# Micro Submission > Use when auditing a MICRO submission before HotCRP upload — the 11-page-plus-references limit with no appendix allowed, EDT (not AoE) deadline arithmetic, the abstract-registration gate a week before the paper, minimum 9pt fonts, mandatory page numbers, all-author reference entries, and MICRO's visual-plus-automated format inspection. - Skill: `thedixitjain/micro-submission` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds add thedixitjain/micro-submission` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/thedixitjain/micro-submission/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Research & Search - Author: thedixitjain (https://skillmd.com/u/thedixitjain) - Updated: 2026-09-08 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/thedixitjain/micro-submission --- # MICRO Submission Run this audit against the exact PDF headed to HotCRP. Anchors below are the MICRO 2026 (59th) cycle — CFP and submission guidelines at `microarch.org/micro59/submit/`, checked 2026-07-08. Every number is a snapshot; reopen the current cycle's pages. ## Three traps that are specifically MICRO's 1. **Deadlines run on US Eastern time.** MICRO 2026 closed abstracts on March 31 and papers on April 7, each at 11:59 PM **EDT**. Authors trained on AoE venues lose up to a working day by assuming AoE. Convert to every co-author's timezone in writing during deadline week. 2. **The abstract deadline is a registration gate, one week early.** No abstract in HotCRP by the first date means no paper submission at all. Register placeholders for every plausible paper; withdrawing is free, adding late is impossible. 3. **No appendix. At all.** The 2026 guidelines allow at most 11 pages of content plus unlimited references — and explicitly permit **no appendix**. Anything you planned to park after the references must be cut, absorbed into the 11 pages, or moved to an anonymized artifact repository (see `micro-supplementary`). ## Format gate table (2026 guidelines) | Rule | 2026 setting | Enforcement | |---|---|---| | Content length | ≤ 11 pages, everything except references | Inspected; overlength rejected | | References | Unlimited pages | Must name **all authors — no "et al."** per entry | | Appendix | Forbidden | No parking space exists | | Fonts | Minimum 9pt everywhere, figures included | Checked visually, not just by tool | | Page numbers | **Required** on the submission | Unusual — most venues strip them | | Template | MICRO 2026 LaTeX template strongly encouraged | Geometry edits and `\vspace` squeezing barred | | Inspection | Visual **and** automated | Passing the HotCRP format checker is *not* clearance | The last row deserves emphasis: the guidelines state submissions can be rejected for format violations *even if* the HotCRP check passed. Treat the checker as a smoke test, then eyeball a printed copy — tiny axis labels on plots are the classic kill. ## Anonymity, MICRO flavor - Double-blind review, maintained through the rebuttal/revision window. - Artifact links (e.g., a GitHub repository) must be **fully anonymized, or removed** if they cannot be — the 2026 guidelines say both halves explicitly. - No acknowledgments section in the submission: no people, no funding agencies. - Self-citations in third person; scrub PDF metadata, embedded paths, and simulator config files inside any linked artifact that carry usernames or lab hostnames. ## Mechanical pre-flight ```bash # page count and font floor pdfinfo paper.pdf | grep Pages pdffonts paper.pdf | awk 'NR>2 {print $1}' | sort -u # spot rasterized/tiny fonts manually # page numbers present? (render page 2 footer and look) pdftotext -f 2 -l 2 paper.pdf - | tail -3 # reference hygiene: no "et al." allowed inside entries grep -n "et al" references.bib && echo "FIX: expand all author lists" # identity leakage pdftotext paper.pdf - | grep -inE "(our (prior|previous) work|anonymous|acknowledg)" exiftool paper.pdf | grep -iE "author|creator" ``` ## HotCRP sequencing for deadline week 1. **T-8 days (abstract deadline):** register title, abstract, authors, topics, conflicts. Topic checkboxes drive reviewer assignment — pick for the mechanism, not the application domain. 2. **T-3:** freeze the evaluation; regenerate all figures from the run archive so the artifact and the PDF cannot disagree later at AE time. 3. **T-1:** full format pass (table above) on the final PDF; print pages with the densest figures and check 9pt compliance by eye. 4. **T-0, hours early in EDT terms:** upload, confirm HotCRP shows the final PDF (re-download it and diff checksums), and have a second author log in independently to verify the submission state. ## What the abstract registration should actually contain The T-8 abstract is not a formality — reviewers bid on it and topic-matching runs from it. Three failure modes to avoid at the registration gate: - **Placeholder prose** ("we study caches") attracts mismatched bidders whose eventual reviews read the paper against the wrong literature. - **Overclaiming the final numbers** before the sweep finishes — the PDF must deliver the abstract's promise, and the HotCRP abstract should be updated to match the final PDF before the paper deadline. - **Wrong topic checkboxes.** Pick the mechanism area (memory hierarchy, branch prediction, accelerators, security) over the application domain (ML, graphs) — the mechanism community is who you want reviewing. Conflicts deserve the same care at registration: advisors, recent co-authors, and institutional conflicts declared per the form's definitions. A conflict discovered after assignment is an integrity incident, not a paperwork fix. ## Also decide: main track or Industry Track MICRO 2026 opened an inaugural **Industry Track** with its own CFP and a review process tailored to production constraints (`micro59/submit/industrial.php`). If the paper's value is deployment evidence rather than a new general mechanism, route it there deliberately — do not let a production paper be judged by main-track novelty rules. Track-specific deadlines and rules: 待核实 against the live page. ## If something goes wrong at the wire - **HotCRP shows "draft" at T-minus-minutes:** an unfinished required field is the usual cause — the form, not the PDF. Fill, save, re-check the state label. - **The format checker rejects a compliant PDF:** rebuild with the untouched template class file; embedded Type-3 fonts from a figure pipeline are the common trigger. Do not "fix" it by altering template geometry. - **A co-author spots an identity leak post-deadline:** do not silently update anything; email the program chairs immediately — self-reporting a leak is survivable, discovery is not. - **Missed the abstract gate entirely:** there is no paper this cycle. Move straight to the lattice in `micro-workflow` and book the next venue's window. ## Output format ```text [Upload verdict] go / no-go (blocking items listed) [Clock] deadline in EDT: [Abstract gate] registered by T-7: yes / no [Pages] content: N/11 · references: N (unlimited) · appendix present: must be "no" [Format] 9pt floor / page numbers / template intact / no vspace hacks: pass-fail each [References] entries with "et al.": N (must be 0) [Anonymity] artifact links anonymized-or-removed / metadata clean / no acks: pass-fail [Track] main / industry — one-line justification ``` --- **Source:** [`brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills`](https://github.com/brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills) → `MICRO-Skills/skills/micro-submission/SKILL.md`