JWST Guidelines and Checklist for Proposal Preparation

This article covers formatting of proposals, page limits for various types of proposals, and a checklist for proposers to consult when developing their observing proposals.

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General guidelines

Deadline

The deadline for proposal submission is October 16, 2024 by 8:00pm US Eastern Daylight Time. Please submit well before the deadline whenever possible, to avoid possible last-minute hardware or overloading problems, or network delays/outages. Proposals can be re-submitted multiple times; the latest version submitted before the deadline will be the version that is evaluated. In exceptional cases where there are unforeseen and extenuating circumstances beyond a proposer's control, proposers may request a moderate extension to the deadline via the JWST Help Desk. Extensions must be requested before the deadline with appropriate justification. Late proposals will not be considered.

Questions about policies and technical issues should be addressed to the JWST Help Desk well before the deadline. While we attempt to answer all questions as rapidly as possible, we cannot guarantee a speedy response in the last week before the deadline.

Proposal format

Cycle 4 Proposals must be submitted electronically. The Java-based APT (the Astronomer's Proposal Tool) is the interface for all proposal submissions for JWST.

A proposal consists of two parts:

Both are submitted to STScI directly from within APT. 

Page limits

There are page limits on the size of your PDF attachment and they have been reduced substantially (in most cases halved) compared to previous cycles.

 Following the recommendations of the JWST Users Committee, page limits have been reduced substantially. The bulk of the PDF file should comprise the Scientific Justification and the Technical Description (for GO programs) or Analysis Plan (for AR programs).

  • Four (4) pages are allocated for those section in most cases (Very Small GO, Small GO, Future Cycles GO, Calibration GO and AR, Survey, Regular AR, Cloud Computing AR, Theory AR and Data Science Software AR);  
  • Five (5) pages are allocated for Medium GO and Combined GO+AR programs;  
  • Six (6) pages are allocated for Large GO, Treasury GO and Legacy AR  proposals.

One additional page is available in all the above cases for the following sections: Special Requirements, Justify Coordinated Parallel Observations, Justify Duplications and Justify Coordinated Observations with Other Facilities. For Joint proposals, users should  determine whether their proposal is Very Small, Small, Medium or Large based on the JWST hours request,  and use the appropriate page limits. Cycle 4 DD proposals submitted after Cycle 4 starts July 1 2025 are also required to follow these guidelines. Cycle 3 proposals submitted between July 1 2024 and June 30 2025 should follow Cycle 3 guidelines for proposal preparation (including Cycle 3 page limits).

In relation to these page limits, note the following:

    • Proposals that exceed the page limits will be subject to disqualification in the review process.
    • There are no limits on the numbers of figures and tables in the PDF attachment, and they  may be interspersed in the text. However, the total page limit must be observed.
    • References should be listed at the end of the proposal and do not count against the page limits. References have no particular formatting requirements (you can use your favorite style, including numbers).
    • Your PDF attachment must be prepared with a font size of 12pt, including figure captions with the templates provided in the JWST Preparation of the PDF Attachment.  Do not change the format of any of the templates provided by STScI. Proposals that change the font size will be disqualified
    • Proposers are recommended to devote at least one page to the Technical Description or Analysis Plan.
    • The Observing Description in APT will not be visible for TAC reviewers. Proposers should not use that free text field as a replacement for page limit space. 
    • While there are no specific page limits on the scientific justification, the strongest proposals will have a balance between scientific justification and the other required sections (such as the Technical Description or the Analysis Plan) so that reviewers can accurately assess the merits and feasibility of a proposal using the selection criteria.


  • Table 1. Page limits

  • WARNING! PAGE LIMITS
    PAGE LIMITS HAVE BEEN REDUCED SUBSTANTIALLY (IN MOST CASES HALVED). See JWST Proposal Categories. 

    Proposal Category†Total Page Limit for
    PDF Attachment
    Very Small GO
    Small GO 
    Future Cycles GO
    Calibration GO and AR
    Survey
    Regular AR
    Cloud Computing AR
    Theory AR
    Data Science Software AR    		4+1*
    Medium GO
    Combined GO-Archival     		5+1*
    Large GO
    Treasury GO
    Legacy AR     		6+1*

    † For Joint JWST programs, users should determine proposal size based on the JWST hours request. Cycle 4 DD proposals submitted after Cycle 4 starts July 1, 2025 are also required to follow these guidelines. Cycle 3 DD proposals submitted between July 1, 2024 and June 30, 2025 should follow Cycle 3 guidelines for proposal preparation (including Cycle 3 page limits). 

