IncludeSupplement

A simple method for including supplemental materials files on the arXiv.

This repository includes information on how to include a supplemental materials file as a stand-alone PDF file when co-submitting a paper to the arXiv and a journal. It uses the pdfpages and pgffor latex packages.

Method

Place the following in the header of your main manuscript.tex file

\usepackage{pdfpages} % include pdfs
\usepackage{pgffor} % for loops

% Fix for a pdfpages rotation bug with revtex
\makeatletter
\AtBeginDocument{\let\LS@rot\@undefined}
\makeatother

% the name of the supplement PDF file
\def\supplementfilename{supplement.pdf}

% Determine the number of pages 
% in the supplement file and store
\pdfximage{\supplementfilename}
\def\numbersupplementpages{\the\pdflastximagepages}

% Are we submitting to the arXiv? 
% Un-comment the appropriate line
\newif\ifarXiv
\arXivtrue 
% \arXivfalse

and include at the end of the document

...
\bibliography{refs}

\ifarXiv
    \foreach \x in {1,...,\numbersupplementpages}
    {
        \clearpage
        \includepdf[pages={\x,{}}]{\supplementfilename}
    }
\fi

\end{document}

where \numbersupplementpages is the automatically determined number of pages in the PDF file.

Usage

1. Generate supplement.pdf by running pdflatex/bibtex on supplement.tex to create a stand-alone PDF file
2. Run pdflatex/bibtex on manuscript.tex to produce the combined manuscript.pdf file.
3. Upload manuscript.tex, manuscript.bbl and supplement.pdf to the arXiv.

TODO

• Replace pgffor package with plain TeX loop
• Integrate instructions for using this with overleaf: https://www.overleaf.com/learn/how-to/Cross_referencing_with_the_xr_package_in_Overleaf