Are you an astronomer considering submitting a manuscript to an AAS journal (i.e., AJ, ApJ, ApJ Letters, ApJ Supplements, or PSJ)? If so, this post is for you! Read on to find out about the exciting new things you can do with the AAS’s newest LaTeX class file, available for download now.
Why the Update?
AAS publishing has maintained a consistent class file for LaTeX manuscript preparation for nearly two decades. But academic publishing continues to change rapidly! As the AAS has added new publishing capabilities based on the recommendations of the Journals Task Force and the needs and requests of AAS authors, the class file that authors use to prepare their manuscripts has also needed to change. The newest version of AASTeX, v7.0, is built entirely from scratch and will accommodate a variety of new features to make preparing manuscripts for publication a simpler process.
What’s New in AASTeX 7.0?
There are many exciting new features and capabilities in AASTeX 7.0. Here are four of the biggest changes:
- New metadata components in the \author command
Want more freedom in how you express your name on your manuscript? In addition to linking to your ORCID profile, authors can now specify surnames (family or last names), given names (personal or first names), and suffixes while still expressing their full names as they want in the compiled PDF. - Changes in how the \email command works
Starting soon, submitters will need to provide email addresses for all authors on a manuscript. In AASTeX v7.0, it’s now easy to include these within each author block with the \email command. A new error message will alert you when emails are missing. - A new .bst file for inline citation changes and titles in PSJ
AAS journals have made two recent style changes to how citations appear in articles: inline citations now include first initials (e.g., “G. Smith et al. (2022)”) in all AAS journals, and article titles have been added to references in Planetary Science Journal articles. The .bst file in AASTeX v7.0 reproduces these style changes. - A new environment command for specifying author contributions
A sample author contribution section generated using AASTeX v7.0.
Wish you had a way to briefly explain the individual contributions of your manuscript’s authors? There’s a new feature for that, and you’re encouraged to use it to make sure your coauthors get the credit they deserve. Like the acknowledgments environment, this environment is anonymized when dual anonymous review is used. And don’t worry, this section won’t be included in your word count!
Where Can You Get More Information?
Wishing for Still More Improvements?
The AAS publishing team would love your input! You can contact them at aastex-help@aas.org with additional suggestions or ideas for the next iteration of AASTeX.