Information files

Multimedia

A&A can also publish multimedia and 3D models embedded within HTML and PDF versions of articles: these are displayed alongside the article’s text.

Movies

Size

When you submit your video files, please make sure their size is appropriate: as small as possible (and not larger than 10 Mb) but still big enough for all the important scientific information and details to be clearly visible. We will not resize videos, so authors are expected to submit their video files in the size and format in which they wish them to appear.

Format

We accept .mov, .avi, .mpg and .mp4 files. Please note that we cannot accept movie files that require the reader to download particular codecs; files must be playable on standard media players such as QuickTime, Windows Media Player or VLC.

Examples

Movies can be either fully embedded in the text, or linked to.

• The "media9" package provides an interface to embed 3D objects (Adobe U3D & PRC), as well as video and sound files or streams in the popular MP4, FLV and MP3 formats, into PDF documents with Acrobat-9/X compatibility. See for example the following article:
  https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2013/03/aa20646-12/aa20646-12.html
  Figures 2 and 6 are fully embedded in the HTML and PDF versions with the LaTeX package "media9".
• If you do not choose to embed your movies within your article PDF and HTML files, you can also refer to them in your text/figure caption(s) at appropriate places, and we will add a direct hyperlink to the webpage hosting your videos on our website. The video can either be referred to within a sentence, e.g.:
  "Fig. 2. Same as Fig. 1 for the sequence running from 2 January 2005 13:36:19 UT to 8 January 2005, 15:00:10 UT. The temporal evolution is available as an online movie." Or, it can be just mentioned within parentheses, e.g.:
  "Fig. 2. Evolution of the jet in 171 Å […] Bottom right: elongated jet structure with over-plotted cross-cuts used for anlaysis of the kink motion (Online movie)." Here is an example of a hyperlink between a PDF version of an article and the webpage hosting the corresponding videos:
  https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/olm/2014/01/aa21213-13/aa21213-13.html
• If your video is not attached to a figure (e.g. graph, image, etc), then please remember to supply a snapshot of the video and a caption for us to use as an illustration in the PDF version of your article.

The names of your files should make it easy and quick for the typesetter to know which figure/video it is and to distinguish between video files and alternative PDF files. An example is given below:
aa22345-fig1.jpg
aa22345-fig1_movie.mpeg

3D models

Size

When you submit your 3D model files, please make sure their size is appropriate: as small as possible but still big enough for all the important scientific information and details to be clearly visible. We will not resize your files, so authors are expected to submit their video files in the size and format they wish them to appear.

Formats

U3D or PRC files may be embedded directly into the PDF with the "media9" package. See for example figure 15 in the PDF file of the following article: https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/abs/2014/01/aa22032-13/aa22032-13.html.

The size of the whole PDF document should not exceed 50 Mb. The same requirements as for videos apply, and your files should have easily identifiable names.

At present time, the technical tools to automatically standardise the process of including a 3D object into an HTML format do not exist. To overcome this technical limitation, A&A will accept links to 3D models on your site or on any specialised site such as Sketchfab. In this case, links should be included in your article as footnotes at the appropriate places.

Including author names using non-Roman alphabets

A&A authors have the possibility of including names in their native alphabets in addition to their English names. These names will be in parentheses after the English names displayed in the PDF. It is the responsibility of the authors to check the accuracy and formatting of their names in the final proofs that they receive prior to publication.

“native-names” Files

After your paper has been accepted, you will be asked to send all your files to the publisher. If you want to include names in non-Roman alphabets, it is also necessary to send the publisher the full list of authors in a file named “native-names”. Then names should be in the same order as in the accepted version of your manuscript, but adding any needed non-Roman names

How to generate this file?

Please use an appropriate Unicode text editor to save the list of the names in UTF8:

Example of a “native-names.txt” file
John Smith
Georgi S. Golitsyne Георгий Сергеевич Голицын
Beihong Xu 徐悲鸿
Nikos Khatzikyriakos-Ghikas Νίκος Χατζηκυριάκος–Γκίκας

You may also send the publisher a Microsoft Word or Open Office file with standard fonts: native-names.docx, native-names.odt.

LaTeX files

In addition to this file, authors may wish to enter their native names in the LaTeX file and the PDF file. Authors that are used to entering specific characters/fonts and to working with specific packages may send their LaTeX/PDF files with their native names:

These files will be the ones used by the production office, but make certain that you also send the native-names.txt, .docx, .doc, or .odt file (see above).

