[Tex/LaTex] Journal asks me to combine Latex files into single file

Question

I am writing an article consisting of multiple sections. For each section I more or less have a separate tex file, which are included in a main file.
The journal I'm submitting to now asks me to integrate all files in a single file.
I'm just wondering, isn't this quite bad practice? I mean, there's a reason for LaTeX to provide include commands.

This is not so much of a question, but I was just hoping to hear some opinions.

Answer 1

As a general practice I like to use \include to keep everything clean and tidy, specially because it allows me to include just the files I want.

That said, when you have a large document, you can use \includeonly{chapter1,chapter2} and that will make ignore the rest of things and only compile chapter 1 and 2.

Now, if they are asking you to have everything in one file just comply... Maybe it's because of file storage purposes that they are asking it (or perhaps they just don't want to have a lot of files associated with one author).

Either way, you can also have a look at this post When should I use \input vs. \include? for more information about \include and several files projects.