TeX e LaTeX.
Preparare un articolo per le riviste dell'AIP

Se state leggendo questi appunti di LaTeX, probabilmente siete dei ricercatori di Fisica. Tra le più imporanti riviste di Fisica, figurano sicuramente le riviste dell'AIP (American Institute of Physics): Applied Physics Letters, ecc... Spiegherò ora come preparare un articolo secondo le linee guida dell'AIP e come funziona il processo di pubblicazione.

Le immagini

I formati preferiti sono eps, tiff, pdf. Se usate il vecchio metodo di compilazione che produce il dvi, siete obbligati a usare le immagini in eps. Se invece usate pdflatex potreste usare il formato pdf, png e jpeg. Dato che quelli dell'AIP vogliono per forza quei tre formati, dovrete trasformare ogni tipo di file in pdf (perché pdflatex non accetta né tiff né eps, in realtà gli eps sì ma è meglio non usarli con pdflatex).

Oltretutto, non so perché, l'AIP preferisce il formato eps al formato pdf. Per tale motivo sembra quasi d'obbligo compilare con il comando latex e produrre quindi il dvi (pratica alquanto discutibile).

A parte le ovvie raccomandazioni sulla preparazione delle immagini (font classici, dimensioni ragionevoli, inclusione di font nel file, ecc...) bisogna rinominare i file delle immagini con il numero di figura che compare nell'articolo. In pratica le rinominerete Fig1.eps, Fig2.eps, ecc... Infine se un'immagine è composta di più pannelli separati, per esempio Fig. 1a, Fig. 1b, Fig. 1c, ecc... il file Fig1.eps dovrà comprendere tutto quanto, comprese le etichette a, b, c! L'operazione di unione di più immagini vettoriali in una singola immagine, non è banale ma può essere fatta sfruttando sempre LaTeX. Se ho tempo scriverò come.

Le etichette andrebbero preparate in modo tale che nella versione a stampa i caratteri abbiano dimensione di 8pt. Ciò non è banale da farsi con le immagini vettoriali ma è sufficiente fare dei test per poi confrontare il risultato con una parte di testo del pdf generato con LaTeX (8pt corrisponde alla dimensione del testo delle didascalie).

Infine, nel caso di immagini raster, preparatele già con la dimensione giusta per la colonna di testo della rivista su cui volete pubblicare.

Ecco qua come riferimento le linee guida dell'AIP per la preparazione delle illustrazioni. Ecco altre linee guida.

Una cosa che non ho capito è che le immagini non vanno solo rinominate come Fig1.eps, ecc... ma va messo davanti il numero di accettazione dell'articolo. È come se una volta accettato l'articolo le immagini venissero richieste nuovamente. Da indagare. Ecco un esempio: 001704jap1.eps.

Le immagini a colori si possono mandare ma verranno stampate in scala di grigi. La versione elettronica dell'articolo conterrà ovviamente le immagini a colori. Se volete pubblicare a colori anche su carta si deve pagare.

In order to maintain online color as a free service to authors, the journal cannot accept multiple versions of the same graphics file. Authors may not submit two versions of the same illustration (e.g., one for color and one for black & white). When preparing illustrations that will appear in color in the online journal and in black & white in the printed journal, authors must ensure that: (i) colors chosen will reproduce well when printed in black & white and (ii) descriptions of figures in text and captions will be sufficiently clear for both print and online versions. This is the author’s responsibility. If usable color graphics files are received in time for the production process, authors will see color versions of those illustrations when viewing their author proofs. (The Corresponding Author will receive e-mail notification from AIP when the proof, as a PDF file, is available for downloading.) At the proof stage, authors must insert the phrase, "(Color online)," into the captions of figures that will appear in color in the online journal and in black & white in the printed journal. This is the author’s responsibility. An example of an amended figure caption appears below: FIG. 10. (Color online) Experimental (dotted curve) and simulated (solid curve) x-ray diffraction spectra. Although figures will appear in color online, the printed version of the article will contain black-and-white images. Therefore, a descriptive term other than a color is needed in the caption to support the data of discussion. For example, instead of “the red and blue symbols” write “the red circles and blue squares.” By adding the descriptive terms “circles” and “squares” the print reader, seeing the image in black and white, would have a clearer picture as to what is being explained in the figure.

