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dph3jrm's guide to astro-ph sniping
Sniping is the art of submitting a paper to astro-ph just after the 1600 EST/EDT deadline in an attempt to be 'top of the list' when the astro-ph mail goes out 2 days later. This is a useful skill to have if you want your paper to have maximum impact (and are not famous enough to generate said interest by name alone). Below is my guide to sniping...
1. Read the astro-ph notes for submitting papers given here and their notes on submitting TeX documents given here.
2. It is important that your .tex file can be compiled by the astro-ph in-house LaTeX software. I make a copy of all my files (figues and tex files) and place them all in a single folder called "astro-ph_submitted". I then change all the 'includegraphs' references in the .tex file to ensure that they are pointing to the .eps files IN THAT FOLDER (i.e. including no directory paths).
3. I then copy the mn2e style files (mn2e.cls) and the fltfloat (fltfloat.sty) style files to the "astro-ph_submitted" folder and make sure that the document class points to mns2e:
\documentclass[useAMS,usenatbib]{mn2e}
and also:
\usepackage{floatflt}
4. If you have used bibtex (and you really should), then you will want to make things easy for the astro-ph LaTeX compiler by pasting the contents of your .bbl file to the end of your .tex document (where \bibliography{/PATH/TO/.bib_file} and \bibliographystyle{/PATH/TO/.bst_file} would normally be, before \bsp and \label{lastpage}). This means that astro-ph LaTeX won't have to fuss about with .bbl files and possible screw things up (you can't submit your .bib file as astro-ph LaTeX will ignore it.)
5. Test that is works by LaTeX-ing the document twice (the second time is used to sort out the references), running dvips on the resulting .dvi file and then ps2pdf on the resulting .ps to ensure that it's all working as it should.
6. Delete all the files that have been made in step 5.
7. Tar and zip it all up using
tar -cvf astro-ph_submitted.tar *
then
gzip astro-ph_submitted.tar
This will produce a astro-ph_submitted.tar.gz file. This is the one you are going to submit to astro-ph.
8. Go to the submission page. NOTE: You will have to create a user account to be able to submit, so ensure you've given yourself enough time to do this.
9. Fill in all the relevent fields in the first page that comes up. You only need one upload window as you will be submitting a .tar.gz file. Click continue...this is NOT the submission page, so you must do this a good few minutes before the deadline.
10. You will get to a page that looks something like this. THIS IS THE SUBMISSION FORM. THE TIME YOU HIT 'SUBMIT' IS CRUCIAL.
11. Fill in all the relevant fields but DO NOT UPLOAD THE .tar.gz FILE. Click on 'Submit' to check that what you've entered in the boxes looks ok in HTML and in the email that will be sent to the world of astronomy.
12. If all looks ok, use your browser's back button to go back to the submission form (or make any changed that you need to and re-check). Now use the 'Choose File' button to find the .tar.gz file. Once you have selected the file, your rifle is loaded and the safety catch is switched OFF. You are ready to submit- but don't hit that button yet...
13. ...you need to make sure you do it just after 1600 EDT/EST. To help you to ensure that you do, astro-ph provide a useful clock that gives the local time. Open the clock page in another window and keep mashing the reload button until the clock ticks past 1600 EST. As soon as this happens, hit 'SUBMIT' on the subission form and wait to see what time you've got (for snipers based in the UK I outline a useful tip in the next step).
13b. FOR UK-BASED SNIPERS: For super accuracy, I tune my radio to BBC Radio 4 and wait for the 'beeps' that come on the hour. I found that they are perfectly timed to the astro-ph clock. On the 6th beep the time is exactly 'on the hour' (but only if you use an analog radio...digitals have a delay!). I would still use the astro-ph clock as my priciple time-piece, but the audo beeps are a useful confirmation and mean less 'reload mashing' is required.
14. On the page after the submission form you must check that everything look ok by clicking on the HTML, PS and PDF links. Make a note of your paper's reference and password- required if you have to resubmit.
15. Note that you can make any changes to your submission within 24 hours and you will not "lose your place" in the rankings. So, if you notice a spelling mistake in your abstract, or even a screwed up paragraph in your .tex file, you can resubmit without incurring any penalties.
HAPPY SNIPING!!
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