prepare.py — LaTeX article submission helper

A single-file Python script that gets your LaTeX article folder ready for journal submission or blind review (e.g. Elsevier / elsarticle). Perfect if you like keeping your project clean with folders and subfolders—and don’t feel like giving up that civilized way of life just because Editorial Manager force you to.

Features

	submission	review
Flatten \includegraphics paths	✅	✅
Copy images flat into output folder	✅	✅
Copy .bib, .cls, .sty files	✅	✅
Anonymise \author, \ead, \address		✅
Clear configurable sections		✅
Redact keywords with ▮ blocks		✅

Requirements

Python 3.6+ — no external dependencies (stdlib only).

Usage

python prepare.py <source_folder> review|submission

Examples:

python prepare.py ./my_article review      # blind review → my_article_review_ready/
python prepare.py ./my_article submission  # final submission → my_article_submission_ready/

The output folder is created inside the source folder and overwritten on each run.

What it does

Both modes — flattening

All \includegraphics references with subdirectory paths are flattened:

% Before
\includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{figures/results/speed.pdf}

% After
\includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{speed.pdf}

The image files are located recursively in the source folder and copied flat into the output folder. Name conflicts are resolved automatically with a numeric suffix.

Support files (.bib, .cls, .sty) at the source root are copied as-is.

Review mode — anonymisation

Authors & emails

% Before
\author[unil]{Jane Doe}
\ead{jane.doe@university.ch}

% After
\author[institution]{Author 1}
\ead{author1@anonymous.com}

Addresses — all \address entries are collapsed into one:

\address[institution]{Anonymous Institution}

Sections — configured sections have their body replaced by a comment while preserving the \section{} header and any \label{}:

% Before
\section*{Acknowledgements}\label{sec:ack}
We thank our colleagues...

% After
\section*{Acknowledgements}\label{sec:ack}
% Acknowledgements have been removed for blind review.

Keyword redaction — each configured keyword is replaced by a block of ▮ characters with a randomised length (±5 chars, minimum 1).

Configuration

All options live at the top of prepare.py:

# Sections to clear (body replaced, header & \label preserved)
SECTIONS_TO_CLEAR = [
    {
        "pattern": r"Acknowledge",   # matched case-insensitively inside \section{...}
        "body": "% Acknowledgements have been removed for blind review.",
        "label": "Acknowledgements", # used in log messages only
    },
    {
        "pattern": r"Credit authorship",
        "body": "% Author contributions have been removed for blind review.",
        "label": "Credit authorship contribution statement",
    },
    # Add more sections as needed
]

# Keywords to redact with ▮ blocks
REDACT_KEYWORDS = [
    # "My University",
    # "Jane Doe",
]

Output structure

my_article/
├── main.tex
├── references.bib
├── figures/
│   └── results/
│       └── speed.pdf
└── my_article_review_ready/   ← output (flat)
    ├── main.tex
    ├── references.bib
    └── speed.pdf