La preparazione del manoscritto

L'AIP accetta manoscritti in Word (solo il formato .doc, cioè non il .docx basato su XML) e in LaTeX. La classe LaTeX usata per tutte le riviste dell'AIP è la famosa REVTeX scritta dai membri dell'American Physical Society (APS).

REVTeX può essere sia scaricata dal CTAN o dai repesitory della vostra distribuzione TeX, oppure direttamente dal sito ufficiale. All'interno troverete, oltre alla classe, molte altre cose. Tra queste i file di stile per le riviste dell'AIP. 

\documentclass[aip,apl]{revtex4-1}
% Riviste: apl, ...
% preprint (default, da usarsi per la sottomissione)
% reprint (simula il layout della rivista)
% linenumbers (carica lineno e stampa i numeri di riga)


\begin{document}

\title{...}

\author{...}
\affiliation{...}

\author{...}
\affiliation{...}

\begin{abstract}
...
\end{abstract}

\pacs{68.55.Ln, 68.55.Lx}

\keywords{nuclear form; yrast level}

\maketitle

Testo dell'articolo ...

\begin{acknowledgments}
...
\end{acknowledgments}

% bibliografia (thebibliography o BibTeX)

\end{document}

La sottomissione del manoscritto

I manoscritti per le riviste dell'AIP vanno inviati tramite il portale web apl.peerx-press.org a cui ovviamente vi dovete preventivamente registrare.

The Manuscript, including the abstract, references, and captions, should be set up for 21.6 x 28 cm (8-1/2 x 11 in. or A4) pages with ample margins. It should be carefully proofread by the author. The manuscript must be in good scientific American English; this is the author's responsibility. Number all pages in single sequence beginning with the title and abstract page. The title page should contain the title of the article, the names and affiliations of the authors, and a short abstract. Parts of the manuscript should be arranged in the following order: title, author, affiliation, abstract, text, acknowledgments, appendices, and references. Papers should not be lengthened by unnecessary descriptions and repetitions, but neither should authors use a telegraphic style detrimental to the clarity and understanding of the paper. Manuscripts must never exceed three journal pages. An abstract limited to about 100 words is required. In addition to the title, abstract, and references, the three-page length permits about 2000 words of text, reduced, however, by allowances for equations, tables, and figures. An average one-column figure with its caption will displace about 220 words of text. Authors are cautioned that discovery of excess length might not occur until a late stage in publication and would then result in delay and expense. Circumvention of the length limitation by division of a long article into small parts is considered to be contrary to the purpose of this journal. A section on Comments is available for criticism or additions to Letters already in print. A Response will normally be solicited to a critical Comment. Both Comments and Responses should contain 1000 words or less. The Title should be as concise as possible but informative enough to facilitate information retrieval. Acronyms are not allowed in the title. They should be used with considerable moderation elsewhere. The Abstract should be limited to about 100 words and should be self-contained (contain no footnotes). It should be adequate as an index (giving all subjects, major and minor, about which new information is given), and as a summary (giving the conclusions and all results of general interest in the article). The abstract should be written as one paragraph and should not contain displayed mathematical equations or tabular material. Authors' names should preferably be written in a standard form for all publications to facilitate indexing and avoid ambiguities. Authors with Chinese, Japanese, or Korean names may choose to have their names published in their own language alongside the English versions of their names in the author list of their publications. For Chinese, authors may use either Simplified or Traditional characters. Chinese, Japanese, or Korean characters must be included within the author list of the manuscript when submitting or resubmitting. The manuscript must be prepared using Microsoft Word or using the CJK LaTeX package. Specific guidelines for each authoring tool are given here. To ensure that we have processed the manuscript files correctly, you must proof the PDF of the manuscript as produced by the Peer X-Press system on first submission. In addition, it is essential that you check carefully any production proofs you receive prior to the publication of your paper. Equations should be punctuated and aligned to bring out their structure and numbered on the right. Mathematical operation signs indicating continuity of the expression should be placed at the left of the second and succeeding lines. Use × rather than a centered dot, except for scalar products of vectors. The solidus (/) should be used instead of built up fractions in running text, and in display wherever clarity would not be jeopardized. Use "exp" for complicated exponents. Notation must be legible, clear, compact, and consistent with standard usage. All unusual symbols whose identity may not be obvious must be identified the first time they appear, and at all subsequent times when confusion might arise. Superscripts are normally set directly over subscripts; authors should note where readability or the meaning requires a special order. References and footnotes are treated alike. They must be numbered consecutively in order of first appearance in the text and should be given in a separate double-spaced list at the end of the text material. Reference should be made to the full list of authors, rather than to first author followed by an abbreviation such as et al. References within tables should be designated by lowercase Roman letter superscripts and given at the end of the table. For the proper form, see recent issues of this journal. Preprints of cited unpublished work by the authors should be sent with the manuscript. Separate Tables (numbered with Roman numerals in the order of their appearance in the text) should be used for all but the simplest tabular material; they should have captions that make the tables intelligible without reference to the text. The structure should be clear, with simple column headings giving all units. Unaltered computer output and notation are generally unacceptable.

