Dealing with strict rules for paper submission using LaTeX

Question

My dear LaTeX users,

I'm quite new to Latex and as PhD student in Chemistry at want to prepare all my manuscripts in LaTeX even though my groups is not a big LaTeX user (I'm tired of Word). Unfortunately some relevant journal in the chemistry field have some quotes like this

• For quickest processing, we prefer to receive final manuscripts from authors in Word docx format.
• Prepare only one .tex file; do not use \include or \input to incorporate another source file.
• 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.

How do you deal with them?

I think that the \include{} keyword is quite useful to change from one paper style to another one you first opinion gets rejected. And I don't even know who to deal with the third point as I usually export a .bib file from my all library in Mendeley and not only the papers that I'm citing and for that reason the .bib files is quite big.

Answer 1

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}

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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.

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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.

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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.