Draft version August 13, 2024
Typeset using LATEX default style in AASTeX63

Template AASTEXArticle with Examples: v6.3∗
Greg J. Schwarz 1
et al.
(AAS Journals Data Scientists collaboration)
Butler Burton2, 3—
Amy Hendrickson4, †(LaTeX collaboration)
Julie Steffen5, 1 And Scott Chernoff6—

1 American Astronomical Society

1667 K Street NW, Suite 800
Washington, DC 20006, USA
2 Leiden University
3 AAS Journals Associate Editor-in-Chief
4 TeXnology Inc.
5 AAS Director of Publishing
6 IOP Publishing, Washington, DC 20005(Received June 1, 2019; Revised January 10, 2019; Accepted August 13, 2024)

Submitted to AJ
ABSTRACTThis example manuscript is intended to serve as a tutorial and template for authors to use whenwriting their own AAS Journal articles. The manuscript includes a history of AASTEX and documents
the new features in the previous versions as well as the new features in version 6.3. This manuscript
includes many figure and table examples to illustrate these new features. Information on features
not explicitly mentioned in the article can be viewed in the manuscript comments or more extensive
online documentation. Authors are welcome replace the text, tables, figures, and bibliography with
their own and submit the resulting manuscript to the AAS Journals peer review system. The first
lesson in the tutorial is to remind authors that the AAS Journals, the Astrophysical Journal (ApJ),
the Astrophysical Journal Letters (ApJL), and Astronomical Journal (AJ), all have a 250 word limit
for the abstracta) . If you exceed this length the Editorial office will ask you to shorten it. This abstract
has 180 words.
Keywords: editorials, notices — miscellaneous — catalogs — surveys
1. INTRODUCTION

Corresponding author: August Muench
greg.schwarz@aas.org, gus.muench@aas.org∗ Released on June, 10th, 2019a) Note that manuscripts submitted to the new Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society (RNAAS) do not have abstracts.
† AASTeX v6+ programmer

2

Schwarz et al.

LaTEX 1 is a document markup language that is particularly well suited for the publication of mathematical andscientific articles (Lamport 1994). LaTEX was written in 1985 by Leslie Lamport who based it on the TEX typesetting
language which itself was created by Donald E. Knuth in 1978. In 1988 a suite of LaTEX macros were developed
to investigate electronic submission and publication of AAS Journal articles (Hanisch & Biemesderfer 1989). Shortly
afterwards, Chris Biemesdefer merged these macros and more into a LaTEX 2.08 style file called AASTEX. These early
AASTEX versions introduced many common commands and practices that authors take for granted today. Substantial
revisions were made by Lee Brotzman and Pierre Landau when the package was updated to v4.0. AASTeX v5.0,
written in 1995 by Arthur Ogawa, upgraded to LaTEX 2e which uses the document class in lieu of a style file. Other
improvements to version 5 included hypertext support, landscape deluxetables and improved figure support to facilitate
electronic submission. AASTEX v5.2 was released in 2005 and introduced additional graphics support plus new markup to identifier astronomical objects, datasets and facilities.
In 1996 Maxim Markevitch modified the AAS preprint style file, aaspp4.sty, to closely emulate the very tight, twocolumn style of a typeset Astrophysical Journal article. The result was emulateapj.sty. A year later Alexey Vikhlinin
took over development and maintenance. In 2001 he converted emulateapj into a class file in LaTEX 2e and in 2003
Vikhlinin completely rewrote emulateapj based on the APS Journal’s RevTEX class.
During this time emulateapj gained growing acceptance in the astronomical community as it filled an author need
to obtain an approximate number of manuscript pages prior to submission for cost and length estimates. The tighter
typeset also had the added advantage of saving paper when printing out hard copies.
Even though author publication charges are no longer based on print pages 2 the emulateapj class file has provento be extremely popular with AAS Journal authors. An analysis of submitted LaTEX manuscripts in 2015 revealed
that ∼65% either called emulateapj or have a commented emulateapj classfile call indicating it was used at some stageof the manuscript construction. Clearly authors want to have access to a tightly typeset version of the article whencorresponding with co-authors and for preprint submissions.
When planning the next AASTEX release the popularity of emulateapj played an important roll in the decision todrop the old base code and adopt and modify emulateapj for AASTEX v6.+ instead. The change brings AASTEX
inline with what the majority of authors are already using while still delivering new and improved features. AASTEX
v6.0 through v6.3 were written by Amy Hendrickson. The release dates were January 2016 (v6.0), October 2016 (v6.1),
January 2018 (v6.2), and June 2019 (v6.3), respectively.
The new features in the recent releases includes:• v6.01. line numbering and watermarking,
2. improved citations for third party data repositories and software,
3. easier construction of matrix figures consisting of multiple encapsulated postscript (EPS) or portable document format (PDF) files,
4. figure set mark up for large collections of similar figures,
5. color mark up to easily enable/disable revised text highlighting,
6. improved url support, and7. numerous table options such as the ability to hide columns, column decimal alignment, automatic column
math mode and numbering, plus splitting of wide tables (see Section 3.1 for details).
• v6.1
1. ORCID support for preprints,
2. improved author, affiliation and collaboration mark up,
3. reintroduced the old AASTeX v5.2 \received, \revised, \accepted, and \published commands plus
added the new \submitjournal command to document which AAS Journal the manuscript was submitted
to, plus
1 http://www.latex-project.org/
2 see Section B in the Appendix for more details about how current article costs are calculated.