Il manoscritto deve essere accompagnato da una cover letter che deve includere i nomi degli autori e le affiliazioni, il titolo dell'articolo, la rivista su cui lo si vuole pubblicare, la email del corresponding author ed eventuali altre richieste specifiche.

Dovrete poi compilare un Copyright Agreement.

Una volta che il manoscritto è stato accettato, potete controllare a che punto del processo di uscita si trova, andando sul sito AMSIS.

Lunghezza dell'articolo: All calculations are made in terms of single-column lines; 118 lines equal one page. Whenever a rule gives a line equivalent for a number of words, the phrase "or fraction thereof" is to be understood. Again, one "word" is 7 characters (where spaces count as characters). The title takes 3 lines for every 7 words. Each group of authors from a single institution, with its address, takes 5 lines. If there are more than 5 authors from one institution, add 2 lines; if an institutional name and address contain more than 85 characters, add another 2 lines. The receipt date takes 3 lines. The abstract takes 2 lines for every 14 words. The text, not counting displayed equations, takes one line for every 9 words. A short equation (less than 40 characters) with no built-up fractions or matrices, etc., takes 3 lines. If it contains a built-up fraction, it takes 4 lines. If it contains a large matrix, it takes at least 2 lines per row of the matrix plus 2 lines. A long equation, typed across two columns, takes at least double these amounts; a very long complex equation may easily take 20 lines. Note that, when there are a number of two-column equations, intervening short equations will often also be given two-column space. Each reference or footnote takes one line for every 10 words. A figure, which can be reduced to one column width (8.5 cm) takes 24 lines per 10 cm of reduced height; if it requires more than one column width, it will take twice as many lines. Each figure caption takes one line for every 10 words. Also, there is one line between a figure and its caption, and 2 lines between captions or figures and text. Each line in a table and its caption become one line if the table fits into one column, and 2 lines if it is wider. Two lines separate a table from text. Large or complex tables should be calculated as if they were figures.

Manuscript Preparation Checklist Use this checklist to avoid the most common mechanical errors in submitted manuscripts: The manuscript must be double-spaced throughout. Number all pages in single sequence. Type references in the style used by this journal. Submit cover letter, manuscript file, illustration files, and any supplemental files via Peer X-Press, the journal's online submission system, located at http://apl.peerx-press.org. The original figures must be in the final published size, not oversized. When submitting your original or revised manuscript to the journal’s online submission site (http://apl.peerx-press.org), please provide electronic consent to the Transfer of Copyright Agreement. Obtain permission for reuse of any previously published material and include proper citation information within manuscript. For guidelines and blank form click here.

Ecco un esempio di pubblicazione per APL. Si può notare che è fatto con Word...