Guidelines for AGU Auxiliary Materials and Electronic Data Supplement Archive
First posted 1999-03-14; latest revision 2006-05-05
When should I submit Auxiliary Material/Data Supplement?
The purpose of the auxiliary material or electronic data supplements is to enable authors to provide and archive auxiliary non-print information such as data tables, figures, video, or computer software, in digital formats so that other scientists can use it.
What kind/size of data are acceptable?
The key criteria are that the data:
- are central to the main scientific conclusions of the paper;
- are likely to be usable by other scientists working in the field;
- are described with sufficient precision that other scientists can understand them;
- have a relatively small volume (up to 50 megabytes); and
- can be put into one of the required digital formats (see below).
What constitutes Auxiliary Material?
A given article's auxiliary material consists of a small number (<50) of files, where each file contains either a text document, a table (data organized as rows and columns), a figure, or a video/multimedia file. The names and formats of
these files follow simple standards (outlined below) designed to allow AGU to archive the
data, and scientists to read the data, for the indefinite future. The author transfers the files to the AGU during the manuscript submission process using GEMS, or by anonymous FTP. The files are then placed in an archive at the AGU in a subdirectory named after the journal and AGU Paper Number, and made accessible to others via anonymous FTP or Web browser.
What kinds of files are allowed, and what filenames can they have?
AGU journals accept numerous file formats for text, graphics, animations/movies, and sound. See the complete list of formats for submission, publication, and archive in Acceptable Electronic File Formats.
All text and tabular data files must be ASCII files, containing only printable characters plus end-of-line control characters.
Proprietary wordprocessor (e.g., MS Word, Corel WordPerfect) are not permitted. Spreadsheet native files (e.g., MS Excel) are permitted but must be accompanied with an ASCII equivalent (e.g., tab-delimited text). Text files should be saved as plain text (ASCII) and spreadsheet tables should be saved as tab-delimited text. All filenames must use only upper/lower case letters, numerals and the hyphen or underscore), and must not contain any spaces. Only four types of files are permitted,
- A TEXT FILE, with suffix ".txt", which contains paragraphs of plain ASCII text (no formatting information is allowed). LaTex, Bibtex or XML documents are also accepted as they are encoded in plain text.
- A TABLE, with suffix ".txt", containing a single table of data in row and column format. As mentioned above, spreadsheet tables (e.g. Microsoft Excel) should be saved as tab-delimited text.
- A FIGURE, with suffix ".eps", ".tif",".svg", or ".jpg" (JPEG - use only for photographic images), containing a single figure in Encapsulated PostScript (EPS), Tagged Image File Format (TIFF), Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), or Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) format respectively. Figures may be black and white or color.
- A VIDEO/MULTIMEDIA file in either MPEG (.mpg), AVI(.avi), VRML (.vrml), Animated GIF (.gif), or Macromedia Flash (.fla) format (see below).
- Contact graphics-help@agu.org to discuss formats not listed here.
- A MAP file in KML (.kml) format. The compressed format (.kmz) is not accepable.
There must also be a file named "<papernumber>-readme.txt" which provides a summary of the file(s) comprising the auxiliary material. The required elements of this summary are described below.
All the files of the auxiliary material are in a single directory (organization by subdirectory is discouraged).
Do not tar, uuencode, gzip, or otherwise concatenate or compress the documents. For special circumstances only, e.g. software distribution, use of the standard zip compression utility is permitted.
More information about filenames
What are in these files, and in what format?
TEXT FILES.
A text file contains a document, containing written material organized in words,
sentences, paragraphs, etc., represented as printable ASCII characters and the end-of-line
indicator. No line of text shall exceed 127 characters in length. Except for the special <papernumber>-readme.txt file
(described below), no special organization is required.
Documents in a plain text (ASCII) markup such as LaTex (.tex) or XML (.xml) are also permitted, as long as they are accompanied by any associated DTD, style file, or other components that may be necessary for proper rendering.
TABLES.
A table contains data entries arranged in rows and columns, and is represented as ASCII text.