Some frequent corrections

These are several other words and phrases that we need to deal with regularly, because they are either vague, informal (I), or simply not correct (x). More examples of redundant or wordy formulations (R) are also listed with a possible correction.

Astronomical objects: linking to databases

SIMBAD, the astronomical database, and ALADIN, the interactive deep sky mapping facility at the CDS Strasbourg, create anchors for astronomical objects cited in A&A. Object names that are tagged with the \object macro and verified will appear linked to the object information. As the one better placed to start the process and in order to help in the indexing, you should surround any astronomical object in your text, as well as in small tables with the command:

This command simply prints out its argument and adds the thus-marked element to the list of hyper-linked astronomical objects, so it should be repeated for each object.

Astronomical designations (also called Object Identifiers) are often confusing. We encourage you to test the stellar objects (in the *.tex file or in the *.obj file), using the sites and easy tools available at the CDS.

The Object Identifiers have been also collected and published by Lortet and collaborators in Dictionaries of Nomenclature of Celestial Objects outside the solar system (1994A&AS..107..193L). The information service available at http://vizier.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/Dic is the electronic look-up version of the Dictionary, which is updated on a regular basis; it provides full references and usages about for 13211 different acronyms.

A&A: Keywords

How to prepare your TEX file: examples

Example of a manuscript header with structured abstract

Example of a manuscript header with traditional abstract

Examples of tables and figures

Figures

Include the package in the preamble of your document as follows:

To fill the whole column width, the figure has to be resized with the resizebox command.

For a two-column-wide plot, substitute figure by figure*.

 \begin{figure*}
\centering
   \includegraphics[width=17cm]{<yourfilename.eps>}
     \caption{<Your caption text...>.}
     \label{<Your label>}
\end{figure*}

A&A also uses a third width, 12 cm; that is, with the figure caption at its lower right-hand side. To achieve this format, use

 \begin{figure*}
\sidecaption
  \includegraphics[width=12cm]{<yourfilename.eps>}
     \caption{<Your caption text...>.}
     \label{<Your label>}
\end{figure*}

Simples tables

Simple tables must be prepared as in the example below.

The corresponding TEX code is as follows

\begin{table}
\caption{Nonlinear Model Results}              % title of Table
\label{table:1}      % is used to refer this table in the text
\centering                                      % used for centering table
\begin{tabular}{c c c c}          % centered columns (4 columns)
\hline\hline                        % inserts double horizontal lines
HJD & $E$ & Method\#2 & Method\#3 \\    % table heading
\hline                                   % inserts single horizontal line
    1 & 50 & $-837$ & 970 \\      % inserting body of the table
    2 & 47 & 877      & 230 \\
    3 & 31 & 25        & 415 \\
    4 & 35 & 144      & 2356 \\
    5 & 45 & 300      & 556 \\
\hline                                             %inserts single line
\end{tabular}
\end{table}

To produce two columns width tables, use the table* environment. If a horizontal line is required in the table, the \cline{n-m} command is used to draw a horizontal line from the left side of the column n to the right side of the column m. The \multicolumn{num}{col}{text} command is used to combine the following num columns into a single column with their total width:

\hline\hline                         % inserts double horizontal lines
HJD & \multicolumn{3}{c}{Methods}\\
\hline                                  % inserts single horizontal line

The output is:

Some examples of a table with footnotes or a rotated table in landscape are given in the aa_example file.

Large tables (longer than one page)

Tables larger than a page should be composed at the end of the document.

Some other examples are given in the aa_example file.

Notes to tables

• References below the table:
  
  They are introduced in the TEX file using the command \tablebib, as in the example below.
  
  

  Table 2: List of nearby SNe used in this work.

  SN name	Epoch	Bands	References
  	(with respect to B maximum)
  1981B	0	UBV	1
  1986G	-3, -1, 0, 1, 2	BV	2
  1989B	-5, -1, 0, 3, 5	UBVRI	3, 4
  1990N	2, 7	UBVRI	5
  1991M	3	VRI	6
  SNe 91bg-like
  1991bg	1, 2	BVRI	7
  1999by	-5, -4, -3, 3, 4, 5	UBVRI	8
  SNe 91T-like
  1991T	-3, 0	UBVRI	9, 10
  2000cx	-3, -2, 0, 1, 5	UBVRI	11

  References. (1) Branch et al. (1983); (2) Philipps et al. (1987); (3) Barbon et al. (1990); (4) Wells et al. (1994); (5) Mazzali et al. (1993); (6) Gomez et lopez (1998); (7) Kirshner et al. (1993); (8) Patat et al. (1996); (9) Salvo et al. (2001); (10) Branch et al. (2003); (11) Jha et al. (1999).
  
