BASIC INSTRUCTIONS

Utilizing ARK, the Astrophysics Research Knowledgebase, a service of NASA's High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center, RPS provides a facility for filling out the NICER proposal forms, as part of the ROSES NRA. Electronic submission of the proposal forms is required. The anonymized scientific/technical justification must be submitted electronically, uploaded as a PDF file after the initial submission of the electronic proposal forms. A one-page "team expertise and resources" (not anonymized) PDF also will need to be uploaded. Please note that each of these PDFs cannot exceed 10 MB in size and each have specified page limits. The page limit for the anonymized scientific/technical justification PDF is 5 pages (4 pages for text/figures + 1 page for references).

Note: NICER proposals must follow the Guidelines for Anonymous Proposals for dual-anonymous peer review. (Note that, for NICER proposals, the page limit for the team expertise document is one page in contrast to the general guidelines document.) Proposers should fill in all required information on the forms, as detailed below. All fields (except those fields that specifically request names or institutions) should not contain personally identifying information. If a field does, NASA will need to redact it from the information provided to reviewers. With especially egregious cases (too many violations to readily redact, for example), NASA reserves the right to return your proposal without review. Your abstract, the contents of all other RPS form fields (except those fields specifically for names or institutions), and your justification PDF should not include language that identifies the names of investigators or their institutions.

In order to access the NICER RPS web form, you must first create an ARK account and/or join the NICER group.

If you already have an ARK account, login first and select "Join Group" from the menu next to "NICER RPS (NICER)" and then click on the Submit Changes button.

If you do not already have an ARK account, enter your e-mail address in the input field provided and click on the checkbox next to "NICER RPS (NICER)" and then click on the Join ARK button. Check your e-mail and follow the registration URL found therein. Fill out the ARK registration form and submit.

Next, proceed to the NICER RPS web form and fill out the form as directed below. Targets can be added at the end of the form or by clicking the Add Targets button at the top or bottom of the page. The Add Targets button can be used to add blank targets or to upload a plain text file containing a list of target names and/or positions. Alternatively, after adding some targets, you can use the Save button to download a plain text representation of the RPS form, which you can edit in your favorite text editor and then Reload into ARK. Note that the file format used by the Reload mechanism is the same as the format of the files generated by the Save button.

After you have filled out the form, click the Verify button to make sure you have entered the form information correctly. If the form does not validate, ARK/RPS will identify the reason(s) why it did not, which you will need to correct. Once the form verifies successfully, a Submit button will appear, allowing you to submit the proposal to RPS. Note that you must Verify successfully before the Submit button will be revealed and you must use the Submit to submit your proposal.

The PostScript, PDF, and LaTeX buttons can be used to generate formatted versions of the proposal forms. We recommend that PIs keep formatted copies of the forms for their personal records, but it is not a required part of the proposal submission process.

After clicking on the Submit button, go to your Recent Activity page. Summary information for the proposal that you just submitted should be listed here, indicating that you have successfully submitted your NICER proposal forms to ARK/RPS. You may now upload your scientific/technical justification (anonymized) and your team expertise and resources (not anonymized) documents in PDF format. From the Recent Activity page, click on the Files button next to the proposal you submitted, and then click on the Upload button and follow the instructions on that page. After you have successfully uploaded both of those files required for your proposal, you will have completed your RPS electronic submission.

Note: After submission and before the proposal deadline, you may still Modify or Discard your proposal using the appropriate buttons on the Recent Activity page. The Files button also enables you to Download, Discard, or Replace any file that you previously uploaded.

Additional information on how to use RPS and the answers to some frequently asked questions can be found on the RPS Quick Help page.

Short descriptions of the forms and fields are below. The fields are listed in the same order as found on the web page. The labels for the fields in the web form will link to the appropriate field description below.

FORM/FIELD-SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS

Cover Page

This section contains fields for the proposal title, the type of proposal, the proposal abstract, and information about the Principal Investigator of the proposal, such as name, institution, address, telephone number, etc.

Proposal Title

The title of the proposal. Up to 120 characters are allowed. Required.

Abstract

800 characters maximum. Abstracts exceeding this limit will cause an error and must be shortened. Please do not use special characters or LaTeX markup in the abstract. In accordance with the Guidelines for Anonymous Proposals for dual-anonymous peer review, the abstract should not include language that identifies the names of investigators or their institutions. Required.

Principal Investigator Title

Your title (Dr., Ms., Mr., Prof.). The value for this field comes from your ARK user profile. If it is incorrect, update your ARK user profile prior to proposal submission.

First Name

Your first name. Up to 30 characters are allowed. Required. The value for this field comes from your ARK user profile. If it is incorrect, update your ARK user profile prior to proposal submission.

Middle Name or Initial

If you like, you may add your middle name or initial(s). Optional. Up to 30 characters are allowed. The value for this field comes from your ARK user profile. If it is incorrect, update your ARK user profile prior to proposal submission.

Last Name

Your last name (surname). Up to 30 characters are allowed. Required. The value for this field comes from your ARK user profile. If it is incorrect, update your ARK user profile prior to proposal submission.

Department

The name of your department at your institution. Up to 60 characters are allowed. The value for this field comes from your ARK user profile. If it is incorrect, update your ARK user profile prior to proposal submission.

Institution

Your institutional affiliation. Required. The value for this field comes from your ARK user profile. If it is incorrect, update your ARK user profile prior to proposal submission.

