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Author's Guide to Preparing ACM SIG Proceedings Using LaTEX2e and BibTEX Overview of this Document 1. Getting Started 1.1 Summary of ACM SIG Proceedings Format 1.2 Using the ACM LaTEX2e Document Class and BibTEX Style Files 1.3 Beginning your LaTEX Source File 2. The Structure of the Article 2.1 Some Housekeeping Details 2.2 The Title and Author Information 2.3 The Body of the Article 2.4 Acknowledgements 2.5 Additional Authors 2.6 The Bibliography 2.7 Appendix 2.8 A Final Bit of Formatting
Overview of this Document This document explains how to use LaTEX2e and BibTEX with document class and style files provided by ACM to create a paper in ACM SIG Proceedings format. Section 1 gives a summary of ACM SIG Proceedings format and a general look at the use of the ACM LaTEX2e document class and BibTEX style files. Section 2 discusses, in fairly thorough detail, the structure of the LaTEX file for your article and, in much more general terms, the structure of BibTEX file. For detailed instructions on using LaTEX2e , refer to the LaTEX User's Guide and Reference Manual, Second Edition, by Leslie Lamport.
1. Getting Started 1.1 Summary of ACM SIG Proceedings Format We’ll begin by summarizing formatting guidelines for ACM SIG Proceedings. The proceedings are the records of the conference. ACM hopes to give these conference by-products a single, high quality appearance. Page Size and Layout: All material on each page should fit within a rectangle of 18 X 23.5 cm (7" X 9.25"), centered on the page, beginning 2.54 cm (1") from the top of the page and ending with 2.54 cm (1") from the bottom. The right and left margins should be 1.9 cm (.75"). The text should be in two 8.45 cm (3.33") columns with a .83 cm (.33") gutter. All body text is set in two columns. The two columns on the last page should be of (nearly) equal length. Normal or Body Text: The body text is set in 9-point Times Roman (cmr). Use sans serif or nonproportional fonts only for special purposes, such as distinguishing source code text. Right margins should be justified, not ragged. Title and Author Information: The title (Helvetica or Arial 18-point bold), authors’ names (Helvetica or Arial 12point), author addresses, affiliations and phone number (Helvetica or Arial 10-point) and email address (Helvetica 12 point) run across the full width of the page. Up to three author names and information blocks may be aligned at the top of the first page; any additional author information appears in a paragraph at the end of the paper. References and Citations: Footnotes should be Times New Roman 9-point. The format of references is a numbered list at the end of the article, ordered alphabetically by first author, and referenced by numbers in brackets e.g. [1]. References should be published materials accessible to the public. Internal technical reports may be cited only if they are easily accessible (i.e. you can give the address to obtain the report within your citation) and may be obtained by any reader. Proprietary information may not be cited. Private communications should be acknowledged, not referenced (e.g. "[Robertson, personal communication]"). Page Numbering, Headers and Footers: Do not include headers or footers in your submission. Page numbers are not output by the acm_proc_article-sp.cls file. Hierarchical Section Headings: The heading of a section should be in Times New Roman 12 point bold in all-capitals flush left. Sections and subsequent subsections should be numbered and flush left. The heading of subsections should be in Times New Roman 12 point bold with only the initial letters capitalized. (Note: For subsections and subsubsections, a word like the or a is not capitalized unless it is the first word of the header.) The heading for subsubsections (or lower) should be in Times New Roman 11-point italic with initial letters capitalized.
