diff --git a/joss/Makefile b/joss/Makefile
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7eedeb6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/joss/Makefile
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+all: pdf
+
+pdf:
+	docker run --rm --volume $(PWD):/data --user $(id -u):$(id -g) --env JOURNAL=joss openjournals/inara
diff --git a/joss/paper.bib b/joss/paper.bib
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..546c10a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/joss/paper.bib
@@ -0,0 +1,61 @@
+@article{roy2023scalable,
+  title={A scalable {DG} solver for the electroneutral {N}ernst-{P}lanck equations},
+  author={Roy, Thomas and Andrej, Julian and Beck, Victor A},
+  journal={Journal of Computational Physics},
+  volume={475},
+  pages={111859},
+  year={2023},
+  publisher={Elsevier},
+  doi={10.1016/j.jcp.2022.111859}
+}
+
+@article{govindarajan2023coupling,
+  title={Coupling Microkinetics with Continuum Transport Models to Understand Electrochemical CO$_2$ Reduction in Flow Reactors},
+  author={Govindarajan, Nitish and Lin, Tiras Y and Roy, Thomas and Hahn, Christopher and Varley, Joel B},
+  journal={PRX Energy},
+  volume={2},
+  number={3},
+  pages={033010},
+  year={2023},
+  publisher={APS},
+  doi={10.1103/PRXEnergy.2.033010}
+}
+
+@manual{FiredrakeUserManual,
+  title        = {Firedrake User Manual},
+  author       = {David A. Ham and Paul H. J. Kelly and Lawrence Mitchell and Colin J. Cotter and Robert C. Kirby and Koki Sagiyama and Nacime Bouziani and Sophia Vorderwuelbecke and Thomas J. Gregory and Jack Betteridge and Daniel R. Shapero and Reuben W. Nixon-Hill and Connor J. Ward and Patrick E. Farrell and Pablo D. Brubeck and India Marsden and Thomas H. Gibson and Miklós Homolya and Tianjiao Sun and Andrew T. T. McRae and Fabio Luporini and Alastair Gregory and Michael Lange and Simon W. Funke and Florian Rathgeber and Gheorghe-Teodor Bercea and Graham R. Markall},
+  organization = {Imperial College London and University of Oxford and Baylor University and University of Washington},
+  edition      = {First edition},
+  year         = {2023},
+  month        = {5},
+  doi          = {10.25561/104839},
+}
+
+@TechReport{      petsc-user-ref,
+  author        = {Satish Balay and Shrirang Abhyankar and Mark~F. Adams and Steven Benson and Jed
+                  Brown and Peter Brune and Kris Buschelman and Emil Constantinescu and Lisandro
+                  Dalcin and Alp Dener and Victor Eijkhout and Jacob Faibussowitsch and William~D.
+                  Gropp and V\'{a}clav Hapla and Tobin Isaac and Pierre Jolivet and Dmitry Karpeev
+                  and Dinesh Kaushik and Matthew~G. Knepley and Fande Kong and Scott Kruger and
+                  Dave~A. May and Lois Curfman McInnes and Richard Tran Mills and Lawrence Mitchell
+                  and Todd Munson and Jose~E. Roman and Karl Rupp and Patrick Sanan and Jason Sarich
+                  and Barry~F. Smith and Stefano Zampini and Hong Zhang and Hong Zhang and Junchao
+                  Zhang},
+  title         = {{PETSc/TAO} Users Manual},
+  institution   = {Argonne National Laboratory},
+  number        = {ANL-21/39 - Revision 3.20},
+  doi           = {10.2172/1968587},
+  year          = {2023}
+}
+
+@article{catmap,
+	doi = {10.1007/s10562-015-1495-6},
+ 	author = {Medford, Andrew J. and Shi, Chuan and Hoffmann, Max J. and Lausche, Adam C. and Fitzgibbon, Sean R. and Bligaard, Thomas and N{\o}rskov, Jens K.},
+	isbn = {1572-879X},
+	journal = {Catal. Lett.},
+	number = {3},
+	pages = {794--807},
+	title = {{CatMAP}: A Software Package for Descriptor-Based Microkinetic Mapping of Catalytic Trends},
+	volume = {145},
+	year = {2015},
+}
diff --git a/joss/paper.md b/joss/paper.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4dc3c3f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/joss/paper.md
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+---
+title: 'Gala: A Python package for galactic dynamics'
+tags:
+  - Python
+  - Finite Element Method
+  - electrochemistry
+authors:
+  - name: Thomas Roy
+    orcid: 0000-0000-0000-0000
+    corresponding: true # (This is how to denote the corresponding author)
+    affiliation: 1 
+  - name: Author Without ORCID
+    affiliation: 2
+affiliations:
+ - name: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, CA, USA
+   index: 1
+ - name: Institution Name, Country
+   index: 2
+date: 12 December 2023
+bibliography: paper.bib
+
+---
+
+# Summary
+<!---  high-level functionality and purpose of the software for a diverse, non-specialist audience --->
+
+
+# Statement of need
+<!--- section that clearly illustrates the research purpose of the software and places it in the context of related work --->
+
+[@roy2023scalable]
+
+
+# Acknowledgements
+
+This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344, and was partially supported by a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) between LLNL and TotalEnergies American Services, Inc. (affiliate of TotalEnergies SE) under agreement number TC02307 and Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) funding under projects 19-ERD-035 and 22-SI-006. 
+
+# References