The journal's input requirements are very straightforward.
To fix ideas, let's assume that your document consists of four files you created yourself: main.tex
, sec1.tex
, sec2.tex
, and mybib.bib
. mybib.bib
may contain entries that are not cited in the body of the document. Let's also assume that you know to deploy \cite
, \bibliographystyle
, and \bibliography
statements and that you know how and when to run BibTeX, in addition to LaTeX, in order to create the formatted bibliography (which will be stored in main.bbl
).
Suppose, next, that main.tex
has the following structure:
\documentclass{<whatever>} % does the journal specify which document class must be used?
% preamble material, including a suitable \bibliographystyle instruction
\begin{document}
\input sec1 % including various \cite directives
\input sec2
\bibliography{mybib}
\end{document}
The first applicable instruction is:
Prepare only one .tex file; do not use \include
or \input
to incorporate another source file.
To meet this requirement, simply delete (or comment out) the two \input
statements in main.tex
and replace them with the contents of sec1.tex
and sec2.tex
. After these operations, main.tex
should contain the complete LaTeX code for the document.
The only way this can fail is if the final pdf file consists of -- in addition to files with extension .tex -- graphics files (in eps, png, or pdf format, say) that are loaded via \includegraphics
statements. If the final pdf file does rely on externally-stored graphics files, you'll simply have to include them alongside main.tex
when you upload the files to the journal's website.
The second instruction is:
If you are using BibTeX, do not submit .bib and .bbl files. Instead, compile your LaTeX and copy the contents of the generated .bbl file into your .tex file.
After running LaTeX, BibTeX, and LaTeX twice more to create the formatted bibliography and resolve all \cite
commands, delete (or comment out) the \bibliography
statement and replace that statement with the contents of main.bbl
. These contents will likely start with \begin{thebibliography}{<some integer>}
and end with \end{thebibliography}
.
You should be able to compile the complete file main.tex
with LaTeX without any further ado. It is this version of main.tex
that you should submit to the journal.
Some final comments: It's actually quite striking that the journal doesn't appear to impose any additional requirements regarding the document class, the font families, or the page layout. Consider yourself lucky! Do make life for the journal's editorial team as simple as possible by using either article
or report
as the document class and only the standard font families, and do make sure to engage in very little or, better still, no visual formatting. The editorial team will take note and be most appreciative.
biblatex
(see Biblatex: submitting to a journal). Using\input
and\include
has no real advantage for article length documents.