Formatting Instructions For Authors Using Word 2018

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Formatting Instructions
for Authors Using Microsoft Word
AAAI Press
Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence
pubforms18@aaai.org

Abstract
AAAI creates proceedings, working notes, and technical reports directly from electronic source furnished by the authors. To ensure that all papers in the publication have a uniform appearance, authors must adhere to the following
instructions.

Deleting this Example of a Section Heading
will REMOVE the Copyright Line!
Congratulations on having a paper selected for inclusion in
an AAAI Press proceedings or technical report! This document details the requirements necessary to get your accepted paper published. Within the document, general
guidelines are provided as applicable for using Microsoft
Word. If you are using LaTeX, instructions are provided in
a different document. AAAI only accepts papers formatted
using Word or LaTeX.
The instructions herein are provided as a general guide
for experienced Word users who would like to use that
software to format their paper for an AAAI Press publication or report. We assume that you can comply with the requirements as they are provided herein. If you are not an
experienced Word user, please obtain assistance locally.
AAAI cannot provide you with support. If the results you
obtain are not in accordance with the specifications you received, you must correct your source file to achieve the
correct result.
These instructions are generic. Consequently, they do
not include specific dates, page charges, and so forth.
Please consult your specific written conference instructions
for details regarding your submission. Please review the
entire document for specific instructions that might apply
to your particular situation. All authors must comply with
the following:
Copyright © 2018, Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (www.aaai.org). All rights reserved.

• You must use the latest AAAI Press Word template.
• Download the author kit.
• Complete, sign, and return by the deadline the AAAI
copyright form (proceedings authors) or distribution license (technical report authors).
• Read and format your paper source and PDF according
to the formatting instructions for authors.
• Submit your electronic files and abstract using the AAAI
Press electronic submission form on time.
• Email your copyright form, and any required page or
formatting charges to AAAI Press so that they are received by the deadline.
• Check every page of your paper before submitting it.

Copyright
All papers submitted for publication by AAAI Press must
be accompanied by a valid signed copyright form or, in the
case of technical reports, by a valid signed permission to
distribute form. There are no exceptions to this requirement. You must send us the original version of this form.
However, to meet the deadline, you may fax (1-650-3214457) or scan and e-mail the form (pubforms18@ aaai.org)
to AAAI by the submission deadline, and then mail the
original via postal mail, to the AAAI office. If you fail to
send in a signed copyright or permission form, your paper
cannot published. You will find PDF versions of the AAAI
copyright and permission to distribute forms in the author
kit.

Formatting Requirements in Brief
We need source and PDF files that can be used in a variety
of ways and can be output on a variety of devices. AAAI
imposes some requirements on your source and PDF files
that must be followed. Most of these requirements are
based on our efforts to standardize conference manuscript
properties and layout. These requirements are as follows,

and all papers submitted to AAAI for publication must
comply:
• ALL FONTS MUST be embedded in the PDF file.
(Your paper cannot be corrected or published if the fonts
are missing.)
• No type 3 fonts may be used (even in illustrations).
• All text in your paper must be black. Use of any colored
type must be restricted to figures.
• Your title must follow mixed-case capitalization rules.
• Word documents must use the Times, Time Roman, or
Times New Roman fonts. (Use of any other fonts in the
text, title, heading, or references is not permitted).
• Fonts that require non-English language support (CID
and Identity-H) must be converted to outlines or removed from the document (even if they are in a graphics
file embedded in the document).
• Two-column format in AAAI style is required for all papers.
• The paper size for final submission must be US letter.
No exceptions.
• The source file must exactly match the PDF.
• The document margins must be as specified in the formatting instructions. Ensure that the specifications are
for the whole document, not just the first section.
• The number of pages and the file size must be as specified for your event.
• No document may be password protected.
• Neither the PDFs nor the source may contain any embedded links or bookmarks. URLS in your document
must be black, and may not be underlined.
• Your source and PDF must not have any page numbers,
footers, or headers.
• Your PDF must be compatible with Acrobat 5 or higher.
If you do not follow the above requirements, it is likely
that we will be unable to publish your paper.

