The revision history of AASTeX versions 5.0 through 6.0. Please consult the author guide for details on how to use AASTeX. A sample LaTeX article using AASTeX is available in the full distribution download.
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. 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:
The old emulateapj options numberedappendix, appendixfloats, and twocolappendix are still available. They produce appendix sections labeled A, B, C, etc. instead of numeric numbering, separate float numbering in the appendix, a two column appendix, respectively.
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.
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\collaborationName{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 \collaborationName command must also be included. As an example, \collaborationName{Kepler Science Team} would produce "(and the Kepler Science Team Collaboration)" after the nth author.
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.
Two new commands have been introduced to make it easier for authors to hightlight revision changes and internal author comments. In turn, each command has 3 versions that control the color of the marked up text. The colored text can be turned off or hidden with a single command in the article preamble.
The \edit1{<text>}, \edit2{<text>} and \edit3{<text>} commands should be used to highlight new text. The three commands will produce red, blue, and purple <text>, respectively. Authors should use the first command to highlight new text from the first revision, the second command for the second revision and the third command if a third revision is necesary. 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 \turnoffediting in the preamble.
Similarly, the \authorcomment1{<text>}, \authorcomment2{<text>} and \authorcomment3{<text>} commands highlight text but when the \turnoffediting command is envoked the marked up text is hidden. Authors can assign a command to a different co-authors so they can mark their contributions to the manuscript or for marking text they are not sure should appear in the final version of the 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}\figsetgrpendRepeat 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 "T" (for two columns) alignment token is used to identify a decimal column. The \decimal 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 "T" columns are actually two column any headers should include an extra "&" or be described with \multicolumn2c. Each decimal column must end with spacebefore "&" and empty decimal columns must be indicated with `.'
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 \tabnumberline 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 \tabnumberline 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. \tabnumberline will not increment for columns hidden by the "h" command.
Macros have been added to support new features in the electronic ApJ and AJ. The new macros for object linking and data sets will be used to create links in the electronic editions that will provide readers with easy access to fundamental information on the objects and archived data sets used in the papers. The facilities macro will be used to help readers track the effectiveness of their telescopes. Watch the AASTeX home page to learn when these features will be supported and for further details on their use.
For each of these new macros, the optional argument in square brackets is the identification key to be used when a link is constructed in the electronic edition. The text between the curly braces will be printed in the text of the paper and will form the link anchor in the electronic edition.
\object has been added as an alias to the already-exising \objectname command. Use either command to mark celestial objects to be linked to the data centers in the electronic editions of the
journals.A number of changes have been made to the deluxetable environment. These changes should eliminate the most common problems with deluxetable
formatting.
\tablecomments, \tablenotetext, and \tablerefs blocks to a new page if there is not enough room to place them after the table. In the past, end notes would run off the bottom margin.\tablebreak command has been reintroduced to give the user the ability to override default deluxetable page breaksdeluxetable environment will now properly calculate the number of table lines per page when the optional argument to adjust spacing between rows is used.\plottwo macro was used with the result that if two \plottwo commands appeared one after the other, the second set of figures were sized too small. This has now been fixed.\plotfiddle macro for figure placement has been reintroduced. See the documentation for details on its use.preprint2 style for instances where the abstract is too long to fit on the first page of the document.\actaa |
Acta Astronomica |
\icarus |
Icarus |
\caa |
Chinese Astronomy and Astrophysics |
\cjaa | Chinese Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics |
\rmxaa |
Revista Mexicana de Astronomia y Astrofisica (RMxAA) |
\na |
New Astronomy |
\nar |
New Astronomy Review |
\jcap |
Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics (JCAP) |
\pasa |
Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia (PASA) |
A complete list of the journal abbreviation macros is included in the Author Guide, which is available in the documentation section.
\tabletypesize command.\rotate command.\email to output email address in front matter.\plotone, \plottwo.\thispagestyle{plain} removed from \maketitle in .cls file.\email.\anchor{HREF}{TEXT}
\rotate
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.
\shorttitle{TEXT}, \shortauthors{TEXT}
The following AASTeX v4.0 commands are not supported in AASTeX v5.0/v4.1.
\tablevspace, \nl, \nextline
\lefthead, \righthead
\authoraddr, \authoremail
\markcite
planotable environment
Follow the instructions below if you wish to convert your AASTeX 4.0 manuscript to AASTeX v5.0. If you prefer to convert to AASTeX v4.1, follow the same instructions but with the differences noted.
| v4.0 Command | v5.0 Command |
\nl |
\\ |
\nextline |
\\ |
\nl\tablevspace{dimen} |
\\[dimen] |
If you have used \small, \footnotesize, or \scriptsize to reduce the font size of your table, enclose these commands in the \tabletypesize command, i.e. \tabletypesize{\scriptsize}.