acl-topic-selection
Use when deciding whether a project fits ACL versus EMNLP, NAACL, EACL, TACL, Computational Linguistics, COLM, or an ML venue, covering contribution typing for NLP work, long-versus-short paper choice, the annual theme track, Findings-tier expectations, and sharpening the computational-linguistics framing before writing starts.
Profile →npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill acl-topic-selection --agent claude-code
Same command for any agent — swap --agent for codex, cursor, copilot.
Weekly change comes from our own snapshots, not the repository page — it measures attention, not adoption.
# ACL Topic Selection Use this before the first draft. ACL is the flagship of the \*ACL family: broadest scope across computational linguistics and NLP, the most competitive main-program bar, and — under ACL Rolling Review — a venue choice you finalize at *commitment* time, which gives topic strategy an unusual second chance. ## What ACL rewards - A contribution about **language**: modeling it, measuring it, resourcing it, or explaining how systems process it — with the linguistic question visible, not incidental. - Typed contributions reviewers can classify fast: method, resource, evaluation/metric, analysis, theory, or position. Papers that are half method and half unvalidated resource read as neither. - Evidence proportional to breadth (see `acl-experiments`) and an error analysis that says something about language, not just scores. - Work engaging the current field conversation — for ACL 2026, the special theme was explainability of NLP models, with a dedicated Thematic Paper Award; each edition names its own theme. ## Family routing | Signal | Better home | |---|---| | Core NLP contribution, broad audience, strongest possible reviews wanted | ACL (or whichever \*ACL your ARR p
- What ACL rewards
- Family routing
- Long or short
- Fit sharpening before writing
- Vignette: routing an LLM evaluation project
- Anti-fit signals worth trusting
- Questions that settle borderline calls
- Theme-track fine print
- Output format
What does the acl-topic-selection skill do?
Use when deciding whether a project fits ACL versus EMNLP, NAACL, EACL, TACL, Computational Linguistics, COLM, or an ML venue, covering contribution typing for NLP work, long-versus-short paper choice, the annual theme track, Findings-tier expectations, and sharpening the computational-linguistics framing before writing starts.
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill acl-topic-selection --agent claude-code` — it drops the skill into your project so the agent can pick it up. Swap the --agent value for codex, cursor or copilot if you use one of those.
Where does this skill come from?
From brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills, a repository with 909 stars. We read it straight from the repository tree rather than a submitted listing, so what you see here is what is actually published.
Is a popular skill a good skill?
Not necessarily. Stars measure attention, not adoption — a repository can trend for a week and be abandoned. That is why we show the weekly change from our own snapshots next to the total, instead of a single flattering number.