Start every camera-ready paper from the official GCP single-column manuscript template — it already has the correct margins, styles, and heading levels configured, which avoids most of the issues below automatically.
Page setup
| Property | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Page size | A4 (210 × 297 mm) or US Letter (8.5 × 11 in) — use whichever your conference's template specifies |
| Columns | Single column, full page width |
| Margins | Top 25 mm, bottom 25 mm, left/right 22 mm |
| Page numbers | Centered in the footer; removed automatically during final typesetting |
| Line spacing | Single spacing in the body text, 1.15 within long paragraphs is acceptable |
Typography
| Element | Typeface | Size | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paper title | Serif (e.g. Source Serif 4 / Times New Roman) | 18 pt | Bold |
| Author names | Same as body | 11 pt | Regular, affiliations as superscript |
| Abstract | Same as body, indented block | 10 pt | Italic |
| Body text | Serif | 10.5 pt | Regular |
| Section headings | Serif or sans, matching body family | 13 pt | Bold |
| Sub-headings | Same family | 11 pt | Bold, or bold italic for sub-sub-headings |
| Captions / footnotes | Same family | 9 pt | Regular |
Use one consistent typeface family throughout a paper. Decorative or display fonts are reserved for the series' own template chrome (cover pages, running headers) and should not appear inside the body of a paper.
Manuscript structure
A GCP paper follows this order; sections that do not apply to a given paper (for example, Acknowledgements) may be omitted, but the remaining order should not change:
- Title
- Author names and affiliations, with a marked corresponding author
- Abstract (150–250 words)
- Keywords (4–6 terms)
- Introduction
- Main body (methods, results, discussion, or discipline-appropriate equivalents)
- Conclusion
- Acknowledgements (including AI-tool disclosure, if applicable)
- References
- Appendices (if any)
Headings
Number section headings with Arabic numerals (1. Introduction, 2. Related Work) and sub-headings with a decimal scheme (2.1 Prior Approaches, 2.1.1 Rule-Based Methods). Do not number the Abstract, Acknowledgements, or References. Use the template's built-in Heading 1 / Heading 2 / Heading 3 styles rather than manually bolding and sizing text, so that a table of contents can be generated automatically at the volume level.
Figures and tables
- Number figures and tables independently: Figure 1, Figure 2…; Table 1, Table 2…
- Captions sit below figures and above tables.
- Every figure and table must be referenced in the body text before it appears.
- Supply raster images at a minimum of 300 dpi at final print size; vector formats (SVG, EPS, or native chart objects) are preferred where available.
- Avoid color-only encoding in charts where possible, so figures remain legible in grayscale printouts and to colorblind readers.
Equations
Number displayed equations sequentially in parentheses, right-aligned:
E = mc² (1). Refer to equations in text as "Equation (1)" rather
than "the equation above," since page breaks in the final typeset volume may separate a reference
from its equation.
Reference style
GCP uses a single numbered reference style across the series, the GCP Numbered Style, so that readers moving between volumes see a consistent citation format regardless of field.
Cite sources with a bracketed number in order of first appearance: "...as shown in prior work [1], later extended by [2, 3]." Do not use author-date citations (e.g. "(Smith, 2021)") in the GCP style.
List references in numerical order (the order they first appear in text), not alphabetically. Example entries:
| Type | Format |
|---|---|
| Journal article | [1] A. Author, B. Author, "Title of the article," Journal Name, vol. X, no. Y, pp. 1–10, Year. |
| Conference paper | [2] A. Author, "Title of the paper," in Proc. Name of Conference, City, Country, Year, pp. 1–5. |
| Book | [3] A. Author, Title of the Book, Xth ed. City: Publisher, Year. |
| Online resource | [4] Organization, "Title of the page," Year. [Online]. Available: URL. [Accessed: Day Month Year]. |
File formats and naming
- Submit camera-ready files as .docx (from the GCP template) or a print-ready .pdf exported from it, as your conference specifies.
- Name files as
lastname_paperID.docx(e.g.kapoor_042.docx), using the paper ID assigned during review. - Embed all fonts if submitting a PDF directly, so that typesetting is not affected by fonts missing on the production system.
Length limits
Unless your conference specifies a different limit, GCP's default is 8 pages including references and figures, using the template's default type sizes and margins. Conferences may set a shorter or longer default for their own volume; the conference's call for papers is the authoritative source for the limit that applies to your paper.
Pre-submission checklist
- Paper started from the current GCP template, page size matching the conference's specification
- Title, authors, affiliations, and corresponding author clearly marked
- Abstract within 150–250 words; 4–6 keywords listed
- Headings use the template's built-in heading styles, numbered correctly
- All figures and tables numbered, captioned, referenced in text, and legible at print size
- References in GCP Numbered Style, in order of first citation
- AI-tool use disclosed in Acknowledgements, if applicable
- File named
lastname_paperID.docxand within the conference's page limit