1.2 Using the ACM LaTEX2e Document Class and BibTEX Style Files Now that you know the details of the ACM SIG Proceedings format, you can rest assured that you won’t have to fuss very much with the niceties of it. By using LaTEX2e and BibTEX with the ACM document class and bibliographic style files, and creating .tex and .bib files that use the appropriate commands, virtually all of the nitty-gritty of the format detailed above is handled properly for you. The balance of this document will focus on using LaTEX2e and BibTEX with the ACM document class and bibliographic style files to produce your article. In general, it assumes you are familiar with LaTEX and BibTEX on your site. [For those who are not: LaTEX is available for a variety of computer systems. While all versions are essentially the same — an input file created on one should produce identical output on any other (font issues notwithstanding) but how you actually run LaTEX may vary from system to system.] A few remarks for users of LaTEX 2.09: LaTEX2e is simply the latest standard version of LaTEX. As a matter of fact, almost all standard LaTEX2.09 input files could be typeset with LaTEX2e and will work with the acm_proc_article-sp.cls file. However, to make best use of the new features, you should use the new LaTEX2e conventions; the changes are few and not at all onerous. Throughout this document, ‘LaTEX’ means ‘LaTEX2e ’. Obtaining the Document Class and Bibliographic Style Files. You can receive instructions on how to obtain the document class file (acm_proc_article-sp.cls) and related information (including this document) either: · by visiting ACM’s home page at
· by sending an E-mail message to griscti@acm.org. You will probably want to put the acm_proc_article-sp.cls file in your LaTEX local style directory so that LaTEX can find it at run time. The document class file contains the commands which define the various structural parts of the document to format an ACM SIG Conference proceedings paper and produce camera-ready copy: Once you have the document class file and are ready to begin writing your article, write, revise, and prepare your article for submission as you usually do with LaTEX, using information from: · Author's Guide to Preparing ACM SIG Proceedings Using LaTEX2e and BibTEX (this document) · Additional information can be obtained from http://www.acm.org/sigs/ and · LaTEX User's Guide and Reference Manual [Second Edition] (Leslie Lamport) Remember, you should use only the structural commands in the acm_proc_article-sp.cls file, but you many use any of the typographical commands – such as accented or non-English characters and the mathematical characters and structures – from LaTEX.
1.3 Beginning Your LaTEX Source File It is not necessary, but it is sensible and highly recommended, to begin your document with several comment lines showing the file name, your name, a brief revision history, and any other pertinent comments about the file. Each line of a comment in a LaTEX document begins with a %; comments in the source document do not appear in the output. EXAMPLE % sigproc-sp.tex
The very first (non-commented) lines in your file must be \documentclass{acm_proc_article-sp}
This tells LaTEX to add the ACM style file’s structural commands to the suite of typographic commands already available, and to begin working in the ACM document environment. The very last (non-commented) line in your file must be \end{document} All the rest of your LaTEX document is "bracketed", as it were, by these commands. A word to the novice: if you have some previous experience with LaTEX, you will probably find it very helpful and instructive to obtain the source files of the sample document (sigproc-sp.tex and sigproc.bib), to run them through LaTEX and BibTEX, and to compare the source code with the printed output. A word to the expert: If you have routinely used LaTEX or TEX for a long time, you may be tempted to write your own improvements to the structural definitions in the acm_proc_article-sp.cls file, or to use other commands to streamline typesetting. Please refrain from doing this! Remember your final submission file will be recompiled at ACM (to insert page numbers etc.) using known .tex, .sty and .cls files. ACM's reference files will, therefore, not contain any author tweaks or local enhancements. Problems will arise if your source file expects them to. Also, please be very careful when using \def in your source file as you may, inadvertantly, redefine a reserved LaTEX or TEX keyword. 