Writing a CinC Paper Using LaTeX

George Moody <george@mit.edu>
Last revised: 20 February 2012

This directory contains the CinC Author's Kit for preparing papers in PDF format using LaTeX. The following files are included:
READMEplain text version of this page
balance.styLaTeX macro for equalizing column length
cinc.clsCinC style file
cinc.bstCinC bibliography style file
template.texgeneric template for a paper (LaTeX source)
template.pdfformatted version of template.tex
refs.bibsample BibTeX bibliography file
Makefilerules for generating template.pdf using a make utility
pdftex.cfgneeded if using an old (pre-2002) version of pdflatex (see the note at the end of this file)
example1, example2directories containing two complete sample papers, including figures and bibliography files
makebstdirectory containing files needed to generate cinc.bst

The entire kit may be downloaded as latex.tar.gz or latex.zip.

INSTALLATION

This kit can be used with any reasonably modern (September, 1994 or later) version of LaTeX, a dialect of Donald Knuth's TeX software for typesetting.

If you don't already have LaTeX on your computer, download and install it now. We recommend these TeX distributions:

All are free and include everything needed other than the CinC-specific files included in this author's kit.

To install the files provided in this directory, do one of the following:

If your installation of LaTeX doesn't include balance.sty, copy balance.sty from this directory into the same location where you copied cinc.cls.

The instructions below assume that you will use pdflatex to process your paper and to create a PDF file from it. The recommended TeX distributions mentioned above, and most others, include pdflatex. If you don't use pdflatex, use extra care to be sure that the page size and margins in your final PDF are correct; see the Appendix for details.

FORMATTING THE EXAMPLES (OPTIONAL)

The use of these files is best illustrated by the included sample papers (example1/example1.tex and example2/example2.tex), which are accompanied by sets of PDF (.pdf), PostScript (.ps), and encapsulated PostScript (.eps) figures in example*/figures/, and by BibTeX bibliography (.bib) files in example*/bib/, all of which are referenced in the papers. To format the sample papers:

  1. Install cinc.cls and cinc.bst by copying them from this directory into the example directories, or into the standard locations.
  2. Enter the example1 directory and do the following: 
    	pdflatex example1   [creates example1.aux, needed by bibtex]
	bibtex example1	    [creates example1.bbl, needed by pdflatex]
	pdflatex example1   [merges references]
	pdflatex example1   [produces final PDF with correct citation numbers]

The multiple runs of pdflatex are needed to prepare data for bibtex and then to resolve the cross-references. These steps produce example1.pdf (and several temporary files that can be removed).

The Makefile included in each directory can be used by a make utility to automate these steps.

A similar procedure can be used to format example2.tex, which illustrates other features of the CinC style files.

WRITING YOUR PAPER

Make a copy of the generic template (template.tex). The instructions below assume that you have saved your copy of the template as a file named paper.tex, into which you can type your paper.

Please use the example files provided as models for your own papers. All references should be entered in BibTeX (.bib) database files (see the samples in the example*/bib directories). In order to conform to the layout instructions, please check your final version against the example layout provided. Please double-check that you have followed these rules:

  1. The title of the paper should not end with a "."
  2. List the authors of the paper in the form: 
    	Albert B Johnson, Charles X Anderson
    Do not use "." after initials, and do not use the word "and" before the name of the last author. Since CinC is an English-language publication, and to ensure that your paper will be indexed correctly, follow the English-language convention for name order: given name(s) first, family names (surnames) last.
  3. List the authors' institutions within the \author statement. Use superscripted numerals to identify the affiliations of each author if necessary. Use \\ to force a line break if needed, and use \mbox{}\\ to create a blank line between the authors' names and their institutions. For example: 
         \author{Hans~A~Kestler$^{1,2}$, Friedhelm~Schwenker$^1$, G~Hafner$^1$,
      Vinzenz~Hombach$^2$, G{\"u}nter~Palm$^1$, Martin~H{\"o}her$^2$ \\
      \mbox{}\\
      $^1$Neural Information Processing, University of Ulm, Germany \\
      $^2$Medicine II -- Cardiology, University Hospital Ulm, Germany}
  4. Inside table environments, place the \caption at the beginning to insure that the table legend appears above the table. Inside figure environments, the \caption goes at the end, so that it appears below the figure.
  5. To create two equal-length columns on the last page, first identify what portion of your paper would be included in the first column on the last page, then insert the command 
    	\balance
    anywhere within this portion of text, and reformat. (This works because cinc.cls now includes the standard balance.sty package. Thanks to Erik Bojorges for this suggestion.)

FORMATTING YOUR PAPER

You must submit the LaTeX source for your paper together with any other files needed to produce a copy of your paper, such as files containing figures, tables, and references. Collect them together in a zip file to upload to the paper collection site.