What Files to Submit
You must submit the following items to ensure that your
paper is published:
• A fully-compliant PDF file.
• Your Word “docx” source file.
Your Word source will be reviewed and your PDF may be
recompiled on our system. Name your source file with
your last (family) name.
Do not send files that are not actually used in your paper. We don’t want you to send us any files not needed for
compiling your paper, including, for example, this instructions file, unused graphics files, additional material sent for
the purpose of the paper review, and so forth.

Using Word to Format Your Paper
AAAI Press has provided a Word template that you can
use to create your paper. You must be careful, however,
not to change the page set-up of this document (print a
PDF and use “shrink to fit” if you need to print it on A4
paper), and you will encounter problems if you use Identity-H or CID fonts. If your paper contains many in-line
equations, and a significant amount of display mathematics, you may achieve better results using LaTeX, although
the learning curve for this program is significantly higher.
AAAI does not offer support in the use of Word or LaTeX.

Style Sheets
The Word template provided by AAAI Press supplies custom styles for the most common elements in conference
papers. Use of the following style sheets is required:
• Abstract Head
• Abstract Text
• Affiliation and Address
• Author Name
• Bulleted List
• Extract
• Figure Caption (must also be used for Tables)
• Footnote Text
• Section Heading
• Subsection Heading
• Text
• Text-indent
• Paper Title

Inserting Document Metadata with Word
PDF files contain document summary information that enables us to create an Acrobat index (pdx) file, and also allows search engines to locate and present your paper more
accurately. Inserting metadata is a requirement of submission.
To insert metadata, open the document properties window. Type the title exactly as it appears on the paper (minus all formatting). Input the author names in the order in
which they appear on the paper (minus all accents), separating each author by a comma.
Important! Do not include any nonascii characters (including accented characters) in the metadata, even if the
names have accent marks. The data in the metadata must
be completely plain ascii. It may not include any slashes,
accents, linebreaks, or unicode characters. You may also
include keywords in the Keywords field. If you know the
full title of the proceedings, include it in the subject line.
Leave any additional metadata fields blank.

Word Copyright Notice
The copyright notice has been added to the Word template
using an invisible, unnumbered footnote, appended to the
example of a first-level heading. Don’t delete it! Instead,
carefully insert your own heading at the left of the existing
type, then remove the old type, being careful not to remove
the invisible footnote marker at the end of the line. Be sure
the copyright date is correct. (If you disable this footnote
and transfer of copyright is required, your paper will not
be included in the proceedings or digital library.)

Size, Margins, and Column Width
Papers must be formatted to print in two-column format on
8.5 x 11 inch US letter-sized paper. The margins must be
exactly as follows:
•
•
•
•

Top margin: .75 inches
Left margin: .75 inches
Right margin: .75 inches
Bottom margin: 1.25 inches

Do not use type 3 fonts for any portion of your paper,
including graphics. AAAI will not accept electronic files
containing obsolete type 3 fonts. Files containing such
fonts (even in graphics) will be rejected.
If you are unsure if your paper contains type 3 fonts,
view the PDF in Acrobat Reader. The Properties/Fonts
window will display the font name, font type, and encoding properties of all the fonts in the document. If you are
unsure if your graphics contain type 3 fonts (and they are
PostScript or encapsulated PostScript documents), create
PDF versions of them, and consult the properties window
in Acrobat Reader.
Start all pages (except the first) directly under the top
margin. (See the next section for instructions on formatting
the title page.) The Text-Indent style will automatically insert the proper indent when beginning a new paragraph. It
should be used unless the paragraph begins directly below
a heading or subheading. Do not skip a line between paragraphs.

The Word template is automatically set with these margins.

Title and Authors

Column Width and Margins
To ensure maximum readability, your paper must include
two columns. Each column should be 3.3 inches wide
(slightly more than 3.25 inches), with a .375 inch (.952 cm)
gutter of white space between the two columns. The Word
template will automatically create these columns for you.
Nothing may intrude into the outside margins — including boxes around figures. Documents and tables may span
two columns, but single-column figures, tables, and equations must remain completely within the column width.

