colt-submission

COLT Submission

Run this audit before uploading a learning-theory paper to COLT. Every number below was

checked against the COLT 2026 Call for Papers on 2026-07-08; reopen the current CFP at

learningtheory.org before trusting any of it in a later cycle, because COLT republishes

its rules from scratch each year.

What the 2026 cycle actually required

• Platform: Microsoft CMT, not OpenReview. The COLT 2026 site pointed authors to

https://cmt3.research.microsoft.com/COLT2026. COLT has used other systems in the

past, so never assume the portal — follow the link in the live CFP.

• Deadline: February 4, 2026, Anywhere on Earth, for the 39th edition (June 29 to

July 3, 2026, San Diego). One deadline for the whole manuscript; the 2026 CFP had no

separate abstract-registration step, unlike NeurIPS-style venues. Confirm each year.

• Length: main body at most 12 PMLR-formatted pages excluding references, with no page

limit on references and appendices, all submitted as one PDF.

• Anonymity: submissions must be suitable for double-anonymous review; the official

LaTeX template's anon option suppresses author names.

• Scope: theoretical aspects of machine learning at the intersection of computer

science, statistics, and applied mathematics, explicitly including theory that

explains empirical phenomena.

The single-PDF discipline

Because the appendix rides inside the same PDF as the body, COLT has no separate

supplement portal to forget — but also no second chance to patch a broken proof file.

Treat the appendix as reviewable text, not as an attachment:

• Compile body plus appendix together and check the PDF page count where the 12-page

boundary falls; references must start after the body, appendices after references.

• Nothing decision-critical may exist only in the appendix. A reviewer who stops at

page 12 should already believe the theorem statements and the proof strategy.

• Anonymize the appendix with the same care as the body: acknowledgements, grant

numbers, code URLs pointing at personal repositories, and PDF author metadata all leak.

Illustrative template skeleton

The exact style file name changes with the year (e.g., a colt2026 package for the

2026 cycle). Shape, not filename, is the stable part:

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage[anon]{colt2026}   % 'anon' hides authors for review; drop it at camera-ready
\usepackage{times}

\title[Short Title]{Tight Rates for a Learning Problem}
\coltauthor{\Name{Anonymous Author} \Email{anon@example.org}}

\begin{document}
\maketitle
\begin{abstract}%
One-paragraph statement of the problem, the main theorem, and the technique.
\end{abstract}
% <= 12 PMLR-formatted pages of body
% \bibliography{refs}  -- references excluded from the limit
% \appendix            -- full proofs; no page limit, same PDF
\end{document}

Download the real template from the current CFP; do not reuse a prior year's file, and

never alter margins, font size, or spacing — layout tampering is a desk-reject risk at

any PMLR venue.

Parallel-submission rules (verified for 2026)

The COLT 2026 CFP barred submissions substantially similar to papers previously

published, accepted for publication, or in parallel submission to other peer-reviewed

conferences with proceedings or to journals. It also barred sending a paper under COLT

review to a journal until decisions are released or the paper is withdrawn.

| Situation | COLT 2026 reading | Safe action |

|---|---|---|

| Same results on arXiv | Preprints are standard in the theory community | Post freely; do not cite your arXiv version in a way that de-anonymizes |

| Under review at a journal | Forbidden overlap | Withdraw one venue before the COLT deadline |

| Extended abstract at a proceedings venue (e.g., STOC/FOCS/ALT) | Forbidden if substantially similar | Differentiate results substantially or pick one venue |

| Non-archival workshop talk | Generally tolerated in theory culture | Verify the workshop is truly non-archival, then declare if the form asks |

| Journal submission planned after COLT decision | Explicitly allowed once decisions are out | Calendar the journal submission after notification |

Desk-reject and severity triage

| Trigger | Severity | Window to repair |

|---|---|---|

| Body beyond 12 PMLR pages | Desk reject | Only before the deadline |

| Author names or acknowledgements left in | Desk reject or chair flag | Only before the deadline |

| Parallel-submission violation | Rejection at any stage, discoverable late | Withdraw the other venue now |

| Main theorem provable only via a gap-ridden appendix | Review-stage rejection | Fix during the proof-verification pass |

| Missing formal problem setup in the body | Review-stage damage | Fixable in the writing pass |

Final-week sequence for a COLT paper

1. Freeze theorem and lemma statements; every later edit must be proofread against the

appendix, because statement-proof drift is the classic COLT correctness kill.

1. Run a full proof-verification pass with a coauthor who did not write the proofs,

checking each inequality and each invocation of an external result.

1. Rebuild the single PDF and verify the body/references/appendix boundary pages.
2. Sweep for identity: author macros, \thanks, metadata, repository links, and

self-citation phrasing ("in our earlier work [3]" must become third person).

1. Enter CMT early — create the submission record days before February-style AoE

cutoffs, since CMT accounts, conflict entry, and subject areas take time on first use.

1. Upload, re-download, and open the PDF that CMT stores; confirm it is the intended

compile and the appendix rendered.

CMT logistics worth doing early

• CMT accounts are per-email; make sure every coauthor's CMT identity uses their

canonical email, since conflicts and the informed-AC anonymity model key off these

records.

• Enter domain conflicts and coauthor conflicts completely — at a small venue an

incomplete conflict list risks an actual conflicted reviewer, not a hypothetical.

• Subject-area selections steer reviewer assignment; pick the narrow area that names

your subfield over the broad one that flatters the paper.

Cycle-volatility warnings

• Deadline, portal, template name, page count, and anonymity mechanics are re-decided

by each year's program chairs. The 2026 facts above are anchors, not permanent rules.

• Whether COLT runs an Open Problems track in a given year, and its separate

deadline and non-anonymous format, must be re-checked in the current CFP

(待核实 for any cycle after 2026).

Output format

[COLT readiness] Ready / Needs fixes / Not ready
[Blocking checks] <CMT record / 12-page body / single PDF / anonymity / parallel submission>
[Proof-integrity risk] <statement-proof drift, unverified lemma, external-result misuse>
[Desk-reject risk] <one issue>
[Fix order] <ordered actions before the AoE deadline>