itcs-topic-selection
Use when deciding whether a theoretical-computer-science result belongs at ITCS or should be routed to STOC, FOCS, SODA, CCC, ICALP, TCC, or a journal, and when distinguishing ITCS from its depth-first siblings by the conceptual-novelty test — is this a new question, model, or connection worth asking, rather than the deepest theorem of the year.
Profile →npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill itcs-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.
# ITCS Topic Selection Decide the venue before drafting, and decide it on the axis ITCS actually selects on. ITCS — the **Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science** conference — was founded (as *Innovations in Computer Science*, 2010) to reward **conceptual novelty**: a new model, a new question, a surprising connection, a direction the field had not thought to take. Its sibling flagships STOC and FOCS reward the **deepest, most polished** result on questions the field already agrees are hard. A technically strong paper whose real virtue is that it *finally proves a known hard theorem* is respected and then, often, routed away from ITCS as "not innovative enough" — while a bold, imperfect, genuinely new idea can be accepted here that STOC/FOCS would reject for want of depth. ## The routing question that matters most For most theory papers the decisive question is not "is this good theory?" but **"does this paper give the community a new *idea*, or a stronger *result* on an existing idea?"** - If a reader's main takeaway is *"I hadn't thought to ask that / model it that way / connect those two areas"* — that is an ITCS signal. - If the main takeaway is *"they finally proved / imp
- The routing question that matters most
- Sibling-venue routing table
- Conceptual shapes ITCS rewards
- The three ITCS acceptance tests
- Evidence maturity, ITCS-style
- Cheap reconnaissance before committing
- Decision procedure
What does the itcs-topic-selection skill do?
Use when deciding whether a theoretical-computer-science result belongs at ITCS or should be routed to STOC, FOCS, SODA, CCC, ICALP, TCC, or a journal, and when distinguishing ITCS from its depth-first siblings by the conceptual-novelty test — is this a new question, model, or connection worth asking, rather than the deepest theorem of the year.
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill itcs-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.