Your title must appear in mixed case (nouns, pronouns,
and verbs are capitalized) near the top of the first page,
centered over both columns. The Paper Title style will automatically apply the proper font size and leading to your
title. There should be two carriage returns above the title.
The Word template already includes this space.
Author’s names should appear centered below the title
of the paper in boldface. You must use the Author Name
style, which will automatically apply the proper size, font,
and spacing. If space allows, you may use tabs to separate
them, and insert affiliations below the names. If you have
many authors, do not use tabs; simply separate the authors
with commas. You may then use superscript numbers as a
key to their affiliations, which should appear in the affiliation lines below the author list.
Affiliations and contact information must appear centered below the author names block. The Affiliation and
Address style will automatically apply the correct formatting.
Do not use a table to provide this information. Please also note that no part of the title, author, or affiliation block
may intrude into the margin.
You should begin the two-column format when you
come to the abstract.

Overlength Papers
If your paper is too long, turn on hyphenation, which will
reduce the space used by many lines. Next, shrink the size
of your graphics. No alterations to page layout are allowed. Do not use formatting tricks to make your paper a
certain length. Cut text or remove figures instead. If your
conference allows it, pay for an extra page.

Type Font and Size
Your paper must be formatted using the style sheets embedded in the Word Template. They will automatically
format your paper in 10 point Times, Times Roman or
Times New Roman. We will not accept papers formatted
using other fonts (except that Cambria may be used for
mathematics only.) This document is formatted in 10 point
Times New Roman.
Line spacing for text must be exactly 12 point. The style
file for “Text” sets the line spacing at 12 point. You may
not alter line spacing or point size.

Credits
Any credits to a sponsoring agency should appear in the
acknowledgments section, unless the agency requires different placement. If it is necessary to include this information on the front page, use a separate footnote. The
AAAI copyright notice (if required) must appear first in
any list of footnotes.

Abstract
All conference papers must include an abstract. The abstract must be placed at the beginning of the first column,
indented ten points from the left and right margins. The title “Abstract” should appear in ten-point bold type, centered above the body of the abstract. The Abstract Head
style will automatically format this heading properly.
The abstract should be set in nine-point type with tenpoint leading. The Abstract Head style will automatically
apply these settings. This concise, one-paragraph summary
should describe the general thesis and conclusion of your
paper. A reader should be able to learn the purpose of the
paper and the reason for its importance from the abstract.
The abstract should be no more than two hundred words in
length. (Authors who are submitting short one- or twopage extended extracts should provide a short abstract of
only a sentence or so.) Do not include references in your
abstract!

Page Numbers
Do not ever print any page numbers on your paper.

Text
The main body of the paper must be formatted in ten-point
with twelve-point leading (line spacing). The Text style in
this document is 10 point with 12-point line spacing. The
first line of text after a heading should not be indented.
Subsequent lines of text within the same section or subsection should be indented 10 points. The 10 point tab is automatically set in the Word template. The Text-indent style
will automatically apply the indent without having to use a
tab.

URLs and Word
Microsoft Word’s default setting is to underline URLs and
display them in another color. This causes the URLS to
turn light gray when printed, and often makes them undecipherable. This feature MUST be turned off. Please also
turn off the automatic linking feature in Word. Failure to
do so will result in a page reformatting fee.

Automatic Links
Do not use Microsoft Word’s automatic section and reference linking.

Citations
Citations within the text should include the author’s last
name and year, for example (Newell 1980). Append lowercase letters to the year in cases of ambiguity. Multiple authors should be treated as follows: (Feigenbaum and
Engelmore 1988) or (Ford, Hayes, and Glymour 1992). In

the case of four or more authors, list only the first author,
followed by et al. (Ford et al. 1997).

Extracts
Long quotations and extracts should be indented ten points
from the left and right margins. The “Extract” style provides this type automatically:
This is an example of an extract or quotation. Note the
indent on both sides. Quotation marks are not necessary if you offset the text in a block like this, and
properly identify and cite the quotation in the text.

Footnotes
Avoid footnotes as much as possible; they interrupt the
reading of the text. When essential, they should be consecutively numbered throughout with superscript Arabic numbers. Footnotes should appear at the bottom of the page,
separated from the text by a blank line space and a thin,
half-point rule.

