This document aims to streamline the creation of conference companion proceedings to be published on CEUR.WS. This is typically a time-consuming and labor-intensive task, but with careful management and leadership, we believe we can significantly reduce the effort required.
In this document, we will first describe what is a companion proceeding and how it is contextualised in terms of CEUR.WS. We will then describe the relevant roles involved in the process. Finally, we will provide a step-by-step guide on how to compile the final proceeding volume.
Version: v0.2
Last Update: 20 Jan 2025
What is a companion proceeding?
A companion proceeding usually refers to a set of academic papers or presentations that are related to a main conference or event, but not part of its core program. For instance ACM, publishes “companion” or adjunct proceedings for short papers, workshop papers, posters, panel abstracts, and other material other than full conference papers.
An example of Companion Proceedings for SEMANTiCS: https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3759/
In the context of CEUR.WS, a companion proceeding is just like any volume proceedings.
It requires three main components (see also figure below):
- papers in pdf format, all together in the paper folder
- index.html, landing page that indexes all the papers via a Table of Contents, also in the paper folder
- signed author-agreements, in the agreements folder

Creating a companion proceeding involves several important tasks, which includes: checking that all the papers adhere to the 1-column ceur-art template, all papers have the GenAI statement, all agreements are signed with pen on paper, and prepare the index.html file. While a single volunteer can manage this for smaller workshops (around 10 papers), it becomes an unreasonable burden for larger companion proceedings.
Essentially, to simplify the creation of the companion proceedings, we propose a divide-and-conquer approach. Each track and workshop chair will be responsible for compiling their own individual volume. A lead coordinator will then gather these volumes and associated agreements into a single, cohesive volume (aka the companion proceeding).
However, without careful coordination, we risk creating more work and confusion instead of saving time.
Relevant parties and roles
In this process we envision two main roles:
- Volume Editor, fulfilled by the proceeding chair, and/or additional volunteer;
- Sub-Volume Editor, fulfilled by the chairs of workshop/track to be included in the proceeding.
Volume Editor
The Volume Editor is responsible for collating all single volumes in a single cohesive companion proceedings. This consists of:
- Merging all paper folders in a single folder
- Merging all agreement folders in a single folder
- Create the index.html by merging all index.html produced by the various Sub-Volume Editor
- Submit the volume to CEUR.WS, and liaise with all Sub-Volume Editors should issues arise
Sub-Volume Editor
The Sub-Volume Editor is responsible for creating the volume of their track or workshop. This includes liaising with the authors, to get the camera-ready and the signed agreement. Sub-Volume Editors must ensure that papers and agreements are compliant with CEUR.WS rules.
Finally, Sub-Volume Editors must generate the index.html for their volume. This will facilitate the Volume Editor when creating the final index.html for the whole companion proceeding.
Where to start?
Here are defined a simple set of action to be accomplished as soon as the team is set:
- Sub-Volume Editors must specify in the call for papers to use the single-column ceur-art template (latex, word), and to adhere to the CEUR.WS GenAI Policy
- Volume Editor is encouraged to create an adaptation of the template, e.g. by filling in the name of the event and some other metadata, and then publish an Overleaf page. Sub-Volume Editors will publish this on workshop/track call for papers
- Sub-Volume Editor to download the index.html file, familiarise with the requirements
- Volume Editor to download the index.html file, familiarise with the requirements
- Volume Editor to fill all the relevant parts of the AUTHOR-AGREEMENT, and share it with Sub-Volume Editors, who in turn will share it with the authors of the accepted papers
- Volume Editor to prepare the EDITOR-AGREEMENT
Compiling the final proceeding volume
Creating subvolumes
This step is for Sub-Volume Editors. Create the volume following CEUR.WS procedure. You can follow the instructions available on https://ceur-ws.org/HOWTOSUBMIT.html
You do not need to create the EDITOR-AGREEMENT, as there will be just one for the whole companion proceeding, and the Volume Editor will take care of it.
IMPORTANT: There is one additional step you should consider: prepend to all papers and agreements filenames the acronym of your workshop/track.
For instance, if the workshop acronym is sci-k, you are expected to write filenames like:
- sci-k-paper1.pdf
- sci-k-AUTHOR-AGREEMENT-paper1.pdf
Instead, for the poster and demo track, you are expected to write filenames like:
- pdt-paper1.pdf
- pdt-AUTHOR-AGREEMENT-paper1.pdf
Please, strictly follow this naming convention, as it is set to avoid conflicts when merging more than one workshop in the same folder.
You are encouraged to also create a preface describing the objectives of the workshop/track.
The figure below shows how files should be named.

Finally, create the index.html file.
Do not use
<span class="CEURSESSION">Session 1: Invited Talks</span>
as the Volume Editor will use this to separate the various workshops/tracks in the final index.html.
To help you create the index.html file, we created a bookmarklet that can build the table of content directly from EasyChair.
Read here for installation and use instructions: https://github.com/angelosalatino/easychair-to-ceurws-toc.
Creating the final volume
This step is for Volume Editors. Collect all sub-volumes from Sub-Volume Editors. Some Sub-Editors will be busier than others and will deliver at a later date. It is important you are clear with them that the companion proceeding must be online before the conference, and they are expected to . Hence it is important everyone works around this deadline.
To ensure a smooth process, it’s essential to clearly communicate the deadline. Do emphasise that the complete companion proceeding must be online before the conference begins. Everyone needs to prioritise meeting this deadline to ensure a successful and timely publication.
Create two folders, respectively named papers and agreements.
Paste all sub-volume papers in the papers folder. Paste all sub-volume agreements in the agreement folder. At this stage, there should not be conflicts (e.g., file already existing in folder) as the naming convention should make sure all filenames are different from each other.
Optional: create a preface for the whole companion proceedings, mentioning all the tracks/workshop and the team of editors.
Finalise the EDITOR-AGREEMENT.
Create the index.html.
Fill all crucial tags:
CEURVOLACRONYM, CEURVOLTITLE, CEURFULLTITLE, CEURCOLOCATED, CEURLOCTIME.
Establish an order in which tracks/workshops must appear.
Separate each track/workshop with
<span class="CEURSESSION">Workshop 1: Workshop name</span>
Now you can copy/paste the Table of Contents from all sub-volume index files based on the established order.
Finally, you can submit the volume on https://submissions.ceur-ws.org/.