   The corresponding TEX code is as follows:
  
  \begin{table*}
  \caption ...
  \begin{tabular}
  ... Content of the table
  ...
  \hline
  \end{tabular}
  \tablebib{
  (1)~\citet{branch83}; (2) \citet{phillips87}; (3) \citet{barbon90}; (4) \citet{wells94};
  (5) \citet{mazzali93}; (6) \citet{gomez98}; (7) \citet{kirshner93}; (8) \citet{patat96};
  (9) \citet{salvo01}; (10) \citet{branch03}; (11) \citet{jha99}.
  }
  \end{table*}
  



• Notes below the table:
  
  Notes can refer to special portions of the table and be introduced with superscripts. In this case, the author should use the command \tablefootmark and \tablefoottext. Notes can also include general remarks on the whole table. In this case, the note is not preceded with a superscript and is introduced with the command \tablefoot. A detailed example is given below, followed by the related TEX code.
  
  

  Table 3: Spectral types and photometry for stars in the region.

  Star	Spectral type	RA(J2000)	Dec(J2000)
  69	B1V	09 15 54.046	-50 00 26.67
  49	B0.7V	*09 15 54.570	-50 00 03.90
  LS 1267 (86)	O8V	09 15 52.787	11.07a
  24.6	7.58a	1.37a	0.20a
  LS 1262	B0V	09 15 05.17	11.17b
  MO 2-119	B0.5V	09 15 33.7	11.74c
  LS 1269	O8.5V	09 15 56.60	10.85d

  Notes.  The top panel shows likely members of Pismis 11. The second panel contains likely members of Alicante 5. The bottom panel displays stars outside the clusters.
  ^(a) Photometry for MF13, LS 1267 and HD 80077 from Dupont et al. ^(b) Photometry for LS 1262, LS 1269 from Durand et al. ^(c) Photometry for MO2-119 from Mathieu et al.
  
  \begin{table}
  \caption{\label{t7}Spectral types and photometry for stars in the region.}
  \centering
  \begin{tabular}{lccc}
  \hline\hline
  Star&Spectral type&RA(J2000)&Dec(J2000)\\
  \hline
  69 &B1\,V &09 15 54.046 & $-$50 00 26.67\\
  49 &B0.7\,V &*09 15 54.570& $-$50 00 03.90\\
  LS~1267~(86) &O8\,V &09 15 52.787&11.07\tablefootmark{a}\\
  24.6 &7.58\tablefootmark{1}&1.37\tablefootmark{a} &0.20\tablefootmark{a}\\
  \hline
  LS~1262 &B0\,V &09 15 05.17&11.17\tablefootmark{b}\\
  MO 2-119 &B0.5\,V &09 15 33.7 &11.74\tablefootmark{c}\\
  LS~1269 &O8.5\,V &09 15 56.60&10.85\tablefootmark{d}\\
  \hline
  \end{tabular}
  \tablefoot{
  The top panel shows likely members of Pismis~11. The second panel contains likely
  members of Alicante~5. The bottom panel displays stars outside the clusters.\\
  \tablefoottext{a}{Photometry for MF13, LS~1267 and HD~80077 from Dupont et al.}
  \tablefoottext{b}{Photometry for LS~1262, LS~1269 from Durand et al.}
  \tablefoottext{c}{Photometry for MO2-119 from Mathieu et al.}
  }
  \end{table}
  

Some other examples of large, online tables are also given in the aa_example file.

Figures

Figures submitted to the Journal must be of the highest quality to ensure accuracy and clarity in the final published copy. You can supply graphics in eps, pdf, jpg, png, and tiff formats, or as native Photoshop/Illustrator files. We recommend that you refrain from using conversion tools that might decrease the quality of the figures.

We urge the author to limit the empty space in and around figures. Artwork should be in sharp focus, with clean, clear numbers and letters and with sharp black lines. Thin lines should be avoided, particularly in figures requiring considerable reduction. Authors should check whether laser-printed originals of these figures are acceptable (especially for grayscale).

