Revision History

For manuscript that include authors in collaborations, AASTeX v6.3 builds on the \collaboration command to allow greater freedom to keep the traditional author+affiliation information but only show subsets. The \collaboration command now must appear after the group of authors in the collaboration and it takes two arguments.

\collaboration{number}{name}

The last argument is still the collaboration identifier. The text given in this argument is what will be shown in the manuscript. The first argument is the number of author above the \collaboration command to show with the collaboration text. A value of zero will only show the collaboration names. An example,

\author{1}
...
\author{1000}
\collaboration{2}{The BIG collaboration}

would be displayed as “1 and 2 et al. The BIG collaboration". The \suppressAffiliations command is also introduced to allow authors to hid affiliations. This command should be used when only showing a few authors in a collaboration.

The full author list, including the affiliations, will be shown at the end of the article when the \allauthors command is placed just before the \end{document}.

If there are authors that are not part of any collaboration the \nocollaboration command is used to set them apart. This command takes one argument which is also the number of authors to show.

\nocollaboration{number}

A dashed line is shown in the compiled pdf to indicate that the authors above are not part of any collaboration. Make number equal to zero to now show these authors.

If the \collaboration command is not used but the authors still want to show a truncated list of authors on the front page the \AuthorCallLimit command should be used as in v6.2.

The AAS Journals no longer publishes article titles in all caps and instead uses title case, e.g. only capitalizing the first letter of principle words. To be consistent with this recent publishing change, no capitalization is applied to arguement of the \title command. It is the author’s responsibility to maintain title case.

In addition to the expanded editorial comment mark up (\recieved, \revised, \accepted, \submitted, and \submitjournal) introduced in v6.1, a new \reportnum{ID} command has been created. This command will place the “ID” argument text in the upper right corner of the title page. This command can be used multiple times. For example:

\reportnum{astro-ph/0411275}
\reportnum{BAAS  2004, v36, n5}

Note that neither the \reportnum command nor the editoral mark up are used during production but authors might find it useful to use them to provide publishing meta-data to preprints.

An additional argument has been added to the \author command to provide the author’s unique ORCID identifier. The example:

\author[0000-0002-0786-7307]{Greg J. Schwarz}

will produce:

Greg J. Schwarz

where the author’s name is also a hyperlink to given ORCID.

As the number of authors in the average astronomical article continues to increase, managing the author list becomes more onerous. In prior versions of AASTeX it was the author’s responsibility to make sure that the footnote affiliations corresponded to the appropriate author. This version removes that burden on the author by doing the indexing automatically. AASTeX v6.1 also inserts any necessary commas and “and“s between author names so the \and command has been removed. Unfortunately some different commands are required to obtain this functionality and a few of the regular commands authors are used to will not work in v6.1. See Section 2.3 of the v6.1 author guide for specific mark up details.

AASTeX v6.1 has expanded collaboration identifier support. The new \collaboration and \nocollaboration commands are applied to groups of authors for proper collaboration labelling. Any number of collaborations can now be included. The collaboration name can be provided before or after an associated author group to offer authors maximum flexibility.

The largest change to AASTeX is the adoption of Alexey Vikhlinin’s emulateapj classfile as the base code for v6.0. emulateapj is based on the APS’s RevTeX v4.1. Like emulateapj, AASTeX v6.0 produces a tight single column (default) or two column typeset article. The change means that when calling the classfile, e.g.

\documentclass[options]{aastex}

the following old options have changed:

• manuscript = a one column, double spaced format with 12 point font.
• preprint = same as onecolumn in AASTeX v6.0, e.g. single space, single column, 10 point font style.
• preprint2 = same as twocolumn in AASTeX v6.0, e.g. single space, two column, 10 point font style.

Some other old emulateapj options are still available. Their functions are as follows:

Four new options have been introduced for AASTeX 6.0.

In the onecolumn style the figure will span the same width of the text. Figures in the twocolumn style will likewise only span the column they are placed in. An author can override this by adding an asterisk, e.g. \begin{figure*}...\end{figure*}, to have a figure span both columns. Authors are responsible for producing figures that are not so small to be unreadable.

