Skills Development Ensuring Theoretical Paper Verifiability

Ensuring Theoretical Paper Verifiability

v20260724
icdt-reproducibility
This guide outlines the standards for ensuring the verifiability and rigor of theoretical computer science papers, particularly for venues like ICDT. It mandates complete proofs, precise pinning of models and assumptions, explicit matching of upper and lower bounds, and strict internal consistency across all claims and full versions. Use this checklist before submission to elevate academic quality.
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Overview

ICDT Reproducibility

At a theory venue, "reproducibility" means verifiability: a competent reader, given your paper, can reconstruct every proof and independently confirm every theorem. There is no dataset to re-run and no benchmark to re-execute — the standard is that nothing is asserted without a checkable argument, and nothing in the published record contradicts the full version. Use this before submission and again before camera-ready.

Verifiability map

  • Map each theorem, lemma, and stated bound to a complete proof — in the body or the marked appendix — with every case handled. An unproved "it can be shown" is the theory-venue equivalent of a missing script.
  • Pin the model and assumptions exactly: the data model, the query/constraint language, the complexity measure (data vs combined vs query), and any restriction (bounded arity, acyclicity) the proof relies on. A hidden assumption that makes the theorem easier is a correctness defect.
  • Ensure definitions are self-contained: every symbol and notion used in a proof is defined in the paper, not assumed from a specific prior paper the referee may not have open.
  • Keep the paper internally consistent: a bound stated in the abstract, restated in a theorem, and used in a corollary must be the same bound.

Proof-completeness audit

Claim in the paper Weak (non-verifiable) form ICDT-ready form
"Evaluation is [class]-complete" Upper bound only; "hardness is standard" Both bounds proved; the reduction given explicitly
"The construction works" Sketch with the hard case omitted Every case, including the awkward one, in the appendix
"This generalizes [X]" Asserted The generalization proved, with X recovered as a special case
"The problem is decidable" Algorithm without a termination/correctness proof Algorithm + proof it halts and is correct
"W.l.o.g. assume acyclic" Unjustified The reduction to the acyclic case proved, or the assumption dropped

"It is easy to see" is treated as not shown unless it genuinely is; convert each such line into a one-line argument or move it to the appendix as a short proof.

Matching bounds and tightness

[Upper bound]  algorithm/argument establishing membership in the claimed class, proved
[Lower bound]  a reduction (or game/adversary argument) establishing hardness, proved
[Label]        say which is which, and state explicitly when the two meet (tight)
[Gaps]         if a bound is one-sided, say so honestly rather than implying tightness

A one-sided bound presented as a settled answer is the most common verifiability failure ICDT referees catch — and the most common reason for a Cycle-1 "revise."

Paper / full-version consistency

  • Before submission: the single PDF is self-contained; every acceptance-critical claim has a checkable proof inside it (online appendices are not allowed).
  • Before camera-ready: post/update the arXiv full version and confirm it states the same theorems and bounds as the LIPIcs paper. If the revision changed a bound, change it in both.
  • A published LIPIcs paper whose full version silently proves a weaker (or stronger) result than claimed is a lasting citation hazard; keep them in lockstep (icdt-camera-ready).

Honest labeling

  • Distinguish theorem (proved), conjecture (believed, unproved), and open problem (not known) explicitly; a referee reads these words literally.
  • State what your result does not cover — the cases outside your class, the measures you did not bound — so no reader over-reads it.
  • Attribute reused proof techniques to their source rather than re-deriving them silently.

Output format

[Claim inventory] <each theorem/lemma -> complete proof location>
[Models pinned] data model / language / complexity measure / restrictions stated? yes/no
[Bounds] matched and labeled; one-sided gaps disclosed? yes/no
[Self-contained] all definitions in-paper; no external-appendix dependence? yes/no
[Consistency] LIPIcs paper == arXiv full version on all bounds? yes/no
[Fix queue] <close proof gaps first, then pin models, then align full version>
Info
Category Development
Name icdt-reproducibility
Version v20260724
Size 4.58KB
Updated At 2026-07-28
Language