USENIX Security does not collect a separate supplement upload; everything textual travels in one PDF with a fixed geography, and everything executable lives at the locations named in the Open Science appendix. Placement is therefore a reviewing decision: material outside the 13-page body has no guarantee of being read. The layout below is the '26 rule set (checked 2026-07-08); confirm against the current CFP before restructuring a draft.
| Tier | Cap ('26) | Who reads it |
|---|---|---|
| Main body | 13 pages | Reviewers, fully — the only tier with a guarantee |
| Ethical Considerations appendix | ~1 page, mandatory | Reviewers and (when flagged) ethics scrutiny — read carefully |
| Open Science appendix | ~1 page, mandatory | Reviewers + AEC after acceptance — enforced, not just read |
| References + optional appendices | uncapped | Discretionary; assume skimmed at best |
The two named appendices sit between the body and the references — an ordering
unique enough that template mistakes are common. They are not overflow space: their
job is compliance content (see usenixsec-reproducibility and the ethics coverage
in usenixsec-topic-selection / usenixsec-experiments), and stuffing evaluation
material into them reads as a page-limit dodge.
Anything a reviewer needs to judge the contribution:
For each candidate block, apply the demotion test: if a reviewer never reads this, does any claim in the body lose its support? If yes, it stays in the body or the claim gets weakened. If no, demote it and leave a one-line pointer.
Cutting to 13 pages is a routing exercise, in priority order:
usenixsec-topic-selection).Never solve overflow with template surgery; the CFP forbids whitespace tampering and desk-level format checks are mechanical.
% Correct skeleton ('26 geometry) — verify against the current template
\end{document-body} % ≤ 13 pages ends here
\section*{Ethical Considerations} % mandatory, ≤ ~1 page
...
\section*{Open Science} % mandatory, ≤ ~1 page
...
\bibliographystyle{plain}
\bibliography{refs} % uncapped
\appendix
\section{Extended Results} % optional, uncapped, no reading guarantee
\section{Survey Instrument}
Code, data, VM images, and long-form documentation live at the Open Science locations, not in the PDF. Two placement rules connect the tiers:
[Geometry] body pages / named appendices present in order / optional appendix count
[Demotion audit] items moved out + demotion-test result for each
[Body integrity] claims fully supported inside 13 pages: yes / gaps
[External] artifact-only material list — nothing reviewing-critical: confirmed