The first line of the table must be a row of column names, each consisting of only alphanumeric characters plus
the underscore (i.e., no spaces allowed). Columns may be separated by one or more blank spaces, or
alternatively, by a single tab. Each column must contain a single type of data, either numeric or
text.
A numeric data entry must be in either integer, fixed point, or scientific notation, which may be mixed as
desired. Integers may contain only numerals, possibly preceded by a minus sign. Fixed point numbers
may contain only two groups of numerals, separated by a decimal point, possibly preceded by a minus
sign. Numbers expressed in scientific notation may have a leading mantissa, which is a fixed point
number, followed by the character "E" (or "e"), followed by an integer exponent. If the value of a
numeric entry is unknown, the character string "NULL" (or "null") must be used as a place holder.
A text data entry contains a string of not more than 127 printable characters, except it must not include
any tabs but may contain spaces. However, if any entry in the table contains spaces, the tab must be used
as a column separator throughout the entire table. If a text entry is missing from the table (i.e.,
unknown), the text string "NULL" must be used.
A time series should be stored in a table where the first column denotes time. A two-dimensional grid of
data (e.g. the function f(x,y), where x and y are independent variables) should be stored in a table
where the first two columns represent the independent variables (i.e., x and y, respectively) and the
third column represents f. AGU recognizes that this format utilizes space very inefficiently, especially in the case where the independent variables are regularly sampled. However, the purpose of the format is to transmit data with a minimum of confusion.
A Sample Table:
lat lon depth age rock
12.91 121.43 3020 1.5 basalt
12.31 121.43 3020 1.5 basalt
12.43 121.45 3020 1.5 serpentine
12.46 121.45 3020 1.5 basalt
TIPS:
To ensure correct alignment of columns if creating your table in a wordprocessor (e.g. MS Word, WordPerfect):
FIGURES.
AGU accepts Encapsulated PostScript (EPS), Tagged Image File Format (TIFF), Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), or Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) for figures submitted as auxiliary material.
The EPS file should: contain only a single figure, which prints on a single page; be self-contained, in the sense of including all necessary dictionaries and fonts (except the standard fonts Times-Roman, Symbol, Helvetica, and Courier).
Additional Graphic Formats under Consideration:
VIDEO (Movies, Animations, Multimedia)
AGU accepts the following formats for video animation files submitted as electronic supplements:
- MPEG:
- Currently MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 version 1 are accepted.
- VRML:
- VRML is capable of representing static and animated dynamic 3D and multimedia objects with hyperlinks to other media such as text, sounds, movies, and images. VRML browsers, as well as authoring tools for the creation of VRML files, are widely available for many different platforms.
- AVI:
- Audio-Video Interleaved (AVI).
- Animated GIF:
- GIF 89a: Graphic Interchange Format 89a ("animated GIF") - a simple, ubiquitous approach to single image animation. Individual TIFF images must be supplied at the time of acceptance for archiving.
- Macromedia Flash:
- Flash allows rich content and applications across desktops and devices. Individual EPS images must be supplied at the time of acceptance for archiving.
Authors are encouraged to include audio as well as video data in supplements, where this might usefully convey additional information about the scientific content, e.g. an audio explanation of the video sequence. A text track can also be used to caption a movie clip.
The "README" file (<papernumber>-readme.txt)
This text file describes the auxiliary files and must contain the following:
1. The Title Bar, which should be in the following format and be roughly centered on the page:
Auxiliary material for Paper [paper number]
[Title of article, exactly following journal article]
[Author List (with institutional affiliations),exactly following journal article]
[Journal Reference, exactly following journal article, including DOI (10.1029/<paper number>).]
2. A Section labeled "Introduction" that gives an overview of the auxiliary material. The author should include information about as many of the following as possible (and appropriate):
- a general overview of the kind of data files;
- information about when and how the data were collected or created;
- information about how the data have been divided into files;
- a general description of processing steps used;
- any known imperfections or anomalies in the data.
3. For each file submitted as auxiliary material (except for the "readme" file itself), a Section labeled with the name of the file, and describing the contents of the file.
