publish-assistant/README.md

# Publish Assistant

Hugo-generated website that helps researchers:
- identify important venues to publish in;
- keep track of submission deadlines;
- retrieve important papers for each issue.

---

## Overview

The site is domain-driven: a researcher picks a research area (e.g. "edge and cloud systems") and the assistant builds a curated, ranked, up-to-date snapshot of where to publish, when to submit, and what to read. The output is a static Hugo site that can be rebuilt on demand.

Multiple research topics live under the same Hugo instance as subsites (`/cloud-edge/`, `/embedded-ai/`, …). Each topic has its own venue list, deadlines, digests, and calendar. Layouts, theme, and JavaScript are shared.

Work is split between **automated scripts** (data fetching, Hugo content generation) and **agent tasks** (domain curation, paper selection, deadline gap-filling). The README below documents both halves so the site can be kept fresh over time.

---

## Repository Layout

```
publish-assistant/
├── site/                                 # Hugo project
│   ├── hugo.toml
│   ├── themes/PaperMod/                  # PaperMod theme (git submodule)
│   ├── layouts/
│   │   ├── _default/calendar.html        # FullCalendar layout
│   │   ├── _default/digests.html         # Digest list layout
│   │   └── partials/
│   │       ├── header.html               # Section-aware nav override
│   │       └── extend_head.html          # Calendar CSS injection
│   ├── content/                          # Generated — do not edit by hand
│   │   ├── _index.md                     # Global landing page
│   │   └── <topic>/                      # One subdir per topic, e.g. cloud-edge/
│   │       ├── _index.md                 # Topic home page
│   │       ├── venues/                   # Venue pages (generated)
│   │       ├── calendar/                 # Deadline calendar (generated)
│   │       └── digests/                  # Paper digests (generated)
│   └── data/
│       ├── topics.yaml                   # Topic registry (nav + build loop)
│       ├── rankings/                     # Shared across all topics
│       │   ├── icore.csv                 # ICORE conference rankings
│       │   └── scimago.csv               # SCImago journal rankings (optional)
│       └── <topic>/                      # One subdir per topic, e.g. cloud-edge/
│           ├── venues.yaml               # Master venue list ← primary edit target
│           ├── deadlines.yaml            # Deadline cache; manual entries preserved
│           ├── best_papers.yaml          # Best-paper awards
│           └── papers/
│               ├── <V>-<Y>-candidates.yaml   # Full paper list (pa-fetch-papers)
│               └── <V>-<Y>-digest.yaml       # Curated selection (agent, Task 3)
├── src/publish_assistant/                # Python package
│   ├── fetch_icore.py
│   ├── fetch_scimago.py
│   ├── fetch_deadlines.py
│   ├── fetch_papers.py
│   ├── fetch_best_papers.py
│   └── generate_content.py
├── pyproject.toml                        # uv project; CLI entry points
├── uv.lock
├── build.sh
└── README.md
```

**Topic isolation**: each topic owns its `site/data/<topic>/` directory (venues, deadlines, papers) and generates into `site/content/<topic>/`. The shared `site/data/rankings/` CSVs are reused by every topic. The nav bar automatically shows topic-relative Venues / Calendar / Digests links when inside a topic, and lists all topics from `topics.yaml` on the root page.

---

## Setup

```bash
uv sync          # installs all dependencies + registers CLI tools

# Available commands after sync:
uv run pa-fetch-icore
uv run pa-fetch-scimago
uv run pa-fetch-deadlines
uv run pa-fetch-best-papers
uv run pa-fetch-papers --venue OSDI --year 2025
uv run pa-generate

# Local dev server:
./build.sh --dev
# or, to process one topic without re-fetching:
./build.sh --skip-rankings --topic cloud-edge --dev
```

