acl.sty — Official ACL Style File
The LaTeX style file used by ACL, EMNLP, NAACL, EACL, AACL, and Findings tracks. Two-column, anonymous submission mode, ACL bibliography style.
Open template with acl.styQuick usage
\documentclass[11pt]{article}
\usepackage[review]{acl} % anonymous submission
% \usepackage{acl} % camera-ready (uncomment for final)
\usepackage{times}
\usepackage{latexsym}
\usepackage{microtype}
\title{Your ACL/EMNLP/NAACL Paper Title}
\author{First Author \\
Affiliation \\ \texttt{first@email}
\And
Second Author \\
Affiliation \\ \texttt{second@email}}
\begin{document}
\maketitle
\begin{abstract}
Your abstract.
\end{abstract}
\section{Introduction}
% ... your paper ...
\bibliographystyle{acl_natbib}
\bibliography{custom}
\end{document}What acl.sty configures
- Two-column layout with ACL-specific margins (US letter)
- Times-style fonts (loaded via the times package)
- Anonymous title block in [review] mode
- Natbib-based citation style with acl_natbib.bst (author-year format)
- Section heading style and numbering
- 8-page (long) or 4-page (short) main paper layout
- microtype for better typography
Conferences using acl.sty
- ACL — Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics
- EMNLP — Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing
- NAACL — North American Chapter of the ACL
- EACL — European Chapter of the ACL
- AACL — Asia-Pacific Chapter of the ACL
- Findings of * — Findings tracks for each main conference
Related ACL/NLP resources
Frequently Asked Questions
acl.sty is the official LaTeX style file used by the ACL (Association for Computational Linguistics) and its conferences: ACL, EMNLP, NAACL, EACL, AACL, and Findings tracks. One style file is updated each year (acl_2026.sty) — minor tweaks year-to-year, same fundamental layout. Two-column, ~10pt body, IEEE-style numbered citations.
Add \usepackage[review]{acl} for anonymous submission, or \usepackage{acl} for camera-ready (with author info shown). The bundled distribution includes acl.sty, acl_natbib.bst, and the ACL paper template (acl_template.tex). Make sure all are in your project root.
From the official aclweb.org/anthology authors guide, or from the GitHub repo github.com/acl-org/acl-style-files. Each conference cycle (ACL 2026, EMNLP 2026, NAACL 2026) uses a slightly modified version, so download the one specified in the conference's call for papers.
Long papers: 8 pages of main content + unlimited references + appendix. Short papers: 4 pages of main + unlimited references + appendix. acl.sty configures the page geometry but doesn't hard-stop you. Check the specific conference's call for papers — page limits vary slightly between ACL, EMNLP, NAACL.
[review] hides author information so the PDF is anonymous for double-blind review. Without [review], authors are visible — use only for the camera-ready version. ACL conferences enforce double-blind review strictly; never include identifying info in the submitted PDF.
Use \cite, \citep, or \citet from the natbib package (loaded automatically by acl.sty). \citep{key} → (Smith and Jones, 2024) — parenthetical, default style. \citet{key} → Smith and Jones (2024) — narrative. \cite{key} produces parenthetical with no surrounding parens — useful inside your own parentheses.
ACL uses author-year citations with the bundled acl_natbib.bst. Use \bibliographystyle{acl_natbib} \bibliography{custom} where 'custom' is your .bib file. The .bst is included in the acl style file distribution.
Yes — same .sty file. The conference's submission system handles which type you submit; the .sty file just sets the formatting. Long papers have 8 pages of content, short papers 4 — but both use acl.sty.