Skills Data Science Assembling Scientific Paper Supplements

Assembling Scientific Paper Supplements

v20260724
rss-supplementary
This guide details the best practices for structuring supplementary materials for scientific conferences, ensuring the main paper remains self-contained. It covers transforming raw data, failure logs, and robotic videos into credible evidence annexes. Key areas include anonymization of media, maintaining archive hygiene, and structuring appendices to deepen belief without being mandatory for understanding the core claims.
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Overview

RSS Supplementary

Assemble the supplement as the paper's evidence annex. RSS 2026 gave it its own deadline (February 6, one week after the paper, AoE — verified 2026-07-08) and its own constraint: the CFP requires the main PDF to be self-contained, so the supplement may deepen belief but must never be required for it.

The division of labor

Content Main PDF Supplement
Claim, protocol summary, headline results, failure distribution
Full proofs / derivations sketch ✔ complete
Per-trial logs and extended tables totals ✔ raw
Robot footage referenced ✔ files
Code/data archive availability sentence ✔ archive
Anything a reviewer needs to believe the claim ✔ always never alone

Litmus test per item: "if no reviewer opens the supplement, does the paper still stand?" The 2026 rules make opening it discretionary, so plan for the case where nobody does.

Robot video as evidence, not trailer

The venue's culture reads supplementary video the way it reads tables — so cut it like data, not like a launch video:

  1. Continuous takes for headline behaviors. An uncut clip at stated real-time speed is the video equivalent of a raw log. Label any speed change on-screen; an unlabeled 4x cut reads as concealment once noticed.
  2. Show the failure modes. Two or three representative failures, labeled by category, matched to the paper's failure table. This single choice most separates evidence-video from promo-video.
  3. Cover the conditions. A clip per experimental condition beats a montage of the best condition; reviewers map video to the experiment matrix.
  4. No music, no title animations, no lab branding — the last is an anonymity requirement, not just taste.

Anonymization for physical media

Footage leaks identity through channels prose never has:

  • Frame contents: faces, badges, lab signage, posters, distinctive robot liveries, window views. Crop, mask, or reshoot.
  • File metadata: camera serials, GPS tags, creator fields in video containers, and archive paths embedding usernames — strip before packaging.
  • Voice-over accents and names in ambient audio — prefer captions or replace audio.

Archive hygiene

  • One top-level README orienting a reviewer in under a minute: contents map, entry command, expected runtime.
  • Include the trial ledger and analysis scripts (rss-reproducibility); exclude caches, checkpoints beyond the necessary, and any credential.
  • Test the archive on a machine that has never seen the project; broken relative paths are the most common silent failure.
  • Remember the ordering gift: the paper freezes first. The supplement week is for packaging existing evidence — footage shot after January 30 supports nothing the reviewers are judging.

Video storyboard template

Draft the cut on paper before opening an editor:

00:00-00:10  task + claim, one caption line (no narration needed)
00:10-01:10  headline behavior: ONE continuous take, "1x speed" on screen
01:10-01:50  one clip per experimental condition, captioned with condition ID
01:50-02:20  failure gallery: 2-3 labeled failures matching Table <n> categories
02:20-02:40  transfer/perturbation condition, uncut
02:40-end    (optional) mechanism visualization tied to a paper figure

Every segment maps to something in the PDF; anything that maps to nothing is promotion and gets cut.

What actually gets opened

Item Odds a reviewer opens it Design consequence
Video file High Carry condition coverage + failures here
Appendix PDF Medium Mirror main-text section order; standalone-readable
Code archive README Medium One-minute orientation or nothing else gets read
Raw trial ledger Low, but decisive when opened Include; it settles protocol disputes
Checkpoints / large binaries Very low Ship recipes, not bulk

Cycle-volatile parameters

Size caps, allowed formats, and video length limits for 2026 were not publicly surfaced (待核实); read them off the OpenReview submission form itself rather than assuming any venue's conventions.

Appendix craft

  • Mirror the main text's section order and numbering scheme so a reviewer chasing "Appendix C from §4" lands without hunting.
  • Open each appendix section with one sentence saying which body claim it deepens; orphaned appendix material is invisible under discretionary inspection.
  • Restate the protocol being extended before extending it — the appendix is read days after the body, if at all.
  • Full derivations, per-object result breakdowns, sensitivity sweeps, and extra qualitative figures belong here; the body keeps the sketch and the headline.
  • Do not let the appendix quietly introduce new claims: anything claim-bearing that appears only in the supplement violates the self-containment rule from the reviewer's side of the table.

Output format

[Self-containment test] passes without supplement / fails: <item>
[Video cut] conditions covered <y/n> | failures shown <y/n> | speeds labeled <y/n>
[Anonymity sweep] frames / metadata / audio -> findings
[Archive check] README / entry command / clean-machine test
[Form limits] <caps from OpenReview form, or 待核实>
Info
Category Data Science
Name rss-supplementary
Version v20260724
Size 5.55KB
Updated At 2026-07-29
Language