Submitting a paper

Most authors finish a submission in under fifteen minutes once they have their PDF and co-author list ready.

Before you start

Have these ready:

• The paper PDF (and any supplementary files allowed by the conference).
• The abstract in plain text.
• Your author list, in order, with their email addresses and ORCIDs if available.
• Any conflicts of interest required by the conference.

Submit

1. 1

   From your conference, open the Author Console in the sidebar (or go to the submission portal).

2. 2

   Click New Submission and choose the program or track that fits your work. Each card leads with the program's acronym, with its full name underneath. Cards show no dates: each category can have its own deadline, which the submission form shows for the category you pick, and the call for papers has the full schedule. Some conferences split submissions across multiple tracks; pick carefully, because you usually cannot move a submission between tracks later.

3. 3

   When a conference has workshops (or other sub-programs), the portal is split into sections. Main Program Submissions lists the main tracks and the Workshops card (its tag names what it holds). A group like Workshops takes proposals: its card's Submit is where you propose a new workshop (or tutorial). If the Multi-Program Chair approves it, the workshop is created and you become its chair. To submit a paper to a workshop, use that workshop's own Submit in the Workshops section below. Each section has its own card / list toggle (list first) and opens or folds with the arrow by its title. Every section starts open; a long one has a search box. Click anywhere on a program's card or row to open its submission page (on a Multi-Program, to show its sub-programs). Programs appear in the order the chairs set.

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   If the program offers more than one kind of submission, the first step is Select a submission category. Categories are grouped as Paper (a full manuscript, peer-reviewed), Abstract (an abstract without a paper, sometimes with an e-poster or a demo video link) and Proposal (to run a workshop, session, panel or tutorial). Each card says what to prepare and its deadline (categories can have different deadlines), with its notification and camera-ready (or final version) dates under it. The category decides everything that follows: which fields you fill in, whether a PDF is needed, and your dates. A program with one choice skips this step.

5. 5

   On Submission Info, fill in title, abstract, keywords, and topics. These drive reviewer matching, so be specific. The abstract has no word limit; its word count shows under it. Keywords follow your category's limits (for example "3–8 keywords"), shown with your current count. A red asterisk marks exactly the fields this program requires for your category. If Next finds a problem, a message lists what to fix, and the page scrolls to the first field marked in red. If the program has tracks, choose your Track. For a paper whose category lets you choose, pick Archive: Archival papers appear in the proceedings, Non-archival ones are presented but not published; the program sets which one is preselected. After the archival deadline only non-archival stays open, until the later non-archival deadline. If the call has rounds, the category shows which round is open by the name the program gave it (for example IEEE (round 1 of 2) · Due Nov 2, 2026); your paper goes into that round and gets that round's notification. Below these, your category may ask for links (a video on YouTube, a project on GitHub, the DOI of a published paper), questions with fixed answers, and statements to select (such as the AI usage disclosure). Some of them appear only after an answer. For example, saying your paper was previously rejected asks for the original reviews on the Files step. If the program asks for a License, it is shown here too: either the one license the program uses, or a choice of Creative Commons licenses with CC BY 4.0 preselected. Select the info icon next to it for a one-line summary and a link to the license. Nothing to sign: the license is saved with your submission and shown on My Submissions.

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   Submitting an abstract or a proposal? There is no Archive choice: the category decides whether its abstract is published.

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   On Authors & Affiliations, you are already on the list, marked You, filled in from your profile (name, email, organization, country and personal homepage); check the details. Your email is your account's and can't be changed here, and your own row can't be removed: whoever submits is one of the authors. If you type your own email into another row by mistake, that row says the email is already used; change the email or remove the row. Click Add Author for each other author. Every author needs their own AirBalloon account: start typing their name or email and pick them from the suggestions, or type the email of their account and it is found for you. A co-author's confirmed professional email works too: suggestions show both addresses, and the row is linked using their sign in email. A linked author shows as AirBalloon account with their name and email; you can still adjust the affiliation, department, country and homepage for this paper, and Change picks someone else. A co-author who has signed up and verified their email is found by email even before they first sign in or fill in their profile. If an email has no account, ask that author to sign up first: you can't create an account for them or type in their details. If they have signed up but not entered the verification code yet, the row says their email is not confirmed: ask them to enter the code (it may be in their Junk folder or their organization's quarantine). When they have, click Check again under the row; you don't need to reload the page. There is no batch CSV import for authors.

   The list order is the author order: Author 1 is first. Use the ↑ and ↓ arrows on a row to move it. You don't have to be Author 1: to put someone else first, add them, then click ↑ until they are at the top.

   A program may require a number of authors (you and your co-authors; 2 unless the organizers changed it). Next to Add Author you see the number required and how many you have added. With fewer authors, Next shows a warning saying how many to add, and you can't continue until you add them.