Headings and Sections
When necessary, headings should be used to separate major sections of your paper. Remember, you are writing a
short paper, not a lengthy book! An overabundance of
headings will tend to make your paper look more like an
outline than a paper.
Section heads should be twelve-point Times New Roman bold type, mixed case centered. The Section Heading
style will automatically apply these settings (including the
extra required spacing). Subsection headings should be
eleven-point Times New Roman bold type. The Subsection
Heading style will automatically apply the proper settings
automatically. Do not skip a line between paragraphs. Subsubsection headings should be ten-point Times New Roman bold type, mixed case, with twelve-point leading,
flush left, with three points of additional space preceding
them and no additional points of leading following them.
The Subsubsection heading style will apply the appropriate
formatting automatically.
Section Numbers
The use of section numbers in AAAI Press papers is optional.
Section Headings
Sections should be arranged and headed as follows:
Acknowledgments. The acknowledgments section, if included, appears after the main body of text and is headed
“Acknowledgments.” This section includes acknowledgments of help from associates and colleagues, credits to
sponsoring agencies, financial support, and permission to
publish. Please acknowledge other contributors, grant support, and so forth, in this section. Do not put acknowledgments in a footnote on the first page. If your grant agency

requires acknowledgment of the grant on page 1, limit the
footnote to the required statement, and put the remaining
acknowledgments at the back. Please try to limit acknowledgments to no more than three sentences.
Appendices. Any appendices follow the acknowledgments, if included, or after the main body of text if no acknowledgments appear.
References. The references section should be labeled
“References” and should appear at the very end of the paper (don’t end the paper with references, and then put a
figure by itself on the last page). A sample list of references is given later on in these instructions. AAAI style is
required for references. Poorly prepared or sloppy references reflect badly on the quality of your paper and your
research. Please prepare complete and accurate citations.

Illustrations and Figures
Figures, drawings, tables, and photographs should be
placed throughout the paper near the place where they are
first discussed. Do not group them together at the end of
the paper. If placed at the top or bottom of the paper, illustrations may run across both columns. Figures (including
boxes and rules) must not intrude into the top, bottom, or
side margin areas. Figures must be inserted using your
page-formatting software. Number figures sequentially, for
example, figure 1, and so on. There must be a minimum of
6 points between the figure and the figure caption, and an
additional 12 points beneath the caption. There must be 12
points between text and figures.
The illustration number and caption should appear under
the illustration. Leave some space between the figure and
the caption and surrounding type; .25 inches should suffice. Captions should be presented in nine-point Times
New Roman italic. Labels, and other text in illustrations
must be at least nine-point type. The Figure Caption style
will apply the appropriate formatting automatically.
Low-Resolution Bitmaps
You may not use low-resolution (such as 72 dpi) screen
dumps and GIF files—these files contain so few pixels that
they are always blurry, and illegible when printed. If they
are color, they will become an indecipherable mess when
converted to black and white. Gif files and low-resolution
jpg or png files should never be used. The resolution of
screen dumps can be increased by reducing the print size of
the original file while retaining the same number of pixels.
You can also enlarge files by manipulating them in software such as PhotoShop. Your figures should be a minimum of 300 dpi when incorporated into your document.
Using Color
The archival version of your paper will be printed in black
and white and grayscale. Consequently, because conversion to grayscale can cause undesirable effects (red chang-

es to black, yellow can disappear, and so forth), we strongly suggest you avoid placing color figures in your document. If you do include color figures, you must be mindful
of readers who may happen to have a color deficiency.
Your paper must be decipherable without using color
for distinction.
Drawings
We suggest you use computer-drawing software (such as
Adobe Illustrator or, (if unavoidable), the drawing tools in
Microsoft Word) to create your illustrations. Do not use
Microsoft Publisher. These illustrations will look best if all
line widths are uniform (half- to two-point in size), and
you do not create labels over shaded areas. Shading should
be 133 lines per inch if possible. Use Times New Roman
or Helvetica for all figure call-outs. Do not use hairline
width lines — be sure that the stroke width of all lines is at
least .5 pt. Zero point lines will print on a laser printer, but
will completely disappear on the high-resolution devices
used by our printers.
Photographs and Images
Photographs and other images should be in grayscale (color photographs will not reproduce well; for example, red
tones will reproduce as black, yellow may turn to white,
and so forth) and set to a minimum of 300 dpi. Do not prescreen images.
This Is an Example of a Figure Caption.
Use of the figure caption style is required.

References
To format references, use the References style (which will
automatically format your references in 9 point Time Roman with 10 point line spacing, and 3 additional points of
space between each entry. The samples that follow provide
guidelines for formatting different kinds of references:
Book with Multiple Authors
Engelmore, R., and Morgan, A. eds. 1986. Blackboard Systems.
Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley.