---

## Data Sources

| Source | What it provides | Automatable? | Known issues |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [ICORE](https://portal.core.edu.au/conf-ranks/) | Conference rankings (A*, A, B, C) | Yes | Pagination uses `javascript:jumpPage('N')` — handled in `fetch_icore.py` |
| [SCImago](https://www.scimagojr.com/) | Journal quartiles, SJR, H-index | Blocked | Anti-bot returns HTML; add data manually to `venues.yaml` under `scimago_quartile` etc. |
| [DBLP](https://dblp.org/) | Paper metadata by venue | Yes | Use `dblp_key` field in `venues.yaml` |
| [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org/) | Papers, open-access links | Yes | Fallback when DBLP is thin |
| [WikiCFP](http://wikicfp.com/) | Submission deadlines | Partially | See detailed notes below |
| [Conference websites](.) | Authoritative deadlines | Partially | See Task 2 |
| [jeffhuang.com/best_paper_awards/](https://jeffhuang.com/best_paper_awards/) | Best paper awards since 1996, ~32 venues | Yes | Manually maintained; run `pa-fetch-best-papers` annually |

---

## WikiCFP Integration — Detailed Notes

WikiCFP is the primary deadline source but has several quirks that required workarounds:

**HTML structure**: Detail pages use `<th>` for row labels (not `<td>`). The parser in `fetch_cfp_details()` specifically looks for `<th>` + `<td>` pairs. Do not revert to `find_all("td")` — it will find zero deadline rows.

**Direct ID lookup**: Add `wikicfp_id: "<event_id>"` to a venue entry in `venues.yaml` to skip the search and fetch that page directly. This avoids wrong matches on common acronyms. Verified IDs for the cloud-edge topic:

| Venue | WikiCFP event ID |
| --- | --- |
| SOSP | 191399 |
| EuroSys | 186524 |
| SoCC | 191071 |
| Middleware | 190153 |
| IPDPS | 189093 |
| HPDC | 191029 |

**Skipping search**: Set `wikicfp_id: false` to skip WikiCFP entirely for a venue (e.g., ATC, SC, SEC — where the search returns wrong events). Deadlines for these must be filled manually.

**Conferences not on WikiCFP** (for systems/networking): OSDI, NSDI, USENIX ATC, SC, MobiSys, SEC. Use `wikicfp_id: false` for all of them.

**Manual deadline entries**: Add entries with `source: manual` to `site/data/<topic>/deadlines.yaml`. The fetcher preserves all `source: manual` entries across runs. Format:
```yaml
ATC:
  source: manual
  event_dates: Nov 16-18, 2026
  location: Hong Kong
  submission_deadline: Jun 10, 2026
  notification: Sep 18, 2026
  camera_ready: Oct 16, 2026
  cfp_url: https://sigops.org/s/conferences/atc/2026/cfp.html
```

---

## `venues.yaml` Schema

```yaml
conferences:
  - acronym: SOSP
    full_name: "ACM Symposium on Operating Systems Principles"
    domain: [<topic-slug>, operating-systems, distributed-systems]
    url: "https://sigops.org/s/conferences/sosp/"
    dblp_key: "conf/sosp"
    wikicfp_id: "191399"      # direct lookup; omit to use search; false to skip entirely

journals:
  - acronym: TPDS
    full_name: "IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems"
    domain: [<topic-slug>, parallel-computing, distributed-systems]
    issn: "1045-9219"
    url: "https://www.computer.org/csdl/journal/td"
    dblp_key: "journals/tpds"
    submission_model: rolling
    scimago_quartile: Q1      # add manually — SCImago CSV download is blocked
    scimago_sjr: "1.560"
    scimago_h_index: "131"
```

**Important**: Hugo reserves the front matter field `url` as a page URL override. `generate_content.py` maps `venues.yaml:url` → front matter field `homepage` to avoid this conflict.

---

## `topics.yaml` Schema

```yaml
topics:
  - slug: cloud-edge
    title: "Edge and Cloud Systems"
    description: "Conferences and journals for edge computing, cloud systems, and distributed systems."
  - slug: embedded-ai
    title: "Embedded AI"
    description: "Conferences and journals for on-device ML, edge inference, and TinyML."
```

The `slug` must match the directory names under `site/data/` and `site/content/`. It also becomes the URL prefix (`/cloud-edge/`, `/embedded-ai/`). The `title` appears in the nav bar on the root page and on the topic's section home.

---

## Scripts

All scripts are installed as CLI entry points by `uv sync`.