   If the program asks paper authors to review (abstracts and proposals are never asked), check I commit to reviewing papers as a Reviewer for at least one author. When you submit, each author who checked it is added to the program's reviewer candidates, and the program chairs decide whether to add them as reviewers from their reviewer profiles. Under each checked box you see whether that author's reviewer profile is ready or incomplete, and what is missing.

   A single author can't commit themselves. Instead, the Reviewer for this paper box under the authors asks you to nominate another researcher: an author of another paper, or someone who submits nothing, but not an author of this paper. Search by name or email; only people with an AirBalloon account appear. The box shows whether they meet the reviewer requirements (a complete reviewer profile). If their profile is incomplete, click Ask to complete profile to send them a notification and an email, then Check again once they have done it; you can't go on until they are ready. With two or more authors the box is optional: a nominee meets the requirement instead of an author's commitment. When you submit, your nominee is added to the program's reviewer candidates and told you nominated them. They never review your paper.

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   If you committed yourself and your reviewer profile is incomplete, a Reviewer Profile step follows the authors. Fill in the missing items (name, organization, an education entry with degree and institution, title, country, research interests and an expertise area) and click Save and continue. They are saved to your User Profile. A publication or an ORCID, Google Scholar or DBLP link is optional. If you would rather not review, click Remove my commitment; when the program needs at least one committed author and nobody else checked the box, you are taken back to the authors to choose someone.

   A co-author you committed whose profile is incomplete gets a notification, an email from you through AirBalloon, and a Complete reviewer profile task, once per conference. The task closes by itself when they complete the profile. The Review step lists everyone who committed, and your nominated reviewer, and whether each profile is ready.

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   For a paper, a main track may offer If my paper is not accepted here, consider it for: pick a First choice workshop of the same conference and, when offered, a Second choice. Both are optional. If the track does not accept your paper, it moves to your first choice, whose chairs read the reviews and decide; if that workshop does not accept it either, it moves on to your second choice. You get an email at each step. You can change your choices on your paper's Edit page until a decision is out. Workshops themselves do not offer this.

10. 10

    For a paper, the conference may ask you to confirm its Author Declarations and Affirmations on a Declarations step, before the upload: check each statement on behalf of all authors, and the closing confirmation. You can't continue until every required one is checked. Abstracts and proposals don't have this step. If one of the declarations is the AI Usage Disclosure, your paper must contain a section with that title: the next step checks your PDF for it. A numbered heading ("VI. AI Usage Disclosure"), one in small capitals, or a run in heading followed by the statement on the same line ("AI Usage Disclosure: AI tools were not used…") all count.

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    Upload your PDF when your category asks for one: drop the file on the box or click Browse files, and a bar shows the upload (an abstract-only category may have none, or ask for something else, such as a 1-page e-poster), plus any additional files your answers called for. A category that takes no PDF and no other file (Demo Only, for example) skips the Files step, and Review does not ask for a PDF. Each additional file shows its accepted types and size limit (at most 50 MB; the program may set less); a larger file is refused before it uploads. The system checks the page count and basic formatting against the conference's submission policy. If the program sets page limits for your paper category, a Page check panel shows the total and, for reference, the main text, references and appendix. A PDF over the category's total can't be submitted until you shorten it. If your main text is below the category's minimum, the category is switched to the one that fits and you are told; you can keep your original choice.

    If the program (or your category) uses double blind review, the step says so: remove author names, affiliations, acknowledgments and identifying links from the PDF, and clear its file properties (Author, Title, Subject). As soon as the PDF is uploaded, it is checked automatically, and again when you replace it or change the authors. Each finding says where it was found (File properties or First page) and how to fix it, for example "Clear the Author field in the PDF's properties" or "Remove your name from the first page". Findings are a warning (unless the program's own policy blocks on them): you can still submit, and the chairs see them when they screen submissions.

12. 12

    Disclose any conflicts of interest the conference asks for, and confirm the author representations (originality, no dual submission, AI-disclosure rules, etc.). In a double blind program the Compliance list always includes the required Anonymization statement ("My PDF does not reveal the authors' identities…", or the program's own wording), even when the program set no other statements.

13. 13

    Click Submit. Your paper ID is given at this moment, once every check has passed, and shown in the confirmation. You'll receive a confirmation email; the submission appears in your Author Console. If the submit is refused (a missed deadline or a missing item, for example), fix what the message says and click Submit again: your files are kept, and no paper ID is used until it succeeds.

After submitting

• You can edit your submission until the deadline. After the deadline, edits are usually disabled.
• During review, the system may request a rebuttal or revision; you'll get an email and a notification in My Dashboard.
• When decisions are released, you'll see the outcome in your Author Console. Accepted submissions then move into the camera-ready flow.