Background grids and colors are not allowed in figures, unless they contain additional information (galactic coordinate grid superposed on an image with equatorial coordinate axes for example).

Authors should avoid using a combination of red and green as color-blind individuals would not be able to distinguish between them.

The author is warned that changes in the size and arrangement of figures can be made by the publisher at the production stage. Because of the bulk of the Journal, the production office will reduce most figures to fit a one-column format (88 mm). If necessary, figures may extend across the entire page width (max. 180 mm). Intermediate widths with a side caption are also possible (max. 120 mm). The illustrations should be placed at the top of the column and flush-left according to layout conventions.

If lettered parts of a figure (e.g., 1a, 1b, 1c, etc.) are referred to in the figure legend, each part of the figure should be labeled with the appropriate letter within the image area. Symbols should be explained in the caption and not in the figure. Please use lower case for any words in figures to comply with the A&A style.

See this page for examples of how figures should be coded in the TeX file.

About figures format

Depending of your preferred LaTeX engine (LaTeX or pdfLaTeX), figures should be sent as encapsulated PostScript files or in any other format as PDF, JPG, TIFF, PNG, BMP, and GIF (compatible with pdfLaTeX).

All graphics are either vector graphics or bitmap graphics. Vector figures are graphics consisting of individual, scalable objects such as lines, curves, and shapes with editable attributes, therefore you can resize a vector without loss of quality. The bitmap figures are graphics composed of dots called pixels. Because bitmaps have a fixed resolution, enlarging or reducing them produce jagged and distorted images because extra pixels are added or supressed. Some software packages leave a considerable margin around the figures. You may have to adjust the BoundingBox for EPS figures by hand with the help of ghostview, for example. The figure can also be automatically changed with the psfixbb command, which you will find in almost any LaTeX distribution.

For other formats as PDF, JPG, and bitmap formats, crop out any extra spaces around the figures and also check very carefully that the resolution is at least 250/300 dpi and not 92 dpi, as in standard screen JPG files. The easiest way to include your figures is by using the graphicx package, which comes along with the standard LaTeX2e distribution. See the document by Keith Reckdahl "Using Imported Graphics in LaTeX2e", which explains how to use imported graphics in LaTeX2e documents. The Part I, Background Information provides historical information and describes basic LaTeX2e terminology and graphic formats.

Tables

Tables should be prepared using the table environment, following the examples given below.

Tables should be self-explanatory. The table headings should contain the essential information needed to understand the data presented. Details should not clutter the header and are better presented as explanatory footnotes. Large tables containing primary data can be archived at the CDS. For details about archival at the CDS, please refer to paragraph Publishing data at the CDS

Table columns should be set flush left. Vertical lines are normally not necessary and should be inserted only in exceptional cases for the sake of clarity. The height of each table, including the caption, usually must not exceed 23.5 cm, and the caption should always be placed above the table.

Detailed examples of TEX code for tables are provided here for simple A&A tables and here for tables longer than one page.

Publishing data at the CDS

By contract with the Journal, the CDS archives the primary data that are published in A&A and puts them at the disposal of the global community. The data are also linked to the general purpose data-mining tools developed at the CDS. These archived data can be primary observational material, catalogs, theoretical tables of lasting values, etc.

The CDS requires the data tables to be in ASCII format. Each table is accompanied by a readme.txt file that describes the table's content. The readme file format defines a standard that is used by all major astronomy journals. Again by contract with the Journal, the CDS provides help to A&A authors in order to prepare the files. Primary data can also be archived at the CDS as graphics files in FITS format. This is of particular interest for spectrograms.

Tables made available in electronic form at the CDS should be prepared according to the conventions explained below and they should be sent to the CDS upon acceptance of the paper, preferably using the submission form proposed on the CDS web site. Alternatively, the tabular material can be sent by e-mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , or by ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr.

The electronic versions of the tables are systematically checked for consistency at the CDS, and the author may have to communicate with the CDS about missing descriptions or detected inconsistencies.

Preparation of the electronic tables

Tables to be published in electronic form at the CDS should preferably be prepared as plain ASCII files, one file per table; the description of all table layouts and contents should be gathered into a file named ReadMe, a template of which can be copied from ftp://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/pub/J/A+A/ReadMe.txt. In addition to the description of the tabular material, the role of the ReadMe file is to supply minimal details about the context and the history of the data. Detailed instructions for the preparation and the submission of the tabular data can be found at
http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/submit/; specific questions can be addressed to
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Reference to the material published electronically should appear in the text, including a description of the column headings of tabular material. The following text is an example of such a description: "Table 1, available at the CDS, contains the following information. Column 1 lists the name of the source, Column 2 gives the bolometric luminosity...". Alternatively, an excerpt from the table (a few lines) can be inserted in the article.

