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focs-topic-selection
Use when deciding whether a theoretical-computer-science result belongs at FOCS (IEEE Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science) — testing foundations-level significance, weighing the April deadline against sibling theory venues like STOC, SODA, CCC, ITCS, or CRYPTO, and applying the CFP's broaden-the-reach clause.
FOCS-Skills/skills/focs-topic-selection/SKILL.md
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# FOCS Topic Selection
FOCS asks for "new and original research on theory of computation" and explicitly
welcomes papers that broaden the reach of the theory of computing or raise
important problems that can benefit from theoretical investigation (FOCS 2026
CFP, checked 2026-07-08 via `focs.computer.org/2026/call-for-papers-2/`). The
selection question is therefore two-dimensional: is this a theorems paper whose
significance survives a committee drawn from every corner of TCS, and is the
April-anchored IEEE cycle the right launch window for it?
## The significance test a FOCS PC applies
A foundations flagship rewards results that change what other theoreticians can
prove, not results that only optimize inside one subcommunity's parameter chart.