### `pa-fetch-icore`
Downloads ICORE rankings. Shared across all topics — run once per build.
```bash
uv run pa-fetch-icore                           # fetch all
uv run pa-fetch-icore --query "distributed systems"
```

### `pa-fetch-scimago`
Downloads SCImago CSV. **Currently blocked by anti-bot.** Will raise a descriptive error if it receives HTML instead of CSV. Add journal data manually to `venues.yaml` instead.
```bash
uv run pa-fetch-scimago --list-areas    # show area codes
uv run pa-fetch-scimago --area 1705     # networks
```

### `pa-fetch-deadlines`
Fetches submission deadlines from WikiCFP for a specific topic. Preserves `source: manual` entries.
```bash
uv run pa-fetch-deadlines \
  --venues site/data/cloud-edge/venues.yaml \
  --output site/data/cloud-edge/deadlines.yaml
```
After running: check `deadlines.yaml` for the `missing:` list, then do Task 2.

### `pa-fetch-best-papers`
Scrapes [jeffhuang.com/best_paper_awards/](https://jeffhuang.com/best_paper_awards/) and writes `best_papers.yaml`. Run once per year.
```bash
uv run pa-fetch-best-papers
```

### `pa-fetch-papers`
Fetches paper lists from DBLP (with OpenAlex fallback).
```bash
uv run pa-fetch-papers --venue OSDI --year 2024
uv run pa-fetch-papers --venue TPDS --year 2024 --source openalex
```

### `pa-generate`
Regenerates all Hugo content for one topic from its data files. Safe to re-run at any time.
```bash
# Explicit (for a specific topic):
uv run pa-generate \
  --venues    site/data/cloud-edge/venues.yaml \
  --deadlines site/data/cloud-edge/deadlines.yaml \
  --papers-dir site/data/cloud-edge/papers \
  --content   site/content/cloud-edge \
  --base-path /cloud-edge

# Defaults (cloud-edge):
uv run pa-generate
```
`--base-path` prefixes all internal links in generated markdown (e.g. `/cloud-edge/venues/…`). It must match the topic slug in the URL.

Preserved fields (never overwritten): `notes`, `deadline_source`.
Stripped fields (removed on regen to avoid stale data): `url` (Hugo reserved), `papers`.

### `build.sh`
Full pipeline orchestrator. Loops over all topics in `topics.yaml` by default.
```bash
./build.sh                          # full build, all topics
./build.sh --topic cloud-edge       # one topic only
./build.sh --skip-rankings          # skip icore/scimago fetches (use cached CSVs)
./build.sh --skip-deadlines         # use cached deadlines.yaml
./build.sh --dev                    # hugo server instead of build
./build.sh --topic cloud-edge --dev # dev server, one topic
```

---

## Hugo Content Structure

### Multi-topic routing

Hugo treats `site/content/<topic>/` as a section. All pages inside it are served under `/<topic>/`. The nav bar partial (`site/layouts/partials/header.html`) detects `.Section` at render time:
- **Inside a topic** (`cloud-edge`, `embedded-ai`, …): renders Venues / Calendar / Digests links relative to that section.
- **At the root** (`/`): renders one link per topic from `site/data/topics.yaml`.

To add a topic: populate `site/data/topics.yaml` + `site/data/<topic>/venues.yaml`, then run `./build.sh --topic <slug>`. The new section appears in the global nav automatically.

### Venues

**`site/content/<topic>/venues/_index.md`** — overview, links to conferences and journals. Generated.

**`site/content/<topic>/venues/conferences/_index.md`** — table of all conferences sorted by ICORE rank with deadlines, domains, and digest count. Generated.

**`site/content/<topic>/venues/journals/_index.md`** — table of all journals sorted by SCImago quartile. Generated.

Each venue page body is **fully generated Markdown**. The body includes a metadata table (rank, domains, latest digest link), an upcoming deadline block, and previous-edition info blocks (paper count, topics, digest link).

### Calendar

**`site/content/<topic>/calendar/_index.md`** — uses `layout: calendar`. Events are embedded as JSON-ready YAML in the `events:` front matter field by `pa-generate`. Colors: orange = abstract deadline, red = paper deadline, blue = conference dates.