AASTeX v6.0 uses the hyperref package for typesetting hyperlinks. The \href{href}{text} tag associates text in the manuscript with the specified resource (href) where href should be specified as a full URI, including the scheme: designator (http:, ftp:, etc.). The \url command supports the special case where an author wishes to express a URL in the text. With the hyperref package L^aT_eX can interpret any url without requiring encoding of special characters.

An optional water mark can be superimposed over the title page using the following commands.

\watermark{text}

\setwatermarkfontsize{dimension}

The first command will print text in a light gray color on the title page running diagonally from the bottom left to the top right. The font size can also be specified by the second command, e.g. 2in, to obtain the appropriate size. Authors may have to experiment with the wording and font size to obtain a desired result. The water mark information is not used during production but authors might find it useful to identify drafts or preprints.

With very long author lists one can now limit the number of authors shown in a compiled PDF or preprint. The remaining authors will be identified under a collaboration header. To limit the number of shown authors and to define a collaboration use the following commands.

\AuthorCallLimit=number of authors shown

\fullcollaborationName{collaboration identifier}

The first command will only show the specified number of \author commands, e.g. if \AuthorCallLimit=3 then only the authors provided in the first three \author commands will be displayed. When the number of authors is limited the \fullcollaborationName command must also be included. As an example, \fullcollaborationName{Kepler Science Team} would produce “(Kepler Science Team)” after the nth author as defined by \AuthorCallLimit. The full author list, including the affiliations, will be shown at the end of the article when these commands are used and the new \allauthors command is placed at the end of the article.

Note that these author limiting commands are only meant to be used to make lengthy author lists more managable for PDF copies during peer review. Authors are still required to include all authors and affilation information with the corresponding commands outlined above. The full set of authors is critical both during peer review and publication.

Several new commands have been introduced to make it easier to track revisions. To begin authors must include the trackchanges option when calling the class file, e.g.

\documentclass[trackchanges]{aastex}

Commands are available to highlight added, deleted and replaced text.The commands and their output, with and with out the trackchanges option, are presented here.

Using the \listofchanges command in the article preamble will show all of the added, deleted and replaced text in a list at the end of the article. Note that this command must be called at the manuscript end just before \end{document}. If the linenumbers option is used in the documentclass call then the line number of every change at the end of the article is given.

Likewise, the new command \edit1{}, \edit2{} and \edit3{} have been introduced to make it easier for authors to hightlight changes to the manuscript in response to editor and referee comments. The three commands will produce bold red, italic blue, and underlined purple , respectively. Authors that choose to use these commands to highlight changes should use the first command to highlight new text from the first revision, the second command from the second revision and the third command if a third revision is necessary. The goal is to make it obvious what has been changed and at what point during the peer review proccess. For final typesetting the color can be removed simply by adding in the command \turnoffedit in the preamble.

Similarly the \authorcomment1{}, \authorcomment2{}, and \authorcomment3{} commands are now available. These commands will prepend to the text “Collaboration note:” and highlight it in bold red, italics blue and underlined purple but when the command \turnoffedit is used this text will not be shown at all. Authors can use these commands to mark text that they are not sure should be included in the final manuscript.

A figure set is the frame work used to contain a large compendia of similar images and graphical material. Examples include identification charts, spectral libraries, model output, etc. The figure set functionality gives the reader the ability to quickly find specific images within the figure set sequence and thus is well suited in cases with many similar images.

The AAS Journals has had figure set functionality for over 10 years but until now the specific mark up had to be put in by hand and thus most of the work was done after acceptance by a data editor. AASTeX v6.0 now includes the mark up. The commands to construct a figure set are as follows.

