Your first article, step by step

This walkthrough takes you from nothing to a published article on TestNet, using the Upload tab of the web app (called Path A in Publish an article). Your browser builds the article folder, computes its fingerprint (its CID), sends it to your pinning service and asks your wallet to sign the publication.

On TestNet everything is free and nothing has real value, so it is the right place for a first try.

What you need

You need	What for	Where to get it
A wallet: Pera, Defly or Lute	to sign; your address is your identity	Wallets and your address
About 0.32 TestNet ALGO	0.2152 for a single-author article, plus the 0.1 every account keeps	the TestNet dispenser
A pinning key (Filebase or Pinata)	to keep your files online on IPFS	step 3 below
Your text in Markdown, and any figures	the article itself	Write the article

Step 1: Get a wallet

Install Pera, Defly or Lute, create an account in it and set it to TestNet. Then open ariadne.press/testnet, click Connect wallet and choose your wallet. Details are in Wallets and your address.

Step 2: Get TestNet ALGO

Open the account menu (your name or short address), choose Copy address, paste it into the TestNet dispenser and request ALGO.

A single-author article costs about 0.2152 ALGO: a 0.2122 ALGO storage deposit plus 0.003 ALGO in network fees. Each declared co-author adds 0.0293 ALGO of deposit. Your account must also keep the 0.1 ALGO minimum balance of every Algorand account. The deposit is not refunded: it stays locked in the protocol for as long as the article exists. See Costs and deposits.

Step 3: Get a pinning key

IPFS keeps a file online only while someone pins it. You are responsible for the first pin of your article; ARIADNE’s indexer then keeps a second copy. The Upload tab pins through your own account at one of two services.

Filebase

1. Create a Filebase account.
2. Create a bucket on the IPFS network.
3. Go to Access Keys, then IPFS RPC API, choose that bucket and generate a token.
4. Keep that token for step 6. Do not use the S3 access key and secret: ARIADNE never needs them.

Pinata

1. Create a Pinata account. CAR uploads, which the Upload tab uses, need a paid Pinata plan.
2. Go to API Keys, then New key, and restrict the key to uploading files.
3. Keep the JWT for step 6.

The key is yours

You paste the key into your own browser. It stays there only: it is never sent to ARIADNE’s servers, it is sent only to the service it belongs to, and Forget it removes it. Because it is kept per browser, you paste it again on another browser or device. You will need the same key later to post reviews and comments, which are pinned the same way.

Step 4: Fill in the metadata

Open ariadne.press/testnet/publish with your wallet connected. The first part of the form is 1. Metadata (immutable once published): nothing in it can be changed after you sign.

1. Primary field: the field your article belongs to, chosen by name from the list grouped by area. Votes and reviews are weighted by reputation in this field, and the reputation your article earns goes to it.
2. Secondary field (optional): a second field, different from the first, which receives half of the article’s reputation. Leave None if there is none.
3. Type: article for a first try. The other types are notes, amendment (a correction of an earlier article, which asks for the parent article’s number), dataset and replication.
4. Co-authors: the addresses of your co-authors, one per line, at most 25, never your own. You can also type a co-author’s ORCID iD to find their address. Check every address: the list can never be changed. Each co-author confirms later from their own wallet. See Co-authors.
5. Click Continue to content. If something is missing (for example, no wallet connected), the form lists it.

Step 5: Write index.md

The second part, 2. Content, has two tabs. On TestNet it opens on I have a CID; click Upload.

The large text box holds index.md, already filled with a template that follows your form. It starts with a header between two --- lines. The app writes the keys the blockchain checks (authors, field, secondary field, type, parent); you write the title and the abstract:

---
title: "Heart-rate recovery after repeated sprints"
authors: ["YOUR_ADDRESS"]
field: 0x0303
secondary_field: 0
type: article
parent: 0
abstract: "One paragraph that says what was done and what was found."
keywords: ["sprint", "heart rate, recovery"]
references: []
license: CC-BY-4.0
language: en
---

• Put text values in double quotes. If the title contains a double quote, put single quotes around the whole value.
• Keep license (an SPDX licence name such as CC-BY-4.0) and language (such as en) accurate.
• If you change the metadata later, click Fill the header from the form to bring the header back in line. The app refuses to sign while the header and the form disagree.

Every key is explained in The article header (front-matter).

Below the header, replace the template’s example text with your article. The title comes from the header, so sections start at level 2 (## Methods). Formulas go between $...$ (inline) or between two lines containing only $$.

Figures. Use assets/ to add your files. Each file is placed in assets/ under its own name, and you refer to it by that path:

![Figure 1: heart rate during the six sprints](assets/fig-1.svg)

*Figure 1.* Heart rate during the six sprints; the shaded band is the standard deviation.

Remove the template’s example figure line if you have no figure. Images from other websites are not embedded, and HTML is not rendered. The whole folder may be at most 20 MB. Everything in it is public and permanent, including comments in the source (<!-- ... -->). See Write the article.

Step 6: Compute the CID and pin

1. Under Where your files are pinned, choose Filebase or Pinata, paste the key from step 3 and click Save in this browser. (You do this only once per browser.)
2. Click Compute CID and pin.

Your browser checks the folder and the header, builds the folder with ARIADNE’s canonical parameters, computes the CID, uploads it to your service and compares the CID the service stored with its own. Any difference stops the flow. When it succeeds you see a line such as “CID bafy… (… bytes, … files) pinned with Filebase.” If the header has a problem, each one is listed (for example “front-matter: title is missing”); fix it and try again.

Step 7: Sign and publish

The third part, 3. Sign on testnet, shows the cost: the deposit and fee lines, the total on TestNet and the ALGO available in your account. If the account cannot pay, a warning says how much is missing and links to the dispenser.

1. Check the summary line (“Publishing … as article on testnet”).
2. Click Sign and publish. The page shows “Waiting for your wallet…”.
3. Approve the transactions in your wallet.

A notice confirms the publication, with a link to the explorer, and the page says “Published as article #N” with a link to open it. The indexer shows it within a few seconds.

What happens next

• Your article is a preprint. It is public at https://ariadne.press/testnet/a/<number>, with its number, CID, fields, authors and version 1.
• The indexer checks it. It downloads the folder from IPFS, checks it against what you declared on the blockchain, keeps a second copy and serves it through ARIADNE’s gateway. If anything does not match, the article stays valid but shows a warning.
• The article page shows the CID and the command to pin it yourself (ipfs pin add <cid>). Extra copies by you or your institution are always welcome.
• The article token waits for you. Publishing created a non-transferable token that proves authorship. It stays in the application until you choose Claim the article token on the article page; claiming is optional and keeps 0.1 ALGO in your own account while you hold it.

After publishing

Let your co-authors confirm

Each declared co-author opens the article with their own wallet and clicks Confirm co-authorship. From then on they can claim an equal share of the article’s reputation. A declared co-author who votes for the article or reviews it can no longer confirm. See Co-authors.

Ask for reviews

1. On the article page, under You are the submitter, click Change status, choose under review and click Set under review.
2. Share the article’s link with people who know its field and have no conflict of interest with you or your co-authors.
3. Answer the reviews in comments. While the article is a preprint or under review you can publish a New version; it starts from the current files.

When at least two reviews that count recommend the article (accept or minor revision), more than ask for major revision or rejection, it earns the Peer-reviewed seal. Closing the article (closed version) only stops new versions; it is not a seal. See Get the Peer-reviewed seal and New versions, amendments and retraction.

Link your ORCID iD

On your profile, type your ORCID iD and sign the declaration (network fee only, no deposit). Then, on orcid.org, add your ARIADNE profile address under Websites & social links with the title ARIADNE, visible to Everyone. Once the indexer finds the link, readers see your name and citations use it. A verified ORCID iD with 3 works in an area also meets the seal’s expertise rule when you review articles of that area, from your first day. See Link your ORCID iD.

Later

• Claim your reputation when your article receives votes: see Claim your reputation.
• Get a DOI through Zenodo: see Get a DOI with Zenodo.
• Publish with your own CID instead of the Upload tab: see Publish an article.