Journal Article
Robinson, A. L. 1980. New Ways to Make Microcircuits Smaller.
Science 208:1019-1026.

Magazine Article
Hasling, D. W.; Clancey, W. J.; and Rennels, G. R. 1983. Strategic Explanations in Consultation. The International Journal of
Man-Machine Studies 20(1): 3–19.

Proceedings Paper Published by a Society
Clancey, W. J. 1983. Communication, Simulation, and Intelligent
Agents: Implications of Personal Intelligent Machines for Medical Education. In Proceedings of the Eighth International Joint
Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 556-560. Menlo Park, Calif.: International Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence, Inc.

Proceedings Paper Published by a Press or Publisher
Clancey, W. J. 1984. Classification Problem Solving. In Proceedings of the Fourth National Conference on Artificial Intelligence,
49-54. Menlo Park, Calif.: AAAI Press.

University Technical Report
Rice, J. 1986. Poligon: A System for Parallel Problem Solving,
Technical Report, KSL-86-19, Department of Computer Science,
Stanford University, Stanford, CA.

Dissertation or Thesis
Clancey, W. J. 1979b. Transfer of Rule-Based Expertise through
a Tutorial Dialogue. Ph.D. diss., Department of Computer Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA.

Proofreading Your PDF
Please check all the pages of your PDF file. Is the page
size A4? Are there any type 3, Identity-H, or CID fonts?
Are all the fonts embedded? Are there any areas where
equations or figures run into the margins? Did you include
all your figures? Did you follow mixed-case capitalization
rules for your title? Did you include a copyright notice? Do
any of the pages scroll slowly (because the graphics draw
slowly on the page)? Are URLs underlined and in color?
You will need to fix these common errors before submitting your file.

Submitting Your Electronic Files to AAAI
Submitting your files to AAAI is a two-step process. It is
explained fully in the author registration and submission
instructions. Please consult this document for details on
how to submit your paper.

Inquiries
If you have any questions about the preparation or submission of your paper as instructed in this document, please
contact AAAI Press at the address given below. If you
have technical questions about implementation of the aaai
style file, please contact an expert at your site. We do not
provide technical support for Word or any other software
package. To avoid problems, please keep your paper simple, and do not incorporate complicated macros and style
files.
AAAI Press
2275 East Bayshore Road, Suite 160
Palo Alto, California 94303
Telephone: (650) 328-3123
E-mail: See the submission instructions
for your particular conference or event.

Improperly Formatted Files

Acknowledgments

In the past, AAAI has corrected improperly formatted files
submitted by the authors. Unfortunately, this has become
an increasingly burdensome expense that we can no longer
absorb. Consequently, if your file is improperly formatted,
it may not be possible to include your paper in the publication. If time allows, however, you will be notified via email of the problems with your file and given the option of
correcting the file yourself. A fee (minimum $50.00, and
likely higher) will be required for this service. You may
also request that AAAI reformat the paper for you, at additional charge.
If you opt to correct the file yourself, please note that we
cannot provide you with any additional advice beyond that
given in your packet. Files that are not corrected after a second attempt will be withdrawn.

The preparation of the files that implement these instructions was supported by The Live Oak Press, LLC, and
AAAI Press.

Naming Your Electronic File
We request that you name your Word source file with your
last name (family name) so that it can easily be differentiated from other submissions. If you name your files with
the name of the event or “aaai” or “paper” or “cameraready” or some other generic or indecipherable name, it
may be overwritten.

Thank you for reading these instructions carefully. We
look forward to receiving your electronic files!

References
Clancey, W. J. 1984. Classification Problem Solving. In Proceedings of the Fourth National Conference on Artificial Intelligence,
49-54. Menlo Park, Calif.: AAAI Press.
Engelmore, R., and Morgan, A. eds. 1986. Blackboard Systems.
Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley.
Hasling, D. W.; Clancey, W. J.; and Rennels, G. R. 1983. Strategic Explanations in Consultation. The International Journal of
Man-Machine Studies 20(1): 3–19.
Rice, J. 1986. Poligon: A System for Parallel Problem Solving,
Technical Report, KSL-86-19, Department of Computer Science,
Stanford University, Stanford, CA.
Robinson, A. L. 1980a. New Ways to Make Microcircuits Smaller. Science 208:1019-1026.



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