\figsetstart

\figsetnum{figurenumber}

\figsettitle{figure set title}

\figsetgrpstart

\figsetgrpnum{figurenumber.1}

\figsetgrptitle{image 1 caption}

\figsetplot{figure set file}

\figsetgrpnote{image 1 caption}

\figsetgrpend

Repeat the block above for each figure in the set

\figsetend

The second command, \figsetnum, is the figure sequence number. The \figsettitle is the title for the entire figure set. The next six commands, between \figsetgrpstart and \figsetgrpend, must be repeated for each image in the figure set sequence. The \figsetgrpnum increments by one each time, e.g. figurenumber.1, figurenumber.2, figurenumber.3, etc. \figsetgrptitle is a title used to uniquely identify the the specific image. It should be relatively short but descriptive. \figsetplot is the call to the EPS or PDF file containing the image. If an image consists of multiple EPS or PDF files one \figsetplot is required for each file. Lastly, \figsetgrpnote is the figure caption for that specific image. It may be unique or identical to all the others in the figure set but it must be specified in this field.

AASTeX 6.0 introduces a new way to create a figure that consists of > 2 EPS or PDF files arranged in a grid pattern. The new command \gridline allows an author to place as many figure files as needed in a row through multiple \fig, \rightfig and \leftfig calls. The \fig calls an individual EPS or PDF file while \rightfig and \leftfig do the same but right and left justify the named file within the grid row. There is also the \boxedfig call which is the same as \fig but draws a box around the named file.

\fig{filename}{width}{letter or caption}

The first argument is the EPS or PDF file to be displayed. The second argument is the width to scale the file by. Any LaTeX accepted width is valid but author may find it easier to use \textwidth scale the figure by a fraction of the allowed width. For example, 0.33\textwidth will scale the figure to one third the column width. The last argument provides a sub caption beneath the displayed file. Authors should use this to label the displayed file, e.g. “(a)”, “(b)”, etc.

There is a final file call for \gridline, \rotatefig. Similar to the others, this file call takes an additional argument to specify the degree of rotation. An example would be \rotatefig{90}{<filename>}{<width>}{subcaption} to produce a 90 degree rotation.

AASTeX 6.0 introduces five new features to make and display tabular information. All of these features can be use together with any other valid commands in a single table. Many of the new features use new alignment tokens in lieu of the typical “l,” “c,” or “r,” arguments. All of the commands work with LaTeX’s tabular environment and AASTeX’s deluxetable but there are some differences in how each is executed. See the AASTeX guide for specific examples of each.

Entire columns can be “hidden” from display with the use of the new “h” cols column identifier. In the tabular environment the header will also be hidden but deluxetable requires the use of \nocolhead instead of \colhead to hid a specific column.

The use of mathmatics and special symbols requires the use of math-mod or in other words prefaced with $s. Using capital letters, e.g. “C”, “L”, or “R”, in the cols column identifier will set that specific column in math mode so that $s are unnecessary. In deluxetable use \dcolhead to enable math mode without $s in that particular header.

In addition to the standard left, right, and center column justification, AASTeX v6.0 can now align columns by the decimal. It does this by splitting the identified column into two separate columns by the decimal and right justifying the first new column and right justifying the second new column. The new “D” alignment token is used to identify a decimal column. The \decimals command must also be included in the table. It can be anywhere in a LaTeX table but must come after the \startdata call in deluxetable. Since “D” columns are actually two column any headers should include an extra “&” in the tabular environment or be described with the new \twocolhead{} in the deluxetable environment. Alternatively, \multicolumn2c{} will work to span two columns in a header in either environment. Each decimal column must end with spacebefore “&” and empty decimal columns must be indicated with a period (‘.’)

Wide tables can easily be split horizontally into two or three continuing subtables. An author would invoke splittabular or splitdeluxetable to allow this functionality. A new “B” alignment token identifier is defined to tell LaTeX where to introduce the split. Up to two “B” identifiers can be used. The output is a centered split table with a full horizontal line separating the two or three components.

The command \colnumbers can be included to automatically number each column in the header. Each column index number will be surrounded by parentheses. In a LaTeX table the \colnumbers should be invoked at the location where the author wants the numbers to appear. This should be after the last line of specified table header. In deluxetable this command has to come after \startdata. \colnumbers will not increment for columns hidden by the “h” command.

