# IEEE-SP (IEEE Symposium on Security & Privacy) + IEEE-CS broader

Phase 2 venue per `dec_01KS2S22VV5P5SWWXNBXQDHMGX` Option A deliverable 4.
Schema follows Phase 1 CHI.md and EMNLP.md (seven fields).

IEEE-SP (often shortened as "Oakland" historically) and the broader IEEE
Computer Society venues use the `IEEEtran` LaTeX class (LPPL 1.3+) from
CTAN. The class is shared across IEEE TSE, ICSE (when published via IEEE),
IEEE TPDS, and many other IEEE-CS venues.

## 1. Section names and order

Typical IEEE-SP paper (six to nine sections):

1. Introduction
2. Background and Related Work
3. Threat Model (Security topics; sometimes part of Introduction)
4. Method / System Design
5. Implementation (sometimes folded into Method)
6. Evaluation
7. Discussion
8. Limitations (recommended; reviewer-positive since 2022)
9. Conclusion
10. References

IEEE-SP follows the systems-security tradition of explicit threat-model
framing; missing or vague threat models are a common reviewer complaint.

## 2. Page-limit class

IEEE-SP:

- 13 pages main matter for submission (varies slightly year over year;
  verify against current CFP).
- References are **uncounted** (since ~2019).
- Appendices are uncounted.

Other IEEE-CS venues vary widely:

- IEEE TSE journal: ~14 pages typical.
- IEEE ICSE: 11 main pages + 2 reference pages = 13 total.
- IEEE TPDS: depends on track.

Always verify the specific venue's CFP.

## 3. Tone characteristics

- Conservative, formal. IEEE-CS culture leans more formal than CHI or ACL;
  contractions and casual phrasing are rare.
- First-person plural ("we", "our") is standard.
- Mathematical notation is welcomed; security proofs in particular use
  formal definitions.
- Evaluation prefers tables of numbers over narrative; appendices carry
  proof details.
- Acronyms defined on first use; preferred to be spelled out at least once
  per section if reused after several pages.
- Citations are dense; 50-100+ references is common.

## 4. Forbidden constructions

- "we propose a novel" (overused since ~2020; IEEE-SP reviewers flag).
- Unqualified "secure" or "robust" claims (require formal definitions or
  specific attack-class bounds).
- Marketing language: "groundbreaking", "comprehensive", "innovative".
- Performance claims without confidence intervals.
- Em-dash characters U+2014 and U+2013 (Writer dogfood rule).

## 5. Citation style

Numeric `[12]`, sorted by appearance. `IEEEtran` class uses
`\bibliographystyle{IEEEtranSN}` or `IEEEtran.bst` (the latter is more
common for conference papers).

Multi-citation: `[12], [13]` (with the comma) is more common than `[12,
13]` in IEEE style. The `IEEEtran.bst` handles the formatting.

References list ordered numerically by first citation, not alphabetically.

## 6. Required sections

- **Abstract**: 150-250 words.
- **Introduction**: motivation, contribution claims, paper organization.
- **Background and Related Work**.
- **Threat Model** (Security topics): mandatory at IEEE-SP.
- **Method or System Design**: detailed enough for replication.
- **Evaluation**: quantitative with statistical rigor.
- **Conclusion**: summary, limitations, future work.
- **References**: complete IEEE-style bibliography.

IEEE-SP currently does not require an Ethics statement at the top level
but encourages discussion when relevant; vulnerability disclosure work
needs a coordinated-disclosure timeline section.

## 7. Sample corpus pointers

For tone calibration: three to five recent IEEE-SP papers from the prior
two years. Sample queries:

- `https://api.openalex.org/works?filter=primary_location.source.id:<IEEE-SP-source-id>,publication_year:2025`
- IEEE-SP source ID: verify at scaffold time via OpenAlex Sources lookup
  (search "IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy").

Sample across topic areas: applied crypto, web security, ML security,
formal verification, side-channel analysis.

Store as `lit_` entries with `tags=["venue-sample:IEEE-SP", "venue-sample"]`.

## Template notes

`IEEEtran` is LPPL 1.3+; the canonical source is CTAN
(`ctan.org/pkg/ieeetran`) with the development repo at
`michaelshell.org/tex/ieeetran/`. Install via `tlmgr install IEEEtran`.

Document class options for IEEE-SP submission specifically:

```latex
\documentclass[conference]{IEEEtran}
```

For technote or journal flavors:

```latex
\documentclass[journal]{IEEEtran}
```

Engine: pdflatex. lualatex and xelatex compile but may flag font warnings.

## References

- IEEE-SP CFP (verify per year): https://www.ieee-security.org/TC/SP2025/
- IEEEtran CTAN: https://ctan.org/pkg/ieeetran
- IEEEtran how-to: https://michaelshell.org/tex/ieeetran/
- IEEE-CS Author Guide: https://www.computer.org/publications/author-resources
