When you have this information ready then fill in the submission form.
We shall also need a signed copyright declaration form which must be sent to us by ordinary mail .
Notes
Articles must be prepared using some flavour of LaTeX. For submission purposes you may use any format for the article that you wish. Once your article is accepted for publication we will ask you to change the format to fit our established style. If you prepare your article using well-structured LaTeX (ie with proper use of appropriate environments) then the journal will be able to make the necessary changes by simple substitutions near the start of your file. However this process may entail other changes which you will be asked to carry out and therefore you may wish to prepare your article using the journal style. In this case we recommend that you use the journal's prepared class file (see section 3 below).
Please also note that, if your paper is accepted for publication, then we will require you to deposit with us copies of all source files needed to make the PostScript file, so keep these files safely stored. For more detail here see section 6 below.
You may, if you wish, ignore the rest of these instructions until after your paper is accepted for publication. You will then be required to alter the format to fit journal style (and to make any other changes requested by the referee or the editors). This will of course result in a delay in publication after acceptance. However, even if you decide to do this, we strongly recommend that you read through all the following instructions, because this will give you a good idea of what the editors consider to be suitable format, and you may also pick up some useful hints on layout, graphics etc.
We recommend that you prepare your article in house style using LaTeX with the supplied document class file gtart.cls. We supply a template for this purpose gtlatex.tem. Note that this class file is fully compatible with both LaTeX article style and amslatex amsart style; so authors who normally use either of these styles should find this format congenial. For instructions on using this class file see gtartins.tex or gtartins.ps or gtartins.pdf.
It is worth remarking that gtart.cls can be used as a "drop-in" replacement for either article.cls or amsart.cls. Here is a quick summary of the steps needed to convert an article written in either of these styles to GT house style (full details are given in the above instructions).
Replace your \documentclass declaration with:
\documentclass{gtart} (without options)
\gtart
Add \usepackage{amsmath,amssymb} (if the "amsart" class was used earlier).
Retain your other \usepackage commands here.
Remove all formatting instructions such as \textwidth or \textheight or \baselinestretch or \pagestyle.
Give your own macros (\newcommands etc here)
Lay out your header material thus:
\begin{document}
\title{--}
\author{--}
\address{--}
\email{--}
Optional: \url{--}
(Other versions of these five commands are described in the
instructions.)
\begin{abstract}"......" \end{abstract}
\primaryclass{--} (AMS classification numbers)
\secondaryclass{--}
\keywords{--}
\maketitlepage
Then the main text of the article, then:
BiBTeX users, use the next line
%\bibliographystyle{gtart}
\begin{thebibliography}
...
\end{thebibliography}
Appendix material here (set \small)
\end{document}
Note: the recommended BiBTeX style file is gtart.bst.
Note on tables of contents: The editors do not allow authors to use automatically generated tables of contents (eg by using LaTeX command \tableofcontents). You are encouraged to give a structured outline of your paper if you wish, but please use internal numbering not page numbers for referencing (eg "in subsection 4.3 we prove ..." NOT "on page \pageref{blah} we prove ...").
Do not necessarily take (La)TeX's mathematics layout as perfect. Judicious use of the spacing commands
\, \; \! \thinspace \negthinspace \quad \qquad (see the TeXbook)
can sometimes make a considerable improvement to the layout of a formula. There is one trap that TeX-users often fall into and which is of particular relevance to topologists. TeX treats the colon ":" as a relation and a formula such as $f: X\to Y$ gets incorrectly typeset with too much space between the "f" and the ":". The following simple macro (which is supplied by both of our packages mentioned above) can be used to correct this
\def\co{\colon\thinspace}
and then $f\co X\to Y$ will be correctly spaced.
TeX also treats the symbols < and > as relations. A common mistake is to use these symbols as angle brackets which results in unsightly spaces. Tex provides \langle and \rangle for use as angle brackets which give the correct spacing.
Pay attention to hyphens. TeX has a variety of hyphens available. Use the short hyphen, typset as -, for double-barelled words and so on, but use a longer hyphen, typset as --, for conjoined words, page ranges and between mathematics and text. For example the longer hyphen is correct in phrases such as: pages 23-45, X-windows, 3-manifold, T-system, Stone-Weierstrass Theorem (typset by typing 23--45, X--windows, 3--manifold, $T$--system, Stone--Weierstrass Theorem).
However, there is one common problem with all methods of embedding graphics. The labels produced by the graphics programs rarely match the text and this is one area where electronic publishing often fails to match traditional publishing for quality. So please take trouble to get the best possible match between diagram fonts and text fonts which is available with the system that you are using. For example, if you are using a graphics program which labels your diagram with PostScript fonts, and you are going to embed the resulting diagram in a TeX file, then choose the PostScript font which best matches the appropriate TeX font. Thus Times-Roman is a fair match for Computer Modern Roman whilst Times-Italic can be used to match mathematical symbols. Choose a slighly smaller basic font size (10 point is recommended) for labels in the diagram and reduce the size appropriately for sub and superscripts. Place the labels with care to simulate correct mathematical typesetting.
There are ways to get a perfect match between the fonts in the diagram and the text and the following methods are all highly recommended as potentially producing near perfect results.