Note that when using decimal alignment the command \decimalcolnumbers must be used instead of \colnumbers and \decimals.

To rotate a table into landscape mode in the table environment the following commands should be used

\begin{rotatetable}

\end{rotatetable}

around the \begin{tabular} … \end{tabular} calls. The process for the deluxetable environment, using \rotate, remains the same, however, there are some subtle differences in how deluxetables are treated in this version. The deluxetable environment uses the longtable package to split tables over pages. Unfortunately, this means that deluxetable are not traditional floats and thus L^aT_eX does not have its normal flexibility to optimally typeset the table within the article. Instead L^aT_eX will insert the deluxetable where it is placed with in the manuscript. Extra care may be necessary to achieve the desired placement results. An author can force a deluxetable to be a float by adding the command \floattable before the \begin{deluxetable} command. Note that no L^aT_eX float object can break over a page so the \floattable command should not be used for long tables that exceed a page length.

Authors should use the new \software command to highlight any software packages that were used in the production of the article. The use of \software will make it easier for programmers and organizations to obtain usage statistics about their software. Similar to the \facility command, \software should appear after the acknowledgments section.

\software{IRAF, AIPS, Astropy, ... }

There is no limit to the number of software that may be included in a manuscript.

Use the updated \dataset command to link to data sets hosted externally such as the DOI issuing Zenodo repository.

\dataset[text]{url}

Where url is the url link to the data. The bracketed argument is optional. When present the given text is used as the displayed hyperlink otherwise [DATASET] is printed.

The format for referencing digital objects in repositories is 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 example). Note that all data/software 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 entry should look like:

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

BibTeX will produce a citation in this format when the new aasjournal.bst file is used. The aasjournal.bst is an update of the old apj.bst file and is backwards compatible.

\anchor {HREF} {TEXT}

A general-purpose hypertext link tag, using the parlance of HTML.HREF is a full URI, including the scheme: designator (ftp:, http:, etc.). For instance,

\anchor{ftp://www.aas.org}{the AAS ftp site}

\url [HREF] {TEXT}

We provide \url with the HREF as an optional argument to support the case when an author wishes to express a URL in the text. In that case, HREF = TEXT. If the author supplies both arguments, this command looks like an alias for \anchor.

\url[http://www.aas.org]{the AAS home page}

or

\url{http://www.aas.org}

 

\email {ADDRESS}

Use this markup to identify email addresses anywhere in the text. ADDRESS should not contain the mailto: scheme designator. For instance,

\email{aastex-help@aas.org}

This command replaces the AASTeX v4.0 \authoremail command, and unlike the v4.0 command, it can be used for any email address, not just an author’s email address.

\objectname [CATALOG ID] {TEXT}

Using this command, celestial objects can be identified by the author to facilitate post-processing of articles by the astronomical catalog databases. In the future, software could construct queries to those databases in the online editions; hence, it may be useful for the author to supply a catalog identifier, although at this time the markup is not used by any of the AAS journals.

\rotate

This command rotates a deluxetable into landscape orientation.

\\[VSKIP]

The canonical table line spacing optional argument will now function as expected in the deluxetable environment. The commands \tablevspace, \nl, and \nextline are no longer needed and have been deprecated.

LaTeX’s \cite command has been reimplemented to utilize the features of the natbib package. See the natbib package documentation for details on natbib‘s extended markup.

The following special symbols have been added.

\sbond, \dbond, \tbond

Chemical bond symbols for single bonds, double bonds, and triple bonds.

\diameter

A circle with a slash through it. Added for compatibility with A&A and MNRAS packages.

\degr

This is a synonym for \arcdeg. Added for compatibility with A&A and MNRAS packages.

\shorttitle{TEXT}, \shortauthors{TEXT}

These are new names for commands that permit authors to specify the abbreviated title and short author list for the running heads in the print journal. They replace \righthead and \lefthead.