    * The additional page (+1) is available only for the following sections: Special Requirements, Justify Coordinated Parallel Observations, Justify Duplications and Justify Coordinated Observations with Other Facilities (i.e. descriptions of Joint programs).

Proposal preparation checklist

Table 2. Proposal preparation checklist 

Step

Procedure

1) Review the JWST Proposal Workflow

The top level JWST Proposal Workflow provides a high-level overview of the proposal process, with links to relevant documentation and tools. The present table provides a more detailed checklist for the preparation of the proposal itself. For a more detailed step-by-step guide for planning your proposed JWST observations, refer instead to Getting Started with Planning JWST Observations. 

2) Install APT

Go to the APT webpage. Follow the instructions there to download and install the latest version of APT onto your machine. You can also ask your system administrator to do an institution-wide installation.

3) Fill out the APT information

Use APT to fill out the form. Information on the use of APT, including movie tutorials, is available on the APT webpage. A description of which items are requested as well as guidelines for answers are presented in JWST Filling Out the APT Proposal Form. Proposers can save work in progress, so APT submission can be completed over several sessions. If there is a discrepancy between the APT form and what is written in the Technical Justification of the PDF attachment, the APT form takes precedence. In other words, proposals are reviewed by the TAC reviewers based on the information in the APT form.  As part of the proposal submission process, proposers should submit a Team Expertise and Background section, following the instructions in JWST Filling Out the APT Proposal Form.

4) Download a template file for the creation of your PDF attachment

Download one of the templates to create your PDF attachment. There are separate template files for GO and for AR/Theory Proposals. Template files are available in several popular word-processing applications, including LaTeX and Microsoft Word.

5) Edit the template

Edit the template using your favorite word-processing application. A description of which issues need to be discussed, and guidelines for how to discuss them, are presented in JWST Preparation of the PDF Attachment.

6) Anonymize the PDF attachment

Ensure that your PDF attachment containing your Scientific and Technical sections are sufficiently anonymized, in accordance with the JWST Anonymous Proposal Reviews guidelines. Violations of the anonymizing guidelines may be flagged for potential disqualification by STScI staff. See Dual Anonymous Proposals Guide for Reviewers for more information (these reviewer guidelines have not changed from Cycle 2).

7) Create the PDF attachment.

Transform your edited template into a PDF file. Any figures in your proposal must be included into this PDF file. We will provide the reviewers with the electronic PDF files so that figures can be viewed in color. However there is no guarantee that the reviewers will view the files electronically, so please make sure your figures are useful when printed using grey scales.

8) Add the PDF filename path to the APT form

At the bottom of the APT Proposal Information page, select the location of your PDF Attachment file on your local disk. 

9) Review your proposal

In APT, click on ‘PDF Preview’ to get a preview of all the final information in your proposal. What you will see is the fully synthesized proposal we keep on record at STScI. The reviewers will see essentially the same, without the list of investigators and without the Team Expertise and Background sections (see JWST Proposal Selection Procedures). If you are not satisfied at this stage, make any necessary changes. Take care to check your submission carefully. You are responsible for ensuring that your PDF upload does not include extraneous material (such as extra cover pages, team expertise statements, or backup material). Extraneous material that causes the proposal to exceed the page limits or to violate Dual Anonymous Peer Review will lead to disqualification of the proposal without review. APT supports UTF-8 for the title, abstract, observing description and observation comment, but make sure all special characters appear correctly. 

10) Institutional Endorsement

STScI does not require institutional endorsement of GO/AR Proposals. However, some institutions do require such endorsement of all submitted proposals. It is the responsibility of each PI to follow all applicable institutional policies concerning the submission of proposals.

11) Submit your proposal 

In APT, use the Submission tool to submit your proposal to STScI. All parts are sent together (i.e., both the APT form information and the PDF attachment).

12) Receive an STScI acknowledgment of your submission

Verification of a successful submission will appear in the Submission Log on the Submission Screen in APT within about a minute. Also, the PI and all Co-Is will receive an automatic email acknowledgment that the merged PDF submission was received successfully. After the Proposal Deadline has passed, and all submissions are in their final form, you will receive final notification that your submission has been successfully processed; this email will mark the completion of the submission. If you do not receive the final notification email within 5 business days of the deadline, please contact the STScI Help Desk and provide the submission ID from the APT Submission Log window. If there are any problems associated with your PDF attachment, you will be contacted by email.


Next: JWST Filling out the APT Proposal Form



Notable updates
  •  
    Added text about deadline extensions under extenuating circumstances.

  •  
    Replaced "Multi-term" by "Future Cycles" when referring to proposals limited to 3-cycles. 
Originally published