Retrieving electronic tables

For all papers, including old papers that do not have an electronic version, the online tables can be obtained from the CDS:

• by ftp:
  password: (type your electronic address)
  cd pub/A+A//
  mget * (to get all files)
  
  
• by web access from:
  http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/A+A.htx
  http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/A+AS.ht
  
  

References

The reference list

The reference list should contain all the references cited in the text, ordered alphabetically by surname (with initials following). If there are several references to the same first author, they should be entered according to the following scheme:

1. One author: chronologically
2. Author, one co-author: alphabetically by co-author, then chronologically
3. Author, two or more co-authors: chronologically.

The first three author's names are given, followed by "et al.", for papers written by a group of more than five authors.

Papers in preparation (not yet submitted to a journal) are not to be displayed in the reference list and are to be listed as "in prep." in the main text, without any date.
Private communications are not listed either and may be acknowledged as "YYYY, priv. comm." in the main text.
For papers submitted to a journal that are not yet published, please give the year of submission/acceptation, the name of the journal, and its status: submitted (not yet accepted), or in press. Citations should only mention the year given in the reference.

The A&A format for references is as follows:

• Bohr, N., Einstein, A., & Fermi, E. 1992, MNRAS, 301, 257 (BEF)
• Curie, M., & Curie, P. 1991, A&A, 248, 612
• de Gaulle, C. 1996, Solar Phys. (Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford)
• Heisenberg, W., & West, C. N. 1993, Australian J. Phys., 537, 36 (Paper III)
• Laurel, S., & Hardy, O. 1994, Active Galactic Nuclei, in The Evolution and Distribution of Galaxies, ed. W. Churchill, F. D. Roosevelt, & J. Stalin (Wiley, New York), 210

To set the reference list in the proper A&A format, we encourage you to use BibTeX and the natbib package instead of the standard thebibliography environment.

How to use BibTeX for A&A

For extensive description of the general use of BibTeX, please see for example The LaTeX Companion p.757 (Franck Mittelbach and Michel Goosens, second edition).

To use BibTeX, you must:

1. Create a database (.bib) file that describes the articles or books you want to reference. The NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS) provides automatic tools for retrieving a .bib file including entries for a selection of articles. An example of a typical .bib file is also provided in the A&A LaTeX macro package.
2. Specify the style and location of the bibliography in your TEX document. The A&A package includes a style file aa.bst that will format your reference list in the proper A&A format. Before running BibTeX you must ensure that the requested files (i.e. bib, bst and sty files) are in the same directory as your TEX files.
3. Run BibTeX then run LaTeX. Remember you must run LaTeX twice to update the citations.

In the TEX file, the references list is enclosed as follows:

Citations in the text

References are normally cited in the text by placing the name(s) and the year in parentheses, without any comma between them. If there are two authors for one citation, both names should be given, separated by an ampersand (&). If there are more than two authors, only the first name should be given, followed by "et al.". Commas should be used only to separate two or more years linked with one author (author group). If two or more citations are made in one set of parentheses, they should be separated by a semi-colon. If more than one citation for a particular author (author group) is made for the same year, "a", "b", "c", etc. should be added to the year. If citations are made within the normal running text, only the year(s) should be placed in parentheses. The following examples illustrate the required style:

Authors' initials are permitted only in exceptional cases, for example, to distinguish between two authors with the same surname. Each literature citation made in the text should have a corresponding entry in the References at the end of the paper. For frequently cited papers, an abbreviated form of citation is recommended, e.g., Paper I, Paper II (if appropriate) or by the initial letters of the authors' surnames.

The Natbib package provides citation commands that automatically format the citations in the proper format. The command \citet is to be used for textual citations, while the command \citep is to be used for parenthetical citations. Some examples are given below.

Multiple citations can be made as usual, by including more than one citation key in the \cite command argument.

