Suggesting and voting

Papers are GitHub issues labelled paper, so you need a GitHub account. The site shows the name on your GitHub profile, or your username if the profile has no name.

Suggesting a paper

  1. Find a paper you'd like the group to discuss. Papers are usually on arXiv; see arXiv and INSPIRE-HEP if you're new to it.

  2. Submit it with the Suggest a paper issue form, also linked as "Bring a paper" on the website. It asks for the arXiv ID or link (2301.12345 or https://arxiv.org/abs/2301.12345) and why this paper: a sentence or two is great, and "general interest" is a fine answer. Leave the issue title as it is; the bot sets it.

  3. Wait a few minutes. A bot comments on your issue with the paper's title, authors, abstract, links and BibTeX, and labels it Updated By Bot. If the paper was suggested before, it also lists the earlier issues and adds Submitted Before. The paper appears on the website under This Week, and moves to the Archive after Sunday. If you aren't on the members list yet, a maintainer approves your first paper before it shows.

No GitHub account? Email it

If the club has turned on email submissions, This Week and About show its address. Send an email there with the arXiv ID or link as the subject (e.g. 2301.12345) and a line on why in the body. The name in your email's "From" is shown on the site; your address is not. You get a reply with the paper's issue, and the paper shows on the site once a maintainer approves it. Voting still needs a GitHub account.

Tips for a good submission

Anyone can bring a paper. You don't need to be an expert, to have read everything in the field, or to think a paper is important; "I don't understand this result", "I think this argument might be wrong" and "this just came out" are all good reasons.

  • Any HEP-adjacent topic is fair game: theory, experiment, phenomenology, instrumentation, or a review or methods paper you found useful.
  • Recent papers (posted this week or last) tend to generate the best discussion, but older papers are welcome too.
  • If the paper is long, say in "Why this paper?" which sections matter most, to help people prepare.

Voting and changes

To… Do this
Vote Add a 👍 reaction to the paper's issue ("Vote" on the site links there). One per person.
Change your comment Edit the issue.
Withdraw a paper Close the issue as "not planned".

New papers, edits and labels reach the website within a few minutes. Votes take up to an hour, because reactions don't start a rebuild; an hourly one picks them up.

Your monthly roundup

On the 1st of each month you can get a short private email about your month at the journal club: the papers you suggested, which were discussed, your weekly streak and the milestones you reached. Nobody else sees it; it only compares you with your own earlier months.

It goes to the public email on your GitHub profile. To get it, choose one under Settings → Public profile → Public email; without one, you don't get it. To stop getting it, reply to any roundup and say so.