Text Files
Text files can be described by just a few sentences outlining their general contents.
Tables
Tables are described by:
- an initial subsection describing the table as a whole, giving as much relevant information as possible;
- subsequent subsections, one per column in the table, giving the column name, its physical meaning or
description, the units of measurements, and any other relevant information.
If a table presents the underlying data behind one or more figures in the printed text of the article, the corresponding figure number(s) should be noted.
Figures
Figures are described by a standard AGU-acceptable figure caption. If a figure corresponds to one in the
printed text of the article, the corresponding figure number should be noted, and the figure captions should correspond as closely a possible. (Exact correspondence may not be possible if the printed version uses non-ASCII characters).
References
References mentioned within the data set should be listed at the end of the data set under the heading "References", and should appear in the standard AGU style (PDF).
Example of a "readme" File:
Auxiliary Material Submission for Paper 2003JBXXXXXX
Earthquakes in Fredland Caused by Gas Eruptions.
William Menke
(Lamont-Doherty Geological Obs. of Columbia University, Palisades)
J. Geophys. Res., 108 (B6), doi:10.1029/2003JBXXXXXX, 2003
Introduction
This data set contains seismic data for 107 earthquakes that occurred in Fredland during the period June 1 -June 15, 1996 as recorded by the portable seismic array described in further detail in the paper. Basic
hypocentral data are given in the table "2003jbXXXXXX-ts01.txt" and a high resolution color hypocentral map in the Postscript file "2003jbXXXXXX-fs02.eps". The hypocentral data were computed from travel times automatically measured from the digital seismograms, using Menke's [1996] phase discrimination algorithm, the
HYPOINVERSE earthquake location program [Klein, 1986], and the vertically stratified earth model specified in
the table, "2003jbXXXXXX-text01.txt".
1. 2003jbXXXXXX-ts01.txt Basic hypocentral data for 107 earthquakes used in study.
1.1 Column "lat", degrees, latitude of the earthquake hypocenter, north of equator.
1.2 Column "lon", degrees, longitude of earthquake hypocenter east of Greenwich.
1.3 Column "depth", km, depth of hypocenter beneath mean sea level.
1.4 Column "error_h", deg, horizontal error (95% confidence) of hypocentral location.
1.5 Column "error_v", km, vertical error (95% confidence) of hypocentral location.
1.6 Column "mag", magnitude units, earthquake magnitude based on the coda wave method of Bolt [1954].
2. 2003jbXXXXXX-text01.txt Velocity model used in earthquake locations, adapted from the seismic refraction studies of Menke [1995]. Linear interpolation should be used to calculate velocities between those specified in table.
2.1 Column "depth", km, depth below mean sea level.
2.2 Column "alpha", km/s, compressional wave velocity.
2.3 Column "beta", km/s, shear wave velocity.
3. 2003jbXXXXXX-fs02.eps (Figure 14) Map of Fredland showing topography (contours, after ETOPO5 [Edwards et al., 1990]), seismic stations (squares), and earthquake epicenters (triangles).
How to Submit Auxiliary Material to AGU
Auxiliary material files should be submitted to AGU using the GEMS system at the time of manuscript submission. In some cases it may be necessary to use FTP instead of GEMS.
Supplements sent to AGU via FTP:
Please refer to the specific instructions that you will receive via e-mail.
Remember to set binary (bi) or ASCII transfer as appropriate for each file being uploaded.
Filenaming:
The naming convention is as follows (yyyy, year; jj, journal abbreviation; 012345, paper number; xx, number (e.g., 01, 02):
Figures: yyyyjj012345-fsxx
Tables: yyyyjj012345-tsxx
Text: yyyyjj012345-textxx
Animations: yyyyjj012345-msxx
Audio: yyyyjj012345-audsxx
How Users Can Find Auxiliary Material
The following mechanisms are available to tell the user that auxiliary material exists for a particular article, and how to access it
Subdirectories in the ftp site ftp://ftp.agu.org/apend/ are arranged by journal and paper number.