### Digests

**`site/content/<topic>/digests/<VENUE>-<YEAR>/index.md`** — leaf page (`index.md`, not `_index.md`). Body contains the full paper list with TL;DR and why-notable for each paper. Papers data lives in `site/data/<topic>/papers/<V>-<Y>-digest.yaml`.

---

## Agent Prompts

Ready-to-use prompts. Paste directly into Claude Code (or any agent) as a starting point.

---

### Bootstrap a new topic

```
Bootstrap a new publish-assistant topic for "<TOPIC NAME>" (slug: <slug>).

Steps:
1. Research the top 10–15 conferences and 5–10 journals for this domain. Use
   csrankings.org, the ICORE portal (portal.core.edu.au/conf-ranks/), and
   SCImago (scimagojr.com) for rankings.
2. For each conference: record acronym, full name, ICORE rank, official
   website URL for the upcoming edition, DBLP stream key (conf/<key>), and
   WikiCFP event ID if you can find it (set wikicfp_id: false for short or
   ambiguous acronyms).
3. For each journal: record acronym, full name, ISSN, SCImago quartile + SJR
   + H-index (add inline to venues.yaml — the CSV download is blocked), DBLP
   stream key (journals/<key>), submission model (rolling / special issues).
4. Create site/data/<slug>/venues.yaml following the schema in the README.
5. Create site/data/<slug>/papers/ (empty directory).
6. Add the topic to site/data/topics.yaml:
     - slug: <slug>
       title: "<TOPIC NAME>"
       description: "<one-line description>"
7. Create site/content/<slug>/_index.md:
     ---
     title: "<TOPIC NAME>"
     description: "<one-line description>"
     draft: false
     ---
8. Run: ./build.sh --skip-rankings --topic <slug>
   (Use --skip-rankings to reuse cached ICORE data if already fresh.)
9. For any conferences under deadlines.yaml missing:, do the manual deadline
   task (Task 2 in the README).
10. Run: ./build.sh --skip-rankings --topic <slug>
    Then: hugo --source site --minify
    Confirm the site builds cleanly and /<slug>/venues/ loads correctly.

Checklist before finishing:
- [ ] site/data/<slug>/venues.yaml has all venues with correct dblp_key
- [ ] wikicfp_id set or false on every conference
- [ ] SCImago data added inline for every journal
- [ ] site/data/topics.yaml updated
- [ ] site/content/<slug>/_index.md created
- [ ] ./build.sh --skip-rankings --topic <slug> runs without errors
- [ ] hugo --source site --minify succeeds
```

---

### Add a venue to an existing topic

```
Add <ACRONYM> to the publish-assistant topic "<slug>".

1. Look up:
   - Full name and ICORE rank (conferences) or SCImago quartile + SJR + H-index (journals)
   - Official website URL for the upcoming edition
   - DBLP stream key at dblp.org
   - WikiCFP event ID, or note if this acronym is ambiguous (set wikicfp_id: false)
2. Append the entry to site/data/<slug>/venues.yaml following the existing schema.
3. Run: uv run pa-fetch-deadlines \
         --venues site/data/<slug>/venues.yaml \
         --output site/data/<slug>/deadlines.yaml
4. If the conference appears under missing: in deadlines.yaml, find the deadline
   on the official CFP page and add a source: manual entry.
5. Run: uv run pa-generate (defaults to cloud-edge) or with explicit --venues /
   --content / --base-path flags for the target topic.
6. Confirm the new venue page appears at /<slug>/venues/conferences/<acronym>/
   (or journals/) with correct metadata.
```