Sample article

3

4. new typeset style options including modern.
• v6.2
1. A new RNAAS style option for Research Note manuscripts,
2. Titles no longer put in all caps,
3. No page skip between the title page and article body,
4. re-introduce RevTeX’s widetext environment for long lines in two column style formats, and
5. upgrade to the \doi command.
• v6.3
1. New interactive environment to highlight interactive figures (see Section 3.5.2),
2. Improved collaboration commands,
3. New anonymous style to keep the authors, affiliations and acknowledgments from showing in the compiled
pdf for dual anonymous review, and
4. Adoptions of IAU approved syntax for nominal units, see Section D.
The rest of this article provides information and examples on how to create your own AAS Journal manuscriptwith v6.3. Special emphasis is placed on how to use the full potential of AASTEX v6+. The next section describes
the different manuscript styles available and how they differ from past releases. Section 3 describes table and figure
placement. Specific examples of tables, Section 3.1, and figures, Section 3.2, are also provided. A special emphasis
is placed on interactive figures. Section 4 discusses how to display math and incorporate equations in a manuscript
while Section 5 discuss how to use different ways to highlight revisions. The last section, 6, shows how recognize
software and external data as first class references in the manuscript bibliography. An appendix is included to show
how to construct one and provide some information on how article charges are calculated. Additional information isavailable both embedded in the comments of this LaTEX file and in the online documentation at http://journals.aas.
org/authors/aastex.html.
2. MANUSCRIPT STYLES

The default style in AASTEX v6.3 is a tight single column style, e.g. 10 point font, single spaced. The single column
style is very useful for article with wide equations. It is also the easiest to style to work with since figures and tables,
see Section 3, will span the entire page, reducing the need for address float sizing.
To invoke a two column style similar to the what is produced in the published PDF copy use\documentclass[twocolumn]{aastex63}.
Note that in the two column style figures and tables will only span one column unless specifically ordered across bothwith the “*” flag, e.g.
\begin{figure*} ... \end{figure*},\begin{table*} ... \end{table*}, and\begin{deluxetable*} ... \end{deluxetable*}.
This option is ignored in the onecolumn style.
Some other style options are outlined in the commented sections of this article. Any combination of style options
can be used.
Two style options that are needed to fully use the new revision tracking feature, see Section 5, are linenumbers
which uses the lineno style file to number each article line in the left margin and trackchanges which controls therevision and commenting highlight output.
There is also a new modern option that uses a Daniel Foreman-Mackey and David Hogg design to produce stylish,
single column output that has wider left and right margins. It is designed to have fewer words per line to improve
reader retention. It also looks better on devices with smaller displays such as smart phones.

4

Schwarz et al.

For a Research Note use the RNAAS option. This will produce a manuscript with no abstract and in the modern style.
The anonymous option will prevent the author and affiliations from being shown in the compiled pdf copy. This
option allows the author to keep this critical information in the latex file but prevent the reviewer from seeing it during
peer review if dual anonymous review is requested. Likewise, acknowledgments can also be hidden if placed after the\acknowledgments command.
3. FLOATS

Floats are non-text items that generally can not be split over a page. They also have captions and can be numbered
for reference. Primarily these are figures and tables but authors can define their own. LaTEX tries to place a float
where indicated in the manuscript but will move it later if there is not enough room at that location, hