Stop missing conference deadlines: AoE, abstracts, and countdowns

Why conference deadlines are confusing (AoE timezones, separate abstract dates), how the open ccf-deadlines dataset fixes discovery, and how to keep a live countdown next to your manuscript.

Every researcher has a story about a deadline that was actually twelve hours earlier than they thought. The usual culprits:

AoE is not your timezone. “Anywhere on Earth” means UTC-12: the deadline passes when it is past midnight at the International Date Line’s west side. That is generous, but only if you convert it correctly.

The abstract deadline is real. Many venues require a registered abstract about a week before the paper deadline. Miss it and the paper deadline is irrelevant.

Deadlines move. Extensions and round-two dates spread across mailing lists and social feeds; official calls are the only source worth trusting.

The open dataset that fixes discovery

The community-maintained ccf-deadlines project tracks hundreds of venues as reviewable YAML files: deadlines, timezones, ranks, and official links, all MIT-licensed. Because it is data rather than a website, anyone can build views on top of it.

Anyone can build views on top of that open YAML (filters, countdowns, search) without depending on a single portal.

Countdown next to the manuscript

We publish a free live deadline board built on that dataset: countdowns, CCF and CORE ranks, field filters, and search, no sign-up. And a separate website still requires remembering to look, so the Oleafly desktop app puts the same board one click from your projects, works offline from a bundled snapshot, and refreshes on demand. The useful place for a deadline countdown is next to the paper you are racing to finish.

New to the deadline dance? The Learn track on the deadline lifecycle decodes AoE, abstract registration, rebuttals, and camera-ready dates from scratch.