---

### Build a digest for a venue + year

```
Build a paper digest for <ACRONYM> <YEAR> in the publish-assistant topic "<slug>".

1. Run: uv run pa-fetch-papers --venue <ACRONYM> --year <YEAR>
   This writes site/data/<slug>/papers/<ACRONYM>-<YEAR>-candidates.yaml.

2. Run: uv run pa-fetch-best-papers
   (Skip if site/data/best_papers.yaml already exists and is recent.)

3. Read the candidates file. Select 8–15 papers that are:
   - Methodologically novel (new algorithms, system designs, formal proofs)
   - Attracting community attention (highly cited if issue is ≥1 year old;
     well-known authors or top-venue co-publications if recent)
   - Representative of the breadth of the issue (avoid over-indexing on one subtheme)
   - Preferably open-access (arXiv, USENIX, ACM OpenTOC)
   Flag any paper in best_papers.yaml (include it; it's a strong signal).

4. For each selected paper write:
   - tldr: one sentence, the core technical contribution
   - why_notable: 1–2 sentences — novelty, impact, surprising result, or
     influential technique; what would make a program committee member
     recommend this paper to colleagues

5. Write site/data/<slug>/papers/<ACRONYM>-<YEAR>-digest.yaml:
     venue: <ACRONYM>
     year: <YEAR>
     date: "<YYYY-MM-DD of first conference day>"
     tags: [<3–5 topic tags>]
     selected:
       - dblp_key: "..."
         title: "..."
         tldr: "..."
         why_notable: "..."

6. Run: uv run pa-generate (or with explicit flags for the topic)
7. Confirm the digest page at /<slug>/digests/<acronym>-<year>/ renders correctly.
```

---

### Annual cycle refresh for a topic

```
Refresh the publish-assistant topic "<slug>" for the new conference cycle.

1. For each conference in site/data/<slug>/venues.yaml:
   a. Check whether the url field points to the upcoming edition (many venues
      use year-specific URLs like osdi26, 2027.eurosys.org, mobisys/2026/).
      Update any that point to past editions.
   b. Verify wikicfp_id still points to the upcoming edition by visiting
      http://wikicfp.com/cfp/servlet/event.showcfp?eventid=<ID>.
      If it points to a past event, search WikiCFP for the new edition.
      If the new event page doesn't exist yet, set wikicfp_id: false and add
      a source: manual entry to deadlines.yaml; restore the ID once it appears.

2. Run: uv run pa-fetch-deadlines \
         --venues site/data/<slug>/venues.yaml \
         --output site/data/<slug>/deadlines.yaml

3. For each entry under missing: in deadlines.yaml, visit the conference CFP
   page and add a source: manual entry to deadlines.yaml.

4. Run: ./build.sh --skip-rankings --topic <slug>
   Then confirm hugo --source site --minify succeeds and all venue pages show
   correct upcoming deadlines.

Checklist:
- [ ] All conference url fields updated to upcoming edition
- [ ] All wikicfp_id values verified (or set to false + manual entry)
- [ ] missing: list in deadlines.yaml is empty
- [ ] Build succeeds, no broken links
```

---

## Agent Tasks (Reference)

### Task 1 — Bootstrap a topic
See the "Bootstrap a new topic" prompt above. The one-shot checklist is embedded in the prompt.

### Task 2 — Fill in missing deadlines

**Trigger:** `pa-fetch-deadlines` lists conferences under `missing:`, or a deadline looks wrong.

1. For each missing conference, visit the official website's "Call for Papers" / "Important Dates" page.
2. Also check WikiCFP manually — if you find the right event ID, add `wikicfp_id` to `venues.yaml` so future runs fetch it automatically.
3. Extract: abstract deadline, paper deadline, notification, camera-ready, event dates, location.
4. Add a `source: manual` entry to `site/data/<topic>/deadlines.yaml`.
5. Run `uv run pa-generate` (with explicit flags for the topic).

**Conferences reliably NOT on WikiCFP** (systems/networking):
- USENIX family: OSDI, NSDI, USENIX ATC, USENIX Security — use usenix.org
- SC — use sc`<YY>`.supercomputing.org
- MobiSys — use sigmobile.org/mobisys/`<YEAR>`/
- SEC — use acm-ieee-sec.org/`<YEAR>`/
- Short/common acronyms (ATC, SEC) collide with unrelated events — always use `wikicfp_id: false`

### Task 3 — Build a digest
See the "Build a digest for a venue + year" prompt above.

**Digest YAML format:**
```yaml
venue: OSDI
year: 2024
date: "2024-07-10"
tags: [llm-serving, distributed-systems, storage]

selected:
  - dblp_key: "conf/osdi/ZhongLCHZL0024"
    title: "DistServe: Disaggregating Prefill and Decoding ..."
    tldr: "Separates prefill and decode onto different GPU pools, eliminating head-of-line blocking."
    why_notable: "Became one of the most-cited LLM systems papers of 2024; disaggregation is now standard in production inference stacks."
```

### Task 4 — Refresh rankings

1. Run `uv run pa-fetch-icore` for fresh ICORE data.
2. For SCImago: download the CSV manually from [scimagojr.com](https://www.scimagojr.com/journalrank.php) and place at `site/data/rankings/scimago.csv`. The automated fetch is blocked.
3. For each journal in `venues.yaml`, compare `scimago_quartile` / `scimago_sjr` against new CSV. Update inline values if changed.
4. Run `./build.sh --skip-deadlines` (or per-topic with `--topic <slug>`).

