A prescribed submission template was provided for participants to follow and included an example submission with all needed information. Participants were required to follow the template, since we would use automated scripts to parse and run the statistical analysis. Each submission required: predictions, participant name, participant organization, name of their method, list of used software, detailed method description, method category, and a ranked or non-ranked classification. In the predictions section, we required a predicted free-energy, free-energy SEM, and free energy model uncertainty. Predicted binding enthalpy values were optional. Participant and reference calculation submission files are available in relevant host submission directory in the SAMPL8 GitHub repository ().