ITCS gives you three places to put content — the body, the appendix (part of the submitted PDF), and the full version on arXiv/ECCC/ePrint — and the split is governed by one rule: anything a reviewer must read to judge the paper lives inside the submitted PDF. Because ITCS has no hard page limit and no rebuttal, the appendix is generous but load-bearing: you cannot promise "details in the full version" for a proof that decides acceptance, and you cannot answer later if a reviewer cannot follow. This skill decides what goes where.
Sort every piece of content by whether a reviewer needs it to decide:
itcs-writing-style).No central proof may live only in the external full version. The PC is not obligated to open your arXiv posting. A reviewer who reaches "the proof of our main theorem is in the full version [ref]" and stops there will — correctly — treat the claim as unproved in the submission. Put every load-bearing proof in the submitted PDF's appendix.
Deferring to the full version is acceptable only for genuinely peripheral content: a fourth corollary, a longer historical discussion, an alternate proof of an already-proved result.
ITCS's lack of a hard limit is a gift with a catch:
| Content | Body (~first 10pp) | Appendix (same PDF) | Full version only |
|---|---|---|---|
| Model & definitions | Yes (core ones) | Full/edge-case variants | — |
| Main theorem statements | Yes | — | — |
| Proof ideas / sketches | Yes (a paragraph each) | — | — |
| Complete proofs of central claims | Idea only | Yes (required) | Mirror allowed, not sole home |
| Novelty delta / related work | Yes (the deltas) | Extended comparison | — |
| Routine calculations | Reference | Yes | — |
| Peripheral corollaries, alt proofs | — | Optional | Yes |
| Finite separating objects (graphs/codes) | Small ones inline | Larger ones | — |
Posting a full version is encouraged under lightweight double-blind, but keep the split
consistent with the anonymity strategy (see itcs-submission):
[ITCS content-split status] clean / decision-critical-content-misplaced
[Merits window] model+motivation+results+deltas within ~10 pages, no padding? yes/no
[Appendix] complete proofs of ALL central claims present in the submitted PDF? yes/no
[Full-version leak] any load-bearing proof deferred ONLY to arXiv/ECCC/ePrint? list them
[Signposting] every deferred proof cross-referenced to its appendix section? yes/no
[Fix queue] <ordered; move any decision-critical content into the PDF first>