### Task 5 — Add a new venue mid-cycle
See the "Add a venue to an existing topic" prompt above.

### Task 6 — Annual cycle refresh
See the "Annual cycle refresh for a topic" prompt above.

---

## Known Gotchas (for agents picking this up)

- **`--base-path` must match the topic slug**: `pa-generate --base-path /cloud-edge` prefixes all internal links in generated markdown. If you run `pa-generate` without this flag (old default was `/cloud-edge`), all links on the new topic would resolve to `/cloud-edge/...` instead. Always pass explicit `--base-path /<slug>` when generating for a non-default topic, or use `build.sh --topic <slug>` which sets it automatically.
- **Hugo `url` field**: reserved by Hugo to override the page URL. `venues.yaml` uses `url:` but `generate_content.py` maps it to `homepage:` in front matter. Never write `url:` in Hugo front matter via the generator.
- **PaperMod renders body, not front matter**: all visible content must be in the Markdown body. Front matter is used only for metadata and Hugo taxonomy. If a page looks empty, check that `_conf_body()` / `_journal_body()` etc. are being called.
- **`_index.md` vs `index.md`**: section pages use `_index.md` (list template), leaf pages use `index.md` (single template). Digest pages are `index.md` — using `_index.md` makes them section pages and breaks pagination.
- **Rankings CSVs are in `site/data/rankings/`**: Hugo's data loader is configured to ignore `data/rankings/*.csv` via `ignoreFiles` in `hugo.toml`. If you move these files or add new CSVs, update `ignoreFiles` accordingly — Hugo cannot parse arbitrary CSV as a data map and will error on build.
- **ICORE pagination**: the ICORE portal uses `javascript:jumpPage('N')` links, not standard `?page=N` URLs. `fetch_icore.py` handles this. If you get only 50 results instead of ~900, pagination is broken.
- **SCImago blocked**: `pa-fetch-scimago` will raise a clear error if anti-bot HTML is returned. Add data inline to `venues.yaml` instead.
- **WikiCFP `<th>` labels**: deadline detail pages use `<th>` for label cells, not `<td>`. The parser looks for `<th>+<td>` pairs.
- **Calendar events**: `pa-generate` embeds events as YAML in the `events:` front matter field. The layout at `site/layouts/_default/calendar.html` reads `.Params.events` and initializes FullCalendar. Do not remove the `layout: calendar` front matter field.
- **Deadline preservation**: never strip deadline fields from `deadlines.yaml` just because the submission window has closed. Remove an entry only once the conference has taken place.
- **WikiCFP IDs are edition-specific**: each year's event gets a new ID. IDs verified at one point in time will be wrong once a new cycle begins. See Task 6 for the annual refresh checklist.

---

## Future Considerations

- **iCal feed** — generate a `.ics` file from deadline data so researchers can subscribe from their calendar app.
- **Email/RSS notifications** — alert when a deadline is within N weeks.
- **Citation tracking** — periodically re-query OpenAlex for citation counts on digest papers.
- **Best paper badge** — `pa-generate` could cross-reference `best_papers.yaml` with digest candidates and add a `best_paper_award: true` flag, then render a badge in `_digest_body()`.
- **Automated WikiCFP ID discovery** — when a venue has no `wikicfp_id`, attempt a search and record the result in `venues.yaml` for future runs (reduces manual work when bootstrapping new topics).
- **Cross-topic venue pages** — some venues (e.g., ASPLOS) span multiple topics. A future `cross_listed: [embedded-ai, cloud-edge]` field in `venues.yaml` could render the venue under multiple topic sections without duplicating data.