What is the page limit for ACL 2025 Long Paper main text? Do references count?

Long papers are commonly limited to 9 pages of main content; references often do not count toward that cap. Confirm exact limits in the ACL 2025 call for papers and style documentation.

Why does ACL require a Limitations section?

ACL mandates **limitations** to encourage responsible research and reproducibility. The section is a structural expectation; omitting it or treating it as filler reflects poorly on the submission.

What paper size, fonts, and citation style does ACL use?

A4, **two columns**; margins are typically **2.5 cm** on all sides; body text **Times New Roman 11pt**, headings **15pt**; citations follow **Chicago Author-Date** style.

ACL 2025 Paper Formatting Template (Long Paper)

Submission guidelines

ACL is a flagship NLP venue; Long Paper slots are extremely competitive. Reviewers focus on task definition, experimental design, sound linguistics or reasoning, and ethics and limitations. In recent years, Limitations has become a hard expectation: missing or shallow treatment reads as non-compliance or carelessness. ACL uses A4 two-column layout and official ACL styles—margins and fonts differ from many US Letter venues; do not reuse CVPR or NeurIPS templates unchanged.

Common rejection reasons include weak baselines, shallow analysis, and unclear differentiation from prior work. Format pitfalls: A4 vs. Letter confusion, mixing 10pt and 11pt, and Chicago Author-Date citations that do not match the .bib file.

Formatting in detail

Page and layout: A4; two columns; 9 pages maximum for main text; references usually do not count (per that year’s rules).
Margins: 2.5 cm on all sides.
Fonts: body Times New Roman 11pt; headings 15pt.
Required structure: Abstract, Introduction, Limitations, References; methods, experiments, and ethics follow NLP norms and the template.
Official hub: ACL 2025 for the CFP, style files, and policy updates.

Abstract guidelines

Length: 200 words maximum.
Content: task, data, method, main results; for NLP, state language coverage and resource languages when relevant.
Integrity: avoid overstating cross-lingual generalization; if you only evaluate in English, do not imply broad multilingual validity.
Consistency: dataset names and metrics must match the paper.

Citations and references

Style: Chicago Author-Date (author–year), aligned with the official .bst / stylesheet.
BibTeX: complete entries (venue, pages, DOI when available); clear arXiv vs. published versions.
Common mistakes: mixing APA/IEEE; hand-editing the bibliography; long reference lists in two columns without table* or column breaks where needed.

Frequent formatting mistakes

Missing or shallow Limitations: only two or three generic sentences.
Wrong paper or margins: US Letter or margins not 2.5 cm.
Main text over 9 pages: appendices folded into the main PDF against rules.
Inconsistent point size: local 10pt to squeeze space.
Chicago errors: wrong author, year, or page formatting vs. the guide.

How to convert to ACL format with AutoSCI

Upload your paper — PDF or Word.
Choose a template — ACL 2025 (Long Paper).
Export — LaTeX, PDF, or Word.

AutoSCI applies page limits, margins, fonts, and citation style to match ACL expectations.

Writing the Limitations section

Be concrete and testable: data bias, language coverage, metric blind spots, compute cost, societal risks. Avoid “future work will fix this” without substance; prefer “we did not explore X because Y.” If the method fails on certain genres, say so and point to error patterns.

Ethics and responsible NLP

For human subjects, annotation, or generative misuse, follow ACL ethics guidance; user studies and private data need consent and compliance details.

Two-column figures and tables in NLP

Attention maps, syntax trees, and wide tables overflow easily in two columns. Prefer vector graphics; use tabularx or split columns; move long examples to the appendix.

LaTeX and ACL style

Use the official acl style with natbib; build order and .bst follow the README. Do not mix legacy style file names from older years.

Pre-deadline checklist

A4, two columns, 2.5 cm margins.
Main text ≤9 pages (long paper).
Abstract ≤200 words.
Includes Limitations.
Chicago Author-Date citations throughout.
11pt / 15pt fonts match the template.

Tips for international authors

English: precise task definitions and terminology; if you use Chinese corpora, describe annotation protocols clearly in English.
Deadlines: submissions often use AoE (Anywhere on Earth).
Multilingual work: state train/test languages and data licenses explicitly.

Migrating from other conferences

From US Letter venues, recalculate paper size and margins; switching citations from IEEE/APA to Chicago requires full-document replacement, not partial edits.

Additional FAQ

Q: Can Limitations appear just before the conclusion?

A: Follow the official template section order; there is usually a dedicated \section{Limitations}.

Q: Do short and long papers share the same style?

A: Same style family; page limits differ—see the short-paper template page.

Experiments and statistics

Report significance tests, bootstraps, and random seeds; for low-resource settings, disclose data sizes.

Workflow with AutoSCI

Finalize content before switching to the ACL template; double-check A4 / 2.5 cm, Chicago, and Limitations.

Reviews and rebuttal

Respond point by point; for limitations critiques, acknowledge and outline future work without defensive replies lacking evidence.

Version notice

The ACL 2025 official style files and CFP are authoritative.

Related work

Cover classics, top-venue papers, and recent preprints; baselines should include strong standard choices.

Resources and reproducibility

Provide code and data links; if not open-sourcing, explain why and give partial reproduction steps.

PDF and fonts

Embed fonts; avoid orphaned lines at the end of two-column pages.

Case studies and linguistic analysis

Ground qualitative examples in quantitative results; avoid cherry-picked sentences.

Anonymity and ARR

If using ACL Rolling Review, follow anonymity and versioning rules for that cycle.

Common pitfalls

Copying the abstract into Limitations.
Describing layout in US customary units incorrectly.
References not sorted or formatted per Chicago.

Team roles

One person owns the .bib Chicago fields; another owns figure widths and font sizes consistently.

Wide tables and equations

Use split for wide equations; use spanning tables carefully to limit whitespace.

Final pass

Search the PDF for author strings (if anonymous), TODO, and unresolved citations.

Writing cadence

Draft Limitations early alongside experiments—avoid tacking on a hollow section at the end.

Relationship to EMNLP

ACL-series style files are often shared; still follow the current year’s guide for each venue.

Print preview

Use A4 actual size in print preview—avoid Letter scaling that skews margins.

Data provenance

For standard benchmarks, state version and split protocol.

Broader impact

Discuss misuse risks, bias, and mitigations in a dedicated subsection or within ethics, as appropriate.

Appendices

Long proofs and extra experiments go to the appendix; cross-reference appendix labels from the main text.

Last hour before submission

Only verification and upload—avoid large structural edits.

Format Overview