ADS BibTeX records for citing ASCL and ArXiV entries

A&A Bibtex style now supports the “eprint” field for referring to eprints. Eprint entries may be added to your bibtex databases. Note that the entry Bibtex format now provided by ADS is also compatible:

@ARTICLE{2011ascl.soft07005F,
author = {{Freeman}, P. and {Nguyen}, D. and {Doe}, S. and {Siemiginowska}, A.},
title = “{Sherpa: CIAO Modeling and Fitting Package}”,
journal = {Astrophysics Source Code Library},
year = 2011,
month = jul,
eprint = {ascl:1107.005},
adsurl = {http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2011ascl.soft07005F},
adsnote = {Provided by the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System}
}

It is also possible to use the extension “archivePrefix” in BibTeX:

@ARTICLE{2011ascl.soft07005F,
author = {{Freeman}, P. and {Nguyen}, D. and {Doe}, S. and {Siemiginowska}, A.},
title = “{Sherpa: CIAO Modeling and Fitting Package}”,
journal = {Astrophysics Source Code Library},
year = 2011,
month = jul,
archivePrefix = "ascl",
eprint = {1107.005},
adsurl = {http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2011ascl.soft07005F},
adsnote = {Provided by the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System}
}

An ArXiv example:

@ARTICLE{loinard12,
author = {{Loinard}, L. and {Zapata}, L.~A. and {Rodriguez}, L.~F. and
{Pech}, G. and {Chandler}, C.~J. and {Brogan}, C.~L. and {Wilner}, D.~J. and {Ho}, P.~T.~P. and {Parise}, B. and {Hartmann}, L.~W. and {Zhu}, Z. and {Takahashi}, S. and {Trejo}, A.},
title = "{ALMA and VLA observations of the outflows in IRAS 16293-2422}",
journal = {ArXiv e-prints},
archivePrefix = "arXiv",
eprint = {1211.4744},
keywords = {Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics, Astrophysics - Galaxy Astrophysics},
year = 2012,
month = nov,
adsurl = {http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012arXiv1211.4744L},
adsnote = {Provided by the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System}
}

After running LaTeX and BibTeX on it, an entry is generated in the .bbl file, which looks like:

\bibitem[{{Freeman et al.}(2011)]{2011ascl.soft07005F}
{Freeman}, P., {Nguyen}, D., {Doe}, S., and {Siemiginowska}, A. 2011
Astrophysics Source Code Library, \eprint{ascl:1107.005}

Or

\bibitem[{{Loinard} {et~al.}(2012){Loinard}, {Zapata}, {Rodriguez}, {Pech}, {Chandler}, {Brogan}, {Wilner}, {Ho}, {Parise}, {Hartmann}, {Zhu}, {Takahashi}, \& {Trejo}}]{loinard12}
{Loinard}, L., {Zapata}, L.~A., {Rodriguez}, L.~F., {et~al.} 2012, ArXiv e-prints [\eprint[arXiv]{1211.4744}]

The aa class now includes the “\eprint” command, which will appear in your final article as a link in both the PDF file and the HTML format.

• Loinard, L., Zapata, L. A., Rodriguez, L. F., et al. 2012, MNRAS, accepted [arXiv:1211.4744]

Remarks

Please note that it is mandatory to add the eprint number when the entries are:

journal = {Astrophysics Source Code Library} and journal = {ArXiv e-prints}.

Appendices

From July 2021, all appendices are published as camera-ready material.

The success of the A&A journal brings with it a rapid growth in the number of articles and pages. As a consequence of this success and to keep down production costs, A&A will not typeset Appendices pages any longer but will include them at the end of the article as camera-ready material.

Appendices must be prepared even more carefully by the authors, because this part of the article will be published as camera-ready material, i.e., it will not be typeset by the Publisher. No correction, no copyediting, nor change of the layout in the appendices pages will be made in the LaTeX file after the receipt of the accepted version by the Publisher.

The following guide identifies the main layout issues we have identified, and how you can address them in the preparation of your Appendices in the LaTeX file:

Placement of the Appendices at the end of the article

Appendices are included at the end of the article, after the reference list (or after the long list of affiliations if any, in the PDF file): they must begin on the next page of the PDF file.

In the .tex file, put appendices after \end{thebibliography}.

After compilation with the new aa.cls file for the A&A class, appendices will be placed automatically on a new page.

Appendix sections

Put all the appendix sections into a single environment "appendix". Then all sections that follow will be numbered with capital letters. Please do NOT use the "\appendix" command instead of the environment "appendix", for a better management of the counters of Figure/Table which can be placed at the end of the article.