2. The Structure of the Article Your can think of your article as having this general structure: the Title and Author Information (including title and author information along with any footnotes on title, subtitle and authors and not forgetting the "additional" authors which appear at the end of the document); the Body of the Article (including text, citations, figures, tables and equations); Acknowledgements; Bibliography; and Appendices. The Title and Author Information is rather rigid in its internal organization, requiring specific elements in a specific order. The organization of the Body of the Article is determined to a great extent by the type of information you are communicating in your article. The Acknowledgements and Appendices section are optional, and are included only if you require them; likewise, their contents and internal organization are entirely up to you. The Bibliography section is produced automatically by BibTEX, from the citations you insert in your article and the contents of the .bib file. Each of these five general parts of the document is dealt with in detail below. Finally, there is one last bit of formatting that you need to do manually, once everything else is set and working the way you want. 2.1 Some Housekeeping Details There are a few details that must be attended to in the final, published version of the Proceedings. Thus, they are really the purview of the editor or referees for the Proceedings, but they are mentioned here for completeness. Authors can omit any or all three of these tags, without causing LaTEX to fail; there will just be gaps in the copyright information at the bottom of the first page (in the case of \conferenceinfo) or the page numbering will start with the default value of 1 (probably what you want anyway) (in the case of \setpagenumber). However no pages will be output if you use the acm_proc_article-sp.cls file. 2.1.1 Conference Information The \conferenceinfo{}{} command takes two arguments: the first, the abbreviated title of the conference for which the paper is prepared and the second, the date and location of that conference. This information is required for the final publication of the Conference Proceedings but you may omit it. Note: Conference information is turned OFF when using the acm_proc_article-sp.cls file. EXAMPLE %\conferenceinfo{STOC}{'97 El Paso, Texas USA} 2.1.2 Pagination The \setpagenumber{} command takes a single argument: the number that is to be the first page in the article as published in the Proceedings. Note: Page numbering is turned OFF when using the acm_proc_article-sp.cls file. EXAMPLE %\setpagenumber{32} 2.1.3 Copyright Date The \CopyrightYear{} command takes a single argument: the four digit number of the year that is to appear in the boilerplate copyright notice ("Permission to make digital or hard copies…" etc.) that appears at the bottom of the first page of each article. This information is required for the final publication of the Conference Proceedings, but may be omitted by the author prior to final submission. Note: Copyright information is turned OFF when using the acm_proc_article-sp.cls file. EXAMPLE %\CopyrightYear{1999} 2.1.4 Copyright Data The \crdata{} command takes a single argument: the thirteen digit number that comprises the copyright data. This appears in the copyright notice at the bottom of the first page of each article. This information defaults to "0-89791-88-6/97/05" if not specified. The \crdata{} command allows the default to be overridden, if need be. Note: Copyright information is turned OFF when using the acm_proc_article-sp.cls file. EXAMPLE %\crdata{1-23456-78-9/01/23}
2.2 Title and Author Information As noted above, the internal organization of the title and author is rather rigid. The following outline shows the basic organization of the front matter; an explanation of each element is given in subsections 2.2.1 through 2.2.4. Unless noted as OPTIONAL, each element below is required, and required in the order indicated. (This same outline is repeated, with the actual LaTEX command or environment in lieu of the description for each element given below, in section 2.2.4 of this document.) · Title footnote about title (OPTIONAL) · Subtitle (OPTIONAL) footnote(s) about subtitle (OPTIONAL) · Author or authors information includes names, affiliations, addresses and e-mail addresses footnote(s) about author(s) (OPTIONAL) 2.2.1 Title of the Paper The \title{} command takes one argument: the title of your article. You may insert \\ (line breaks) to indicate desirable line breaks for the title; if you do not insert line breaks, LaTEX may insert them in ways that you find unaesthetic. You should enter the title in mixed upper and lower case. You may indicate emphasis with the \ttlit command, and you may of course enter any required special characters with the appropriate LaTEX command. If you need to enter math mode characters, use \huge size for the best match of math characters to title characters. EXAMPLE \title{On {\huge$\mathrm{ACC}^0[p^k]$} Proofs} If you need to include any information about the title in a note at the bottom of the page, use the \titlenote{} command. The text of the note is the argument of the \titlenote{} command; ‘numbering’ (actually, symbols are used to indicate order in the title notes) is done automatically. The \titlenote{} command and its argument should be contained within the argument of the \title{} command. EXAMPLE \title{A Novel Application for B\'{e}zier Curves} \title{On Sorting Strings in External Memory\titlenote{Paper presented at the STOC ’97 in El Paso.}} You may have up to five occurrences of the \titlenote{} command throughout the title and author information block. 