From Paper Draft to Publication

This post summarizes the process from writing a first paper draft to submitting it to a conference or journal and presenting it. Since the top conferences and journals differ across AI subfields, please think carefully about where to submit. I put this process together in my own way while going through these experiences myself, so please treat it as a reference. (Everyone has a workflow that suits them best — if you have a better approach, go with it! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧)

🌱 Before Writing My Own Draft

Before writing the full paper, you should firmly decide which conference or journal you will submit to, and then write the draft. If you look at the accepted papers of a given venue, you will notice the writing styles that are commonly used there and the research directions the venue values. If you don’t settle this first, you may end up having to change your target venue later while writing.

1. Analyze prior work
2. Choose the journal/conference to submit to
   • A. Understand in advance what the venue considers important
   • B. Read the conference guidelines carefully
3. Build the storyline
   • A. The problem I found
   • B. The argument I want to make and its justification
4. Write a detailed outline
   • A. Introduction / Body / Conclusion
5. Finalize figures and tables
   • A. Tables: main results, analysis
   • B. Figures: model architecture, output examples
6. Write the draft

🔥 How to Write My Own Draft

1. Pick the 3 best reference papers → summarize their content by section and by paragraph
   • Order of writing sections: Method → Results → Conclusion/Discussion → Introduction → Abstract → Title
2. Write down the key keywords for each paragraph
3. Write the first sentence of each paragraph
   • The first sentence should carry the whole paragraph. In other words, it should state the claim the paragraph is trying to make.
4. Write the topic sentence and the closing sentence of each paragraph
5. Fill in what each paragraph needs
   • e.g., reasoning, tables, figures, etc.

🖋 How to Submit My Own Paper

1. Abstract Deadline
   • A. Register the authors who will appear on the paper
   • B. Submit the title, abstract, and Responsible NLP Checklist
2. Full Paper Deadline
   • A. Submit the paper as an anonymized version
   • B. Usually about one week after the abstract deadline
3. Revision (Rebuttal)
   • A. Three reviewers are assigned, and you receive questions from the anonymous reviewers
   • B. You also receive scores for the paper, which let you estimate your chance of acceptance. If the scores are too low, consider withdrawing; if they are high, you’re likely safe; if they are borderline, you need to write a very strong response
4. Notification of Acceptance
   • The paper’s acceptance / rejection is announced
   • ⇒ If rejected, submit right away to another journal/conference — back to step 1!
   • ⇒ If accepted, submit the camera-ready version including acknowledgements and author information

※ After the full paper deadline, keep running the experiments you didn’t get to and keep improving the paper. Also prepare a PLAN B in case the paper is rejected.

✨ Tips for ACL-Family Conferences (ACL, EMNLP, NAACL, COLING, etc.) ✨

1. News is updated fastest on Twitter, so I recommend following each conference’s Twitter account.
   • e.g., EMNLP 2023 Twitter: https://twitter.com/emnlpmeeting
2. About a month before the submission deadline, a “Call for Papers” page opens. It contains everything important about paper submission (long/short paper requirements, important dates, etc.), so check it every day.
   • e.g., EMNLP 2023 Call for Papers: https://2023.emnlp.org/calls/main_conference_papers/

3. For EACL/NAACL/ACL held in 2024, the last ARR deadline applies. See the tweet below!

   • https://twitter.com/annargrs/status/1679239716523089922/photo/1

1. Through a process called ARR (ACL Rolling Review), you can receive reviews in advance. The benefit is that ARR gives you the opportunity to submit to ACL-family conferences. When you commit to a conference, you submit your paper together with the reviews you received from ARR. I recommend getting feedback on your paper early, revising it, and raising its overall quality. See ARR for details!

🎪 Upcoming Conferences (What’s Next?)

• AACL-IJCNLP 2023 in Bali (http://ijcnlp-aacl2023.org)
• EMNLP 2023 in Singapore (https://2023.emnlp.org)
• EACL 2024 in Malta
• LREC-COLING 2024 in Turin (https://lrec-coling-2024.lrec-conf.org)
• NAACL 2024 in Mexico City
• ACL 2024 in Bangkok, Thailand!

That’s all for this post. Commercial use and modification of this content are not permitted. The copyright of this post belongs to Jeewoo Sul; please ask for permission in advance before referencing it.

This post was originally written in Korean on velog.