Labels and citations

Please use labels for each Figure/Table/Section/Reference, and for their citations, in the whole article, so that the hyperlinks will be functional in the final version (labels will not be added in the appendices, during the production).

Placement of illustrations (floats)

In the PDF file, each Figure/Table should be placed inside its own Appendix, not before the title of its Appendix, nor after the title of the next Appendix.

Reduction of the size of tables and figures can be applied for that, and also to avoid almost empty page before the illustration page.

In case you have a lot of floating objects for little text and LaTeX engine moves the floats away from their context, the command \FloatBarrier of the “placeins” package may allow you to empty the buffer of floats which are currently stored there, and therefore to place all the floats, already indicated before, in the continuity of the document.

Tables/figures longer than one page and/or wider than page width (landscape format)

For large tables or figures (longer than one page)

For large tables or figures (longer than one page) belonging to an appendix: the next parts of the illustration must keep the same numbering as the first part. The text of the caption on the next pages must be “continued.” (e.g.: “Table A.1. continued.” or “Fig. B.1. continued.”). Please, write “continued.” with the letter "c" in lower-case, not “Continued.”.

Please note that, for these long tables/figures, they will be placed automatically at the end of the document, after the whole appendices, in order to make compilation easier for the author. They will be moved inside the Appendices by the Publisher, if necessary.

For tables/figures longer than one page AND wider than page width (landscape format)

Additionally to the previous instructions:

• in the preamble, use: \usepackage{lscape}, and add the command
• and, in each concerned float, write:

The main text

Manuscripts should be divided into numbered sections and subsections, starting with "1. Introduction". Subsections should be numbered 2.1, 2.2, 3.1, etc. All sections must have a short descriptive title. In the TEX file, the sections appear as follows.

\section{Title}
\subsection{Title}
\subsubsection{Title}
\paragraph{Title}


Cross-referencing

Please always give a \label where possible (figures, tables, section) and use \ref for cross-referencing. Such cross-references will be converted to HTML hyper-links. The \cite- and \bibitem-mechanism for bibliographic references as well as the \object command is also mandatory.

Acknowledgements

A special section for acknowledgements may be included before the References list. It will appear as follows:

\begin{acknowledgements} ... \end{acknowledgements}

Some aspects of typographic style within the text

The following expressions should always be abbreviated unless they appear at the beginning of a sentence (i.e. Sect., Sects., Fig., Figs., Col., Cols.). Table is never abbreviated.

Abbreviations of concepts, methods, instruments, observatories, etc may be used throughout the text, but the full wording followed by the abbreviation in parentheses should be given once in the Abstract (if appropriate) and/or once when first mentioned in the main text (usually in the Introduction).

Examples: ...very long baseline interferometry (VLBI)...; ... Westerbork Radio Telescope (WRT)...

The preamble of your TEX file

Loading the class: various A&A layouts

To get the standard A&A 2-column-layout (i.e. single-line spacing), you have to include this command at the beginning of your article.

Both for refereeing purposes and, after acceptance, for language editing purposes, the authors are requested to send their article in "Referee format", i.e. with a special double-line spacing layout. To set this class option, please include the referee option. This special layout also provides a list of all astronomical objects indexed with the \object command.

There is a special layout for Letters. The mention "Letter to the Editor" is automatically added.

In articles that are the result of consortia, the number of authors and the list of affiliations are very long. With the longauth option, all the institutes are set below the references.

Some papers contain a lot of large mathematical formulae that are sometimes cannot be read easily and cannot be written in a 2-column format. In this case, the authors can submit their articles using the option onecolumn. After the submission, the editors will confirm that the article will actually be displayed in 1 column, right across the page.

If you don't use structured references (according to the author-year natbib style), add this option.

PDF files for the different layouts obtained with this A&A class will display the line numbers. Please note that the “linenoaa.sty” package must always be in the directory of the source (article) to be compiled.

TX fonts

A&A uses the Postscript TX Times-fonts. The TX fonts consist of virtual text roman fonts using Adobe Times with some modified and additional text symbols. The TX fonts are distributed under the GNU public license and are available in the distributions of LaTeX since December 2000.

As the use of the TX fonts results in a slightly different page make-up from CM fonts, we encourage you to use TX fonts, following this example.

The manuscript header

Title

Make the title short and communicative; do not use acronyms, except those that are in general use; avoid acronyms known only to those deeply specialized. The main title and the subtitle should not be capitalised, except for the first letter and any other words that are always capitalised. Math variables and symbols should be typeset as in the text.