Before submitting the zip file, test that it is complete and verify that the files within it produce a properly formatted paper of no more than 4 pages. Do this by making a test PDF from the contents of the zip file.

There are several ways to generate a PDF from LaTeX sources; the recommended method is described below. The instructions below assume that you have composed your paper in a file called paper.tex (substitute the name of your file in the commands below, omitting the .tex suffix).

  1. Run these commands: 
    	pdflatex paper
	bibtex paper
	pdflatex paper
	pdflatex paper
  2. If there were any errors or warnings, make any necessary corrections and repeat step 1. Use a PDF viewer (such as Acrobat, xpdf or a recent copy of GhostScript) to view paper.pdf, and correct any formatting errors.

If you cannot use pdflatex, an alternative method is described in the Appendix.

SUBMITTING YOUR PAPER

You must submit your paper electronically (paper copies are no longer necessary or accepted). Instructions on submitting your paper using your web browser are included in the CinC Author's Kit.

The Editor will be available during the poster session to answer questions and give advice. It would be helpful if you bring a single printed copy of your paper with you, which the Editor may mark and will give back to you.

PRINTING YOUR TEST PDF

Most PDF viewers can also print PDF files. If you use Adobe Acrobat, Distiller, or Reader, choose Page Scaling: None and uncheck Auto Rotate and Center in the Print dialog; this ensures that your paper will be printed at the same scale and with the same top and left margins as will be used in the published Proceedings. Copies printed on A4 paper will not be centered on the page, but they should be readable.

You may use color in figures, but print your paper on a black-and-white printer and be sure that your figures are still legible. The proceedings are published in printed form (black-and-white only) as well as on CD-ROMs and on-line (in color). It's important that readers of the printed proceedings be able to see your figures as you intended.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The cinc.cls file was originally adapted by Hans Kestler from Peter Nuchter's IEEEtran2e.cls, which in turn was adapted from IEEEtran.sty by Gerry Murray and Silvano Balemi. Bob Throne, Alan Murray, Andrew Sims, George Moody, and Erik Bojorges contributed feedback, bug fixes, and further improvements. The cinc.bst file was created by Hans Kestler and George Moody using Patrick Daly's makebst generator. George Moody wrote the generic template.

Your comments, suggestions, questions, and bug reports are welcome; please send them to George Moody (george@mit.edu).

APPENDIX

Using latex instead of pdflatex

Use this method only if you cannot use pdflatex.

If you have PostScript figures, note that you can still use pdflatex if you first convert them to PDF using epstopdf, which is included in your TeX distribution. Use a command such as: 

        epstopdf figure.ps
which creates figure.pdf.

To make an acceptable PDF without using pdflatex, it is very important to follow the instructions below precisely. In these instructions, note that "\" at the end of a line indicates that the command continues on the next line. The instructions below assume that you have composed your paper in a file called paper.tex (substitute the name of your file in the commands below, omitting the .tex suffix).

  1. Run these commands: 
    	latex paper
	bibtex paper
	latex paper
	latex paper
  2. You will now have a .dvi file named paper.dvi.
  3. Run these commands: 
    	dvips -Ppdf -t letter -o paper.ps paper.dvi
	ps2pdf -dPDFSETTINGS=/printer -dCompatibilityLevel=1.3 \
	 -dMaxSubsetPct=100 -dSubsetFonts=true -dEmbedAllFonts=true \
	 -sPAPERSIZE=letter paper.ps
    VERY IMPORTANT: Use "letter" in the dvips and ps2pdf commands even if your normal paper size is A4, since the Proceedings are printed on US letter-sized pages.
  4. If there were any errors or warnings, make any necessary corrections and repeat step 1. Use Acrobat, xpdf, or GhostScript to view paper.pdf, and correct any formatting errors.

Using (very) old versions of pdflatex

If you have installed one of the recommended TeX distributions mentioned above, this section does not apply to you.

If you use a version of pdflatex older than 1.10 (released in 2002), you may need to copy pdftex.cfg from this directory into the directory that contains your paper before formatting it with pdflatex. Versions 1.10 and later can get the information contained in pdtex.cfg from \pdf... declarations in cinc.cls, and versions 1.20a and later completely ignore pdftex.cfg. The settings in question define the paper size (8.5 x 11 inches, the size used to print the proceedings) and the location of the coordinate system origin on the page. If your pdflatex needs pdftex.cfg and can't find it, your paper size and margins may be incorrect. If you are in doubt, open your PDF file with GhostScript, xpdf, or Adobe Reader and check the paper size, which should be 8.5 x 11 inches (216 x 279 mm), not 210 x 297 mm as for A4 paper.