5.2 The LANL archive

The LANL preprint archive is based, in the UK, at <http://xxx.soton.ac.uk> which is a mirror of the master archive at LANL. The archive is easy to use as a reader but not, unfortunately, transparently easy to use as an author (not helped by the rather snide error messages that come back if you slip up...).

The full instructions are comprehensive, but boil down to the following:

• The first time you submit anything to the archive, you need to register as an author. That registers your email address with them and sets a few preferences (such as the default archive you'll submit to).
• Bundle up the LaTeX source for your paper in a .tar.gz archive. The automatic-processing software at LANL seems to LaTeX every .tex file in sight, so if your submission isn't in the canonical format of one TeX file plus a bunch of PostScript figures, you'd probably best read the instructions one more time. It follows from this that it doesn't matter what you call your TeX file: the processing software will still TeX it.

  LANL has copies of journal styles such as the A&A one -- when they process your paper it'll be formatted according to that style file. They suggest that the PostScript figures in the article be numbered something like figure1.ps, figure2.ps, so that they alphabetise correctly. See Considerations for TeX submissions for the gory details.

• Read the uploads help again, particularly the information on the information fields you'll have to fill in, then go to the uploads page at <http://xxx.lanl.gov/uploads>.
• The uploads page gives you a form to type in the various details of author and title and the like, and to type in the abstract. You give the name of your tar file, press the button and wait. After a pause you can check if the automatic processing succeeded. At this stage, you'll be given a password for this paper. This allows you and your co-authors to retrieve the paper before it's put in the public archive, and will be needed to make alterations, or update the journal publication details, in future.
• Now, you need a drink.