PMLR Repository

This repository contains tools and scripts for managing and publishing proceedings for the Proceedings of Machine Learning Research (PMLR).

I've archived an old version of this code at https://github.com/mlresearch/old_papersite. On 2025-05-26 that repo was cloned to start this one and restructure with aim of creating a better automated pipeline.

Overview

The repository is structured as follows:

• lib/: Contains Ruby scripts for managing the Jekyll site and processing BibTeX files.
• bin/: Contains shell scripts for various tasks related to the repository.
• backlog/: Task management system for tracking improvements and features.
• cip/: Code Improvement Plans for documenting architectural changes.

Volume Processing Workflow

The modern workflow for processing PMLR volumes includes:

1. BibTeX Cleaning: Use tidy_bibtex.rb to fix common issues like unescaped % characters
2. Volume Creation: Use create_volume.rb to generate Jekyll posts and organize assets
3. Deployment: Use deploy_volume.sh for proper branch separation (assets on main, Jekyll on gh-pages)

BibTeX Cleaning

Before processing a volume, clean the BibTeX file to fix common issues:

# Clean BibTeX file (fixes unescaped % characters and other issues)
ruby lib/tidy_bibtex.rb --fix-all input.bib output_cleaned.bib

Volume Creation

Create the Jekyll site and organize assets:

# Create volume with cleaned BibTeX
ruby lib/create_volume.rb -v VOLUME_NUMBER -b cleaned.bib

# If PDFs are in a separate branch, skip PDF checks
ruby lib/create_volume.rb -v VOLUME_NUMBER -b cleaned.bib --skip-pdf-check

Deployment

Deploy the volume with proper branch separation:

# Deploy with new script (recommended)
./bin/deploy_volume.sh VOLUME_NUMBER

This creates:

• main branch: Contains assets (PDFs) and README.md
• gh-pages branch: Contains Jekyll site files for GitHub Pages

Ruby Code

The Ruby code is used for creating Jekyll sites for hosting PMLR on GitHub Pages. The main code is found in lib/mlresearch.rb.

Requirements

The Ruby scripts depend on the following packages:

• ActiveRecord
• bibtex-ruby
• facets
• pandoc-ruby

You can install these packages using:

gem install bibtex-ruby facets pandoc-ruby activerecord

Alternatively, you can use the provided Gemfile with:

bundle install

Usage

For detailed usage instructions, refer to the lib/README.md file.

Contributing

To suggest fixes or improvements, please make a pull request containing the changes requested and a justification for the changes.

For details on how to publish in PMLR, please check PMLR FAQ.

For details on what is required to submit a proceedings, please check PMLR Specification.