In the manuscript TEX file, please code the title and subtitle of your article as follows:

If a long \title or \subtitle needs to split across two or more lines, please insert linebreaks (\\).

Authors and addresses

For every manuscript, all authors and all addresses should be listed. Addresses should contain e-mail addresses where possible. A number should precede each address and the authors' names should be marked with the appropriate numerical superscript(s). Unless the authors request otherwise, the e-mail addresses will be included in the affiliation to facilitate information exchange between readers and authors.

Names of authors

The preferred form for each name is: initial(s) of the forename(s) followed by the family name.

If there is more than one author, the order is optional. The names should be separated by \and. If the authors have different affiliations, each name has to be followed by \inst{}. Numbers referring to different addresses should be attached to each author, pointing to the corresponding institute.

Addresses

If there is more than one address, the entries are numbered automatically with \and, in the order in which you type them. Please make sure that the numbers match those placed next to the authors' names.

The authors' institutes can also be given using labels, so that there is no need to rewrite the full institutes list if the order of the authors changes during the evaluation process. An example is given below:

In the case of large collaborations involving several tens of authors, a special formatting of the authors' list is requested in order to save space. With the longauth option, all the institutes are set below the references (see section Loading the class).

Footnote to the title block

If footnotes to the title, subtitle, author's names or institute addresses are needed, please use thanks immediately after the word where the footnote indicator should be placed. These footnotes are marked by asterisks (*). If you need more than one consecutive footnote, use \fnmsep to typeset the comma separating the asterisks (see example in the file aa_example available in the macro package).

Dates of receipt and acceptance

Enter the receipt and acceptance dates as follows:

The date is in format "day month year" (e.g., 1 January 2005).

The receipt and acceptance dates of your manuscript will be set by the editors and inserted by the publisher.

Abstract

A new concept "Structured Abstract" is implemented with the version 6.0 of the A&A macro package. Just like a traditional abstract, a structured abstract summarizes the content of the paper, but it does make the structure of the article explicit and visible. For doing so, the structured abstract uses headings that define several short paragraphs. Three paragraphs, entitled respectively Aims, Methods, and Results, are mandatory. When appropriate, the structured abstract may use an introductory paragraph entitled Context, and a final paragraph entitled Conclusions.

Proceed as follows:

The second, third and fourth arguments have to be completed. The first one and the last one might be left empty. For example:

\abstract {} {Text of aims} {Text of methods} {Text of results} {}

The abstract should accurately summarize the paper's content, be limited to 300 words, and be self-contained (no references, and abbreviations or acronyms should be introduced). A counter of words has been added with an error message for an abstract exceeding 300 words. Citations in an abstract display an error message. Please note that abstract is a command with 5 arguments, and not an environment.

Remark: Authors who prefer to keep a non-structured an unstructured format can do so using the command \abstract{..} which will make the abstract a single paragraph without headings.

Key words

A maximum of 6 key words should be listed after the abstract. These must be selected from a list that is published each year in the first issue in January. This list is common to the major astronomical and astrophysical journals.

List of key words.

In your TEX file, the key words should read as follows:

Formatting the header and the running title

Having entered the commands described above to set the title block of the article, please format the complete heading of your article by typing:

If you leave it out, the work done so far will produce no text. The command \maketitle will automatically generate the running title, derivating it from the author and title inputs. If the title is too long for the space available, you will be asked to supply a shorter version. In this case, enter before \maketitle :

If there are two authors, both names, separated by an ampersand (&, coded as \&), should be given; if there are more than two authors, the name of the first plus et al.should be given. The title should be shortened to a maximum of about 60 characters, spaces ignored, following the wording of the original title as closely as possible. If a paper has a numbered subtitle, the main title (length permitting) should be given, followed by the roman numeral of the subtitle.

The Editors reserve the right to modify the running head suggested by the authors, should this be necessary.

The required style is illustrated below (the colon will be inserted by the macro):

N. Copernicus: How active is NGC 4258?
E. Hertzsprung & E.P. Hubble: Optical spectroscopy of WR stars in M33 and M31. II
A.S. Eddington et al.: Infrared lines as probes of solar magnetic features. IV
C. Barbieri et al.: (RN) First HST/FOC images of the low mass companion of the astronomic binary Gliese 623

The section LaTeX examples provides an example of a manuscript header coded with LaTeX.