove the anchoring result in full. For a new-model paper, the separation/possibility result that shows the model is alive is exactly what a reviewer will try hardest to break — give it the most complete treatment in the paper.

Self-containment: definitions and notation

• Define every symbol and model parameter before use. A reviewer should verify a theorem statement without opening your prior papers — which lightweight double-blind would expose anyway (see itcs-related-work).
• State the exact model, not "the usual one." Small variations in a definition (adaptive vs. non-adaptive, worst-case vs. average, the quantifier order) change what is true; pin them down.
• Restate borrowed results you rely on. Quote the precise statement (and its hypotheses) of an external theorem you invoke, so a reviewer sees exactly what you assume and can check the fit.

Dependency provenance: pin what you borrow

The theory analogue of "pinning versions" is precise citation of the results you build on:

• Cite each borrowed theorem to a specific venue, year, and statement number — not a vague "it is known that."
• Flag any dependency on a recent, unrefereed, or conditional result (an arXiv/ECCC preprint, a conjecture, an unpublished personal communication). A result standing on an unverified preprint should say so; its correctness is then explicitly conditional.
• Separate assumptions (P != NP, a hardness assumption, a conjecture) from theorems, and make every conditional result's hypothesis unmissable in its statement.

The full version as the durable record

Under lightweight double-blind, authors are encouraged to post the full version to arXiv, ECCC, or the IACR ePrint Archive. Treat it as the permanent, complete record:

• The full version and the submission must agree. Divergent theorem statements or proofs between the two invite a reviewer to trust the wrong one. Keep them in sync, and say in the submission that a full version exists.
• Put genuinely long proofs in the full version and an appendix the PC can read — a proof a reviewer must consult to judge the paper cannot live only in an external preprint they are not obligated to open (see itcs-supplementary).
• Keep the preprint's identity handling consistent with your strategy — posting is allowed and common, but the submitted PDF still omits author names.

The checkability passes (run before upload)

[Completeness]  every central claim has a full proof present (appendix ok)? no "omitted"/"standard"?
[Self-contain]  every symbol/model/parameter defined before use? theorem statements parseable alone?
[Dependencies]  each borrowed result cited to venue+year+statement number? unrefereed deps flagged?
[Assumptions]   every conditional theorem states its hypothesis in the statement?
[Consistency]   abstract bound = theorem bound = proof bound; quantifier order uniform?
[Full version]  submission and arXiv/ECCC/ePrint version agree? existence noted?

Common failure modes

Output format

[ITCS checkability status] verifiable / gaps
[Completeness] central claims fully proved (list any "omitted")
[Self-containment] definitions complete? statements parseable alone? yes/no
[Dependencies] borrowed results pinned? unrefereed/conditional ones flagged? yes/no
[Full version] posted and consistent with submission? yes/no
[Fix queue] <ordered, load-bearing gaps first>

Source: brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills → ITCS-Skills/skills/itcs-reproducibility/SKILL.md