USENIX Security '25 Instructions for Authors of Accepted Papers

These instructions are for authors of accepted papers at the 34th USENIX Security Symposium. If you wish to submit a paper or deliver a talk at another upcoming USENIX event, please review the open Calls for Papers and Calls for Participation for our upcoming USENIX conferences.

Visa

If you need an invitation letter to apply for a United States visa to attend the conference, please contact the Conference Department as soon as possible. Visa applications are reportedly taking more than two months to process. Please identify yourself as a presenter or an author, and include your mailing address in your email request.

Contact

If you have questions, please contact the USENIX Security '25 Program Co-Chairs, Lujo Bauer and Giancarlo Pellegrino, or the USENIX Production Department.

Instructions for Authors of Refereed Papers

  1. Final Papers deadline. A printable PDF of your paper is due on or before the final paper deadlines listed below.
    • Cycle 1: Upload your final paper to the submissions system by Thursday, January 30, 2025.
    • Cycle 2: Upload your final paper to the submissions system by Thursday, June 12, 2025.
    To upload your final draft (and update other information specified below), visit your submission's HotCRP page and click the Edit button under the paper title.

  2. Maximum page length. Final papers should be no longer than 20 pages, including bibliography and any appendices. Exceptional requests for additional pages should be emailed to sec25chairs@usenix.org and will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
  3. Paper format. Papers should be typeset in two-column format using 10-point type on 12-point (single-spaced) leading, in a text block 7" wide x 9" deep, with .33" inter-column space, formatted for 8.5" x 11" paper.
  4. Looking for templates? Templates and sample first pages (two-column format) for Microsoft Word and LaTeX are available on the USENIX templates page.
  5. Artifacts. Per the new Open Science Policy, accepted papers are expected to make their artifacts available. Artifacts must be submitted for availability verification before final papers are due. Accepted papers that claim to have artifacts but fail their availability verification, including because artifacts aren't submitted on time, will have their acceptance rescinded. All papers with artifacts verified by the Artifact Evaluation Committee should include the Artifacts Available badge on their final PDF. Please see the Call for Artifacts for additional details and submission instructions.
  6. Ethics considerations and open science. The final paper instructions below may differ from the submission instructions, depending on whether a paper was accepted in cycle 1 or cycle 2. Please read these instructions carefully.

    Final papers must have two sections titled "Ethics considerations" and a section titled "Open science," both immediately preceding the References section. This section must not be in the appendix.
    • Ethics considerations: This section must include the ethics considerations, integrating comments of the reviewers and the REC. This section must also integrate the updated version that authors were asked to submit during the rebuttal.
    • Open science: This section must include the latest version of the open science section. If authors were asked to submit a new open-science section as part of the author response, then that content from the response should appear in the final paper, edited if needed to address reviewers' comments and revision requirements. In particular, this section must list all the artifacts created by or needed to reproduce the research described in the paper, e.g., code, analysis scripts, and datasets.
      • Available artifacts: Artifacts should be published on a platform that provides persistent access (not, e.g., GitHub; see the Call for Artifacts) and the URLs or other descriptors sufficient to locate the artifacts must be included in the final papers.
      • Unavailable artifacts: Authors must explain why artifacts will not be released.
  7. Embed all fonts in your final paper PDF.
  8. Make searchable your final paper PDF. This typically does not require authors to do anything additional, as PDFs generated via tools like pdfLaTeX are typically searchable. None of the text in the body of the paper, beyond words that might appear in illustrations, should be rendered as images.
  9. Page numbers must be suppressed on your final paper PDF.
  10. Certify your final paper's title, author, and abstract in HotCRP. The final PDF's title, author information (including author order), and abstract must exactly match the information entered into the HotCRP submission system. Please update the information in HotCRP as necessary, then check the certification checkbox. If you make any changes after you check the certification checkbox, you will need to check the box again. Please note: Any changes to author affiliations and the addition or removal of authors after a paper has already been accepted are not allowed. However, authors are welcome to petition the program chairs directly for an exception.
  11. Sign the consent to publish form. Each author must sign a consent to publish form, which allows USENIX to publish the paper as well as any slides, audio, and/or video of your presentation. USENIX makes these freely available as part of our commitment to open access. Please review and e-sign the form. If you are the lead author, please be sure all of your co-authors sign a form as well.
  12. Use of images, audio, and video in your materials. It is very important that you secure permission to use copyright-protected materials in your slide deck, paper, presentation video, or any other materials used at our event or submitted for publication. Even when using an item with a Creative Commons license, you must read and comply with the terms of the license.

    USENIX receives copyright infringement notices from time to time, resulting from authors or speakers using copyright-protected materials without proper licensing or attribution. When this happens, we have to unpublish the work in question until/unless the issue is resolved. Licensing fees may be incurred, even when the work is unpublished, and USENIX will bill the author or speaker for any costs incurred. When possible, USENIX will refer the complainant directly to the author or speaker, who will be solely responsible for resolving the complaint.
  13. Embargo requests. All papers will be available online to registered attendees before the symposium. Authors may request an embargo for their papers by the deadline dates listed below. Please specify in your request what parts of your paper require an embargo (e.g., PDF, abstract, title, and/or author list).
    • Cycle 1: Thursday, February 27, 2025
    • Cycle 2: Thursday, July 10, 2025
    All embargoed papers will be released on the first day of the symposium, Wednesday, August 13, 2025. If your accepted paper should not be published prior to the event, please notify the USENIX Production Department.
  14. Registration. Registration information will be available online in May. Please note: If the conference registration fee poses a financial hardship for the presenter of the refereed paper, contact the Conference Department with a description of your circumstances.