GPTP-2021-Chapter-Formatting

Describes the formatting of chapters for the GPTP 2021 Book. Authors, please consider!

GPTP-2021 Proceedings Volume chapter preparation

This repository includes all the files you will need for preparing your GPTP 2021 Proceedings Volume chapter—including a template you should edit to include your chapter's text—except for image and BibTeX files you will need to provide. You can also go to Springer's website (https://www.springer.com/gp/authors-editors/book-authors-editors/your-publication-journey/manuscript-preparation), in particular "Layouts and Templates" (https://www.springer.com/gp/authors-editors/book-authors-editors/your-publication-journey/manuscript-preparation#c3324) and download the LaTeX template for contributing books.

Note

This is essentially a copy of recent years' procedure. Wolfgang will be again the main point of contact, but maybe that will change after the workshop. Please take a moment to read through.

Timeline

1. Revised manuscripts are due on August 1, 2021
2. Copy editing will be done internally by editors during summer/early fall.
3. Manuscripts will be returned to the author(s) as copy-editing is completed. Note this will involve actual copy editing and thus there may be important clarifications and improvements asked before the manuscript is complete.
4. Ideally, all manuscript work should be complete (including changes made in response to copy editing) by September 1, 2021.
5. Book is to be submitted by September 1, 2021 to Springer.

Simple start

Just to make sure everything is set up correctly on your machine:

1. Download the latex format/instructions/template from Springer directly and properly name your chapter.
2. Navigate to the folder created, and then to gptp2021-chapter.
3. Open the file author.tex in your LaTeX editor of choice
4. Render the document (all dependencies used by the example chapter, including images and references, are already here in this directory)
5. Take a moment to look over the document produced. It's loaded with helpful information for your own manuscript preparation!
6. Look over the documentation provided by Springer, which is stored in documentation/authinst.pdf. It's great!

OK, so now we both know your LaTeX installation is working! Now:

Start fresh

Make a copy of the file author.tex, leaving it where it is for now

Pick a useful filename

Rename the file to something more useful, like yourname.tex for example, or some other name that will help us know whose chapter it is.

Add chapter name

at line 39, add the chapter title

Add author name(s)

at line 42 or 43, add the author names

Add your nice place of work

Edit the institutional affiliations appropriately. If you don't have an affiliation, that's OK, but please include the email address of the corresponding author.

Tell the reader what you're going to say

Edit the abstract to include a succinct abstract of your work. "Succinct" means five or six sentences, 10–15 lines (rendered), max. If your abstract continues past the first page of the rendered manuscript, guess what? It's not an abstract, it's a paper.

Say it

This is the main manuscript. Edit the section headings and the contents of the sections as appropriate.

Pictures are fun!

Please be very careful to read the comments and example code regarding figures. Don't add new packages to make fancy figures. Don't stretch the figures to be in weird places or weird sizes.

Color is allowed! So make them nice please. Then pictures are fun.

Citations

In your text, use \cite{<label>} for every citation, and make sure every <label> is unique in your document.

But wait there's more!

Actually, hang on... no there isn't. Please don't use the appendix shown in the example template.

Giving credit where you want to

Traditionally we've relied on Bill Langdon's GP Bibliography. However, that bibliography has become very big now, with more than 10,000 references. So, feel free to include items you want from that. But you must also include any other references not present in that eminent file in your own references file. Edit (or generate using you favorite bibliographic management software) the file referenc.tex so that it has your chapter's references in it.

Editing bibliographic entries is complicated, but the documentation included in this repository is actually quite good. If you glance at the PDF file generated when you rendered author.tex (the original template you copied) you'll see all kinds of amazing useful helpful stuff near the end about references.

You can choose whichever bibliographic standards you like, but I think probably we will use the ones given in the first or second example blocks of the template's bibliography (references 1-5 and 6-10).

If you have trouble rendering the bibliography, please don't spend too much time fixing it to be pretty. We'll do that.

Instead:

1. Get all the references you use in your chapter into referenc.tex
2. Don't include any references there that aren't in your chapter
3. Make sure all the bibliographic info is present (full title, full author list, etc) and we will fiddle with the styles later

Make it right

Please spell check. We will correct obvious misspellings without informing you, but would rather not have to do that.

Please write clearly. We will flag obscure or incorrect grammar if it appears in your manuscript and return it to you, and we'd really rather not do that.

Please refer to the pertinent literature in your contribution. Err on the side of extra references. Imagine somebody who is (1) interested but (2) a complete novice is reading your chapter.

Include all figures as encapsulated postscript .eps or PDF files .pdf in the directory with your chapter, at the same level as your text. Don't put them in a sub-directory, please. Just make sure the files are named reasonably and can be identified if they all get mixed up.

Make it pretty and consistent

We'll do that. But these will certainly help:

Don't use new or extra fonts.

Don't play bounding box games or check for hbox overflow errors.

Don't hyphenate things unless you really know they need to be hyphenated.

If you absolutely must must must have a full-page figure, please...

Make it fit

Twenty five pages, rendered using this template. Including figures and bibliography. In exceptional cases, you can have a bit more space. But please ask us.

Ask questions

Please discuss your manuscript early and often on the Slack channel assigned to it.

Get it done

Submit revised manuscripts by 1 August, 2021. To submit your manuscript:

1. Rename the folder gptp2018-chapter to gptp2021-chapter-YOURNAMEHERE
2. zip the entire folder, and all contents
3. Email this zip file to Wolfgang (banzhafw@msu.edu) as attachment. You can also upload it to the Slack channel assigned to it, 'Contributions 2021' (just drag it onto the channel input box!).