If you are using LaTeX and you can draw your diagram in the LaTeX picture environment, then the labels will accurately match the text. For the most professional result, use the command \small to reduce the label size to match other subsidiary material. The PicTeX macro package, written by Michael Wichura, is commonly available with TeX installations and can be used to extend the LaTeX drawing commands to cover a complete range of curves. For instructions on using PicTeX, see (Michael Wichura, The PicTeX manual, TeXniques series, 6, TUG (1986)). PicTeX is designed to be used with all versions of TeX and produces excellent results. Again typeset labels using \small. All TeX's formatting is automatically applied to the labels in a PicTeX picture and the results accurately match the text.
The process of constructing a diagram using LaTeX picture elements, or more generally using PicTeX, is highly non-interactive and impractical for all but the simplest of diagrams. However the X-windows drawing program xfig (which is reasonably easy to use and includes a wide variety of picture elements) can be used as a "front end" for PicTeX. Draw your diagram in xfig and label it using mnemonic labels (which will be changed to the correct labels later). Export the diagram as "PicTeX macros". Load the exported file into your text editor and edit the labels (these will be found conveniently grouped at the end of the picture) to the correct TeX labels. If you are not using LaTeX then you will also need to remove some of the preamble to the file which xfig inserts. Finally paste the resulting file into your main file where you want the picture. Detailed instructions, examples and macros which make this easy are given in topics.ps
The X-windows drawing program xfig can also export as "combined eps and LaTeX picture macros". This gives an eps file for the picture and a LaTeX file for the captions. Used carefully (with appropriate editing) the results can be perfect.
There are two macro packages which allow an author to add TeX labels to PostScript files : rlepsf.tex written by Michael Greene and Colin Rourke and labelfig.tex written by Ray Seroul and Larry Siebenmann. rlepsf.tex changes PostScript labels into TeX labels. This means that you can produce a picture using any drawing package (which produces an encapsulated PostScript file) and then change the PostScript labels into labels which are correctly formatted for TeX. labelfig.tex adds TeX labels superimposed over the PostScript diagram. So you draw the picture without labels and then add them afterwards. Instructions on using these packages are also given in topics.ps.
Finally there is a macro package psfrag, written Michael Grant et al, which does a similar job to rlepsf.tex. This package can be collected from the CTAN TeX archive and contains its own instructions. It is designed to be used with LaTeX. There is an interface, written by David Carlisle, which adapts the package for use with plain TeX, but you need to have a recent version of LaTeX installed to use this interface.
When your paper has been accepted for publication in Geometry and Topology, we will ask you to deposit with us copies of all the source files that are needed to recreate your main PostScript file. There are two reasons for doing this.
The main reason is for archiving purposes. At some stage in the future PostScript may become an obsolete standard. We expect that at that point we will be able to translate our journal PostScript files into whatever is the new standard format. However there may well be technical advantages in recreating the new file from the source files and we are archiving them against this possibility. It also makes it less likely that any of our electronic material may ever become unreadable to a future generation. We are of course intending to archive a paper copy of the whole journal (and paper copies will be deposited in the main copyright libraries) but recreating an electronic source from a paper copy will probably always be more troublesome than upgrading an existing electronic copy.
The second reason is for publication purposes. We currently publish journal articles in two formats (PostScript and Portable Document Format -- PDF) and we use wherever possible particular fonts for these versions. Furthermore we intend that at some stage we will supply printed copy of the journal to a high standard. This may entail making a PostScript file with fonts generated to a high resolution (for example 1200dpi). Given standard source material from which a PostScript file can be generated, then a simple switch (in the dvips converter for example) usually makes it possible to change fonts and their resolution.
So we ask you to keep safe copies of all your source files. If you are using TeX or one of its derivatives then these will normally comprise just the main TeX file and any picture files which are embedded by dvips. But please also keep the figure files in their original format where this exists (for example if you use xfig, then keep the .fig files). Please also keep any non-standard macro packages or any non-standard font files (metafont source files) which you use. Please make a note of the version number of packages or programs that you use (eg latex2.09 or xfig3.03). We intend to archive all this information. If you use TeX then keep your main TeX file as tidy as possible with a liberal use of comments especially for macros whose use is not obvious. Collect all your macros at the start and avoid separate macro files. Delete any unused macros. Start the file with a comment which states clearly what the file is and what other input files are needed. Think in terms of an archivist working 50 years from now and needing to know exactly what you did with that ancient TeX processing system that used to be used!
Auxiliary files
We have a directory for auxiliary files and we invite authors whose papers have been accepted by the journal to deposit files in this directory. These files are NOT regarded as part of the main journal but are intended to provide a service for later scholarship. We do not regard them as part of the main journal archive. In particular they may change (grow perhaps) over time.
This material includes copies of the main journal articles in formats which allow for electronic cross-referencing ("hyper-text links"). For the time being we provide PDF (Adobe Acrobat) translations of the main files and we may add other translations later. We invite authors to supply us with translations of their articles, which can then include links to other articles or files.
We also invite comment files (probably in HTML format) containing links to other electronic source materials, expository notes (stored elsewhere) and so on. Another possibility is comment files written later with errata, links to or notes on reviews and subsequent developments. Authors are encouraged to provide auxiliary material at any time in whatever formats are in current use. We shall use our discretion as to the nature and length of these auxiliary publications.
This material will allow some of the unique advantages of electronic formats to be realised and also to allow the journal to adapt quickly to new developments without affecting the main publication, which is intended to exactly mirror conventional publication.
These pages are not updated anymore. They reflect the state of . For the current production of this journal, please refer to http://msp.warwick.ac.uk/.