2.2.2 Subtitle of the Paper The \subtitle{} command takes one argument: a subtitle of your paper. Most often, this is the remark that a paper is an "Extended Abstract", but you may use it for any text that should be centered in a smaller type size below the title and before the author information block. You should enter the subtitle in mixed upper and lower case. You may indicate emphasis with the \textit command, and you may of course enter any required special characters with the appropriate LaTEX command. If you need to include any information about the subtitle in a note at the bottom of the page, use the \titlenote{} command. The text of the note is the argument of the \titlenote{} command; numbering is done automatically. The \titlenote{} command and its argument should be contained within the argument of the \subtitle{} command. EXAMPLE \subtitle{[Extended Abstract]\titlenote{The full paper will appear in the Journal of Theoretical Practice.}} The \subtitle{} command is optional. 2.2.3 Author or Authors The Proceedings format calls for alignment of the names of up to the first three authors, with additional authors’ names listed in a section at the end of the paper. To help LaTEX to handle this formatting, use the command \numberofauthors{}, which takes the single argument, none other than the total number of authors. Now, how to handle all those author names… The \author{} command takes one argument, but it may be a long and complex one: the names of the first three authors, along with their affiliations and addresses and email addresses, and any footnotes that must go with an individual’s name. Let’s go through the details of this block of author information. Start each of these three author’s name and affiliation with the \alignauthor command, which takes no argument, but handles some calculations to align and center the author information properly. If there is a footnote for an author, you must use the \titlenote{} command, with the text of the footnote as its argument. End each line of the author information with \\ to ensure proper line breaks. Next, use the command \affaddr{} which takes as its argument a line of affiliation or address to ensure the proper formatting of the address and affiliation for each author. Finally, use \email{} with the argument of an email address to properly format that nugget of author information. EXAMPLES A single author: \numberofauthors{1}
Two authors: \numberofauthors{2}
If you have more than three authors, you’re not done yet: put the additional authors’ names and other information as the argument to the command \additionalauthors{}. You may include any affiliation, address or email information here, using only text format tags; i.e. don’t tag the email address using the \email{} command, simply use \texttt{}. EXAMPLES \numberofauthors{5} . [\author{…}goes here] . \additionalauthors{Additional authors: John Smith (The Th{\o}rvald Group, email: {\texttt{jsmith@affiliation.org}}) and Julius P.~Kumquat (The Kumquat Consortium, email: {\texttt{jpkumquat@consortium.net}}).} Be certain to note that there is only one occurrence of \author in each document; you do not have multiple occurrences of \author surrounding each author and affiliation. You should insert \\ (line breaks) between a name and each line of affiliation and/or address, and you may insert one for a desirable break if either line is too long to fit on a single line. You should enter the author’s/authors’ names and affiliation in mixed upper and lower case. You may use any of LaTEX’s accented characters as required in an author or organization name. You may put a tie accent (the tilde with no backslash) between an initial and a subsequent part of the name to improve spacing.
2.2.4 Completing the Title and Author Information You are now ready to put the final touches on the title and author information: the command \maketitle, which takes no argument. It tells LaTEX to take care of all the details of setting up the first page of a document, and the proper placement of all the elements therein. The following outline shows, in order, all elements that are to be entered in the Front Matter portion of your article. \title{\titlenote{}} %
\titlenote is OPTIONAL
2.3 The Body of the Article The body of your paper will start out with an abstract, categories, subject descriptors and general terms. Beyond that, there are very few requirements: the text of the body of the article is organized as you see fit to best communicate your ideas. Type style changes and accents and symbols from languages other than English may be necessary for clarity and precision. Moreover, the body of the article may contain equations and other mathematical structures, as well as figures and tables. The body of the article will also include citations to works referenced in the bibliography. Each of these different aspects of the body of your article will be considered in turn below. 2.3.1 Abstract The abstract of the article is put in the abstract environment. Place the control sequence \begin{abstract} at the front of the abstract and \end{abstract} at the end. Multiple paragraphs may be separated by a blank line. 2.3.2 Categories and Subject Descriptions The command \category takes three required arguments (in curly brackets) and one optional argument (in square braces) . They are, in order: \category{CR number}{category}{ sub-category}[optional subject descriptor]You may have as many occurrences of the \category command as |