Address 1

The first line of your institution's address, e.g., the street name, any number within it, etc. Up to 60 characters. The value for this field comes from your ARK user profile. If it is incorrect, update your ARK user profile prior to proposal submission.

Address 2

The second line of your institution's address, if needed. Up to 60 characters. The value for this field comes from your ARK user profile. If it is incorrect, update your ARK user profile prior to proposal submission.

City/Town

Your city or town. Up to 32 characters. Required. The value for this field comes from your ARK user profile. If it is incorrect, update your ARK user profile prior to proposal submission.

State/Province

The name of the state/province/prefecture in which your institution is located. Up to 30 characters. Required. For states in the U.S., please use USPS-standard, two-letter abbreviations. The value for this field comes from your ARK user profile. If it is incorrect, update your ARK user profile prior to proposal submission.

Zip/Postal Code

The postal code, ZIP code, or the equivalent of your institution. Up to 10 characters. The value for this field comes from your ARK user profile. If it is incorrect, update your ARK user profile prior to proposal submission.

Country

The name of the country in which your institution is located. Required. The value for this field comes from your ARK user profile. If it is incorrect, update your ARK user profile prior to proposal submission. If your country is not listed, please contact the RPS Help Desk. Note: Proposals from PIs affiliated with People's Republic of China (PRC) organizations and bilateral collaborations between scientists affiliated with institutions from the USA and the PRC are not eligible for NASA support under United States Federal law. Multilateral collaborations that involve scientists from institutions in the USA, the PRC, and other countries are allowed, however. Refer to the PRC FAQ for ROSES for details.

Telephone Number

Your telephone number, plus any extension. Please include the international prefix, if appropriate. Up to 24 characters allowed. The value for this field comes from your ARK user profile. If it is incorrect, update your ARK user profile prior to proposal submission.

Fax Number

Your fax number, if available. 24 characters allowed. The value for this field comes from your ARK user profile. If it is incorrect, update your ARK user profile prior to proposal submission.

E-mail Address

Your e-mail address. Up to 60 characters. Required. If the e-mail receipt option is checked in your ARK user profile, an e-mail receipt will be sent to this address within 24 hours of the electronic submission of your proposal (usually much sooner). The value for this field comes from your ARK user profile. If it is incorrect, update your ARK user profile prior to proposal submission.

General Form

This section contains fields for details about your collaborators, if any, and additional contact information. Up to 30 Co-Investigators can be specified here. However, only the first 15 will be displayed in the PDF, PostScript, and LaTeX output options. If you have more than 30 Co-Investigators, additional Co-Investigators can be specified in the team expertise PDF that you will need to upload after successful submission of your proposal forms. The team expertise PDF should always include your complete list of Co-Investigators regardless of how many you have. Do not list any Co-Investigators in any comment fields of the forms, please.

Co-Investigator First Name

The first name of each Co-Investigator. Up to 20 characters.

Co-Investigator Last Name

The last name of each Co-Investigator. Up to 20 characters.

Co-Investigator Institution

The institution for each Co-Investigator. Up to 60 characters. Please refer to the List of Institutions Recognized by RPS and use the official name of the institution wherever possible. Note: If your Co-I's institution is not among those listed, please contact the RPS Help Desk and request that it be added to the list. Such requests are typically answered within 24 hours, excluding weekends and U.S. Federal holidays.

Co-Investigator Country

The country for each Co-Investigator. If a country is not listed, please contact us at the RPS Help Desk and request that it be added to the list. Note: Bilateral collaborations between scientists affiliated with institutions from the USA and the People's Republic of China (PRC) are not eligible for NASA support under United States Federal law. Multilateral collaborations that involve scientists from institutions in the USA, the PRC, and other countries are allowed, however. Refer to the PRC FAQ for ROSES for details.

Co-Investigator E-mail Address

The e-mail address for each Co-Investigator. Up to 60 characters.

Contact First Co-Investigator Listed Above?

This checkbox is used to indicate whether or not the first Co-Investigator listed is also a contact person in cases where the Principal Investigator cannot be reached. The default is to contact only the Principal Investigator.

Telephone Number of First Co-Investigator

Telephone number of the Co-Investigator that should be contacted. Up to 24 characters. Be sure to include the international code if outside the United States. Only enter a value for this field if you specify that the first Co-Investigator should be contacted.

Data to be used by a student as part of a thesis project?

Select the Yes checkbox if the data from this proposal is part of a student's thesis.

Target Form(s)

This section contains the names and positions of the sources whose data you are proposing to analyze.

Target Name

The commonly accepted name for the object. Up to 20 characters. For known targets, please use names (e.g., NGC 2237 or Eta Car) which are recognized by standard astronomical object databases such as SIMBAD or NED. Required.

R.A.

The J2000 right ascension of the source. The value can be entered in either sexagesimal format (HH MM SS.SS — hours, minutes, seconds, separated by spaces) or decimal degrees format (DDD.DDDDD). If you enter the value in sexagesimal format, it will be converted to decimal degrees format when you submit. Required.

Note: If you are proposing to analyze a source whose position is unknown at the time of proposal submission (e.g., a moving object), please specify "0.0" for both the R.A. and Dec. fields.

Dec.

The J2000 declination of the source. The value can be entered in either sexagesimal format (±DD MM SS.S — an optional sign, either + or -, followed by the degrees, minutes, and seconds, separated by spaces) or decimal degrees format (±DD.DDDDD). If you enter the value in sexagesimal format, it will be converted to decimal degrees format when you submit. If you do not specify the sign, it is assumed to be positive. Required.