AAS Journal Reference Instructions

As described in the AAS Journal’s software policy, software can be cited in two ways:

• Citing the paper describing the software (e.g. “galpy: A python Library for Galactic Dynamics“, Bovy 2015, ApJ, 216, 29);
• Citing a DOI for the software, for example, obtained via Zenodo or FigShare (e.g. Foreman-Mackey et al. 2014, corner.py, v0.1.1, Zenodo, doi:10.5281/zenodo.11020, as developed on GitHub).

Ideally, both forms of citation should be included; alongside these formal references, authors may also want to include footnote URLs to appropriate code repositories, such as GitHub, or metadata indices, such as the Astrophysics Source Code Library.

Authors may also include a section below the acknowledgments listing scientific software packages used as part of the work presented in the manuscript. This should be done via the new \software AASTeX 6 macro. The content of the command should take the form of a list of software name and citation in parentheses, which would also appear in the article’s reference list. For example:

\software{Astropy \citep{http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201322068},
          Matplotlib \citep{http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/MCSE.2007.55}}

This is analogous to acknowledging a major facility or instrument and is done for the same reason, to give credit to a project which is generally useful for the community. More information can be found in the AASTeX 6 documentation.

Electronic catalogs, databases, observers’ guides, instrument documentation, electronic conference proceedings, electronic journals, and other stable (non-changing) documents available online should be listed in the reference list in the same manner as other references. These should give the author(s) or authoring agency, title of the document, location and name of the hosting organization (e.g., Pasadena, CA: JPL), version consulted if any, page or document number if any, and the URL or persistent identifier (see examples below). References in this class include databases, manuals, conference proceedings, and similar documents, but not general informational sites for instruments or projects, sites for downloading computer code, or articles posted on personal web pages. Citations of electronic journals should follow normal journal format, omitting page number if none is used, followed by the URL. See below for examples.

Note that URLs for all other electronic resources that lack a sufficient degree of permanence, such as personal web pages, general informational sites for organizations, telescopes, surveys, projects, proposals, sites for uploading computer or mathematical code, and other sites whose content regularly changes, should be given in a footnote at first mention in the text, but not listed in the reference list.

References to articles in preparation, preprints, or other sources generally not available to readers should be avoided if possible. Please check preprint references carefully in case any of these have been formally published since your manuscript was prepared; if the preprints have not been published, please give the reference (e.g, arXiv) number and the journal to which the work has been submitted. If no publication of record is available, preprints may be listed in the reference list with version given. Private communications, unpublished works, and articles in preparation should be cited only in the run of text, giving authors’ initials and the year if completion is imminent, that is F. Carlon et al. (2009, in preparation).

All sources cited in the text and tables must appear in the reference list at the end of the manuscript, and all entries in the reference list must be cited in the manuscript. Reference entries should be ordered alphabetically, starting with the last name of the first author, followed by the first author’s initial(s), and so on for each additional author. For articles with more than five authors, the last name and initials of the first three authors only should be listed, followed by a comma and “et al.” References listed as “et al.” are grouped together and last, as if the fourth author started with “z”; they are not alphabetized by the name of the actual fourth author. Multiple entries for one author or one group of authors should be ordered chronologically, and multiple entries for the same year should be distinguished by appending sequential lower-case letters to the year, even if the author groups are not identical: e.g., Smith, E., Rowe, T., & Jones, A. B. 1999a; Smith, A. B., Thomas, J. R., & Peebles, P. J. E. 1999b; Smith et al. 1999c.

Except in rare instances (e.g., Icarus) ADS bibliographic codes on the ADS site should be used for the appropriate refereed journal abbreviations. A list of codes for non-refereed publications is also available and should be followed.

The AAS Journal’s BibTeX style file, aasjournal.bst, encodes these reference styles and is provided with our AASTeX 6 release. Detailed LaTeX instructions may be found in the AASTeX 6 Guide

Content related to published articles should be archived in persistent repositories and linked to the article through a digital object identifier (DOI). In addition to software published in DOI repositories, our Data Guide details the types of related content that should be archived and linked to the final article through first class citation in the bibliography.

The new AASTeX 6 BibTeX style file supports the current reference list style for digital software or data objects in persistent (“DOI”) repositories as follows:

{author*} {year}, {title}, {version^}, {publisher|howpublished~}, {prefix}:{identifier#}

To illustrate and document this format, we use a corresponding BibTeX entry taken and modified from a real software publication from our Journals. Note that all software/data BibTeX entries should be of the @misc type:

                    @misc{lia_corrales_2015_15991,
      author = {Lia Corrales},
      title = {{dust: Calculate the intensity of dust scattering halos in the X-ray}},
      month = mar,
      year = 2015,
      doi = {10.5281/zenodo.15991},
      version = {1.0},
      publisher = {Zenodo},
      url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15991}
      }

The corresponding reference list entry built with aasjournal.bst would look like:

Corrales, L. 2015, dust: Calculate the intensity of dust scattering halos in the X-ray, v1.0, Zenodo, doi:10.5281/zenodo.15991

Authors will be queried for missing, incomplete, or incorrect information in the reference list. It is especially important that authors recheck reference lists after each revision of the text, to be certain that all references cited in the text are in the reference list, and all references given in the reference list are cited. Authors should also check preprint listings, such as arXiv postings, to see if the preprint has been published, or submitted for publication, since the initial preparation of the manuscript.

Examples are given here of some of the most common citation formats. Except in rare instances (e.g., Icarus) ADS bibliographic codes on the ADS site should be used for the appropriate refereed journal abbreviations. A list of codes for non-refereed publications is also available and should be followed.

Note that many of the electronic resource references are not persistent. The links provided here point to cached versions of the pages by the internet archive.

Journal Article
Martín, E. L., Rebolo, R., & Zapatero Osorio, M. R. 1996, ApJ, 469, 706
Aguirre, J. E., Ginsburg, A. G., Dunham, M. K., et al. 2011, ApJS, 192, 4

Digital Objects
Corrales, L. 2015, dust: Calculate the intensity of dust scattering halos in the X-ray, v1.0, Zenodo, doi:10.5281/zenodo.15991

Software and citable data objects in persistent repositories should include the repository name in addition to the DOI, and the version if appropriate.

Book
Donat, W., III, & Boksenberg, A. J. 1993, The Astronomical Almanac for the Year 1994, Vol. 2 (2nd ed.; Washington, DC: GPO)

Where specific pages of a book are cited, these should be given at the text citation, not in the reference list.

Article or Chapter in an Edited Collection
Huchra, J. P. 1986, in Inner Space/Outer Space, ed. E. W. Kolb et al. (Chicago, IL: Univ. Chicago Press), 65

Conference Proceedings
Salpeter, E. E., & Wasserman, I. M. 1993, ASPC 36, Planets around Pulsars, ed. J. A. Phillips, S. E. Thorsett, & S. R. Kulkarni (San Francisco, CA: ASP), 345

Electronic Conference Proceedings (published only online)
Gomez, M. 2000, in Cosmology 2000, ed. M.C. Bento, O. Bertolami, & L. Teodoro (Lisbon: Inst. Superio Tecnico), 57, http://alfa.ist.utl.pt/~bento/cosmo2000/proc/proceedings.html

Star Catalogs
Hoffleit, D. 1982, The Bright Star Catalogue (New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Obs.)

Electronic Newsletters (published only online)
Hermoso, D. 1996, ESA IUE Electron. Newsl. 46, http://www.vilspa.esa.es/iue/nl/newsl_46.html
Bersier, D., et al. 2004, GCN Circ. 2544, http://gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov/gcn/gcn3/2544.gcn3

Instrument Documentation
Gussenhoven, M. S., Mullen, E. G., & Sagalyn, R. C. 1985, CRRES/SPACERAD Instrument Description, Document AFGL-TR-85-0017 (Hanscom, MA: Air Force Geophys. Lab.)
Spitzer Science Center. 2004, Spitzer Observers’ Manual (Pasadena, CA: SSC), http://sirtf.caltech.edu/

Preprints
Tobin, J. J., et al. 2015, arXiv: 1501.03172, AJ in press
Lockwood, G. W., & Skiff, B. A. 1988, Air Force Geophys. Lab. preprint (AFGL-TR-88-0221)

References to preprints are acceptable only for manuscripts not yet published. Please check the arXiv references in case any of these have been formally published since the manuscript was prepared; if the preprints have not been published, please give the arXiv reference number and the journal to which the work has been submitted or is currently in press.

Manuscripts Submitted or In Press
Wolk, S. J., & Walter, F. M. 1999, AJ, submitted
Wolk, S. J., & Walter, F. M. 1999, AJ, in press

“Submitted” should be used for manuscripts not yet accepted for publication, and “in press” for manuscripts accepted but not yet published.