# USENIX (Security, ATC, NSDI, OSDI)

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

USENIX-family venues share a common LaTeX template (`usenix2019_v3.1.cls`
descended from the 2019 update) released by USENIX as yearly ZIP bundles
at `usenix.org/conferences/author-resources/paper-templates`.

## 1. Section names and order

Typical USENIX Security or ATC paper (seven to nine sections):

1. Introduction
2. Background and Related Work (single combined section is common)
3. Threat Model / Adversary Model (Security specifically; ATC may skip)
4. System Design (or "Method", "Approach")
5. Implementation
6. Evaluation (one or more sections; methodology + results combined or split)
7. Discussion
8. Related Work (some authors separate this from Background; either layout accepted)
9. Conclusion
10. References

USENIX Security in particular expects an explicit Threat Model section early
in the paper; missing one is a common reviewer complaint. ATC and NSDI are
more flexible about placement.

## 2. Page-limit class

USENIX Security:

- 13 pages main matter for the submission (excluding references and
  appendices); verify against the current year's CFP.
- References are **uncounted** (typical USENIX-family).
- Appendices are uncounted but reviewers may opt to skim them; load-bearing
  material should not live exclusively in an appendix.

USENIX ATC:

- 12 pages main matter typical for submission.

USENIX NSDI:

- 12 pages main matter.

Camera-ready may gain additional pages (varies by year; verify CFP).

## 3. Tone characteristics

- Terse and adversary-first. Security papers in particular open with the
  threat model and the specific attack or defense at hand.
- Quantitative dominance. Most evaluation sections lean on measured numbers
  rather than narrative.
- Acronym discipline: define on first use; do not invent acronyms gratuitously.
- First-person plural ("we") is standard.
- Hedging is minimal; security claims are stated precisely and bounded by
  the threat model rather than softened with qualifiers.
- System diagrams expected; the Implementation section commonly includes
  artifact links (GitHub URL, anonymized for review).

## 4. Forbidden constructions

- "we propose a novel" framing in the Introduction (USENIX reviewers flag
  the same novelty cliché as ACL).
- Threat-model claims without an explicit Threat Model section (USENIX
  Security).
- Performance claims without confidence intervals or variance reporting.
- "Robust" or "secure" as bare adjectives (require specific attack-class
  bounds).
- Em-dash characters U+2014 and U+2013 (Writer dogfood rule).

## 5. Citation style

Numeric brackets `[12]`, sorted by appearance. The USENIX class uses
`\bibliographystyle{plain}` or `usenix-numeric.bst` (varies by year; the
template ZIP carries the canonical `.bst`).

Multi-citation: `[12, 13]` or compressed `[12-15]` (numeric ranges allowed
with usenix-numeric.bst).

## 6. Required sections

- **Abstract**: 200 words max typical.
- **Introduction**: motivation, problem framing, contribution claims.
- **Background and Related Work**: positions against prior work.
- **Threat Model** (Security only): mandatory.
- **System Design or Method**: detailed enough for replication.
- **Evaluation**: quantitative results with appropriate variance reporting.
- **Conclusion**: summary plus future-work pointers.

USENIX does not currently require an Ethics statement at the top level, but
human-subjects work or vulnerability disclosure work should include IRB or
disclosure timeline notes.

Reproducibility: USENIX Security and ATC both run an Artifact Evaluation
process; the artifact appendix is a separate submission step.

## 7. Sample corpus pointers

For tone calibration: three to five recent USENIX Security or ATC papers
from the prior two years. Sample queries:

- `https://api.openalex.org/works?filter=primary_location.source.id:<USENIX-source-id>,publication_year:2025`
- USENIX Security: `S4210207009` (verify at scaffold time)

Sample across topic areas: systems security, applied cryptography, network
security, hardware security. Store as `lit_` entries with
`tags=["venue-sample:USENIX", "venue-sample"]`.

## Template notes

`usenix2019_v3.1.cls` is the canonical class file. Fetch via the yearly
ZIP from `usenix.org/conferences/author-resources/paper-templates`. The
`fetch_template.py` (T5) SHA-256 verifies the ZIP; the registry pins the
URL and checksum per year.

Engine: pdflatex. xelatex / lualatex may compile but font-substitution
artifacts can appear.

## References

- USENIX Security 2025 CFP (verify per year): https://www.usenix.org/conference/usenixsecurity25
- USENIX Author Templates: https://www.usenix.org/conferences/author-resources/paper-templates
- USENIX Artifact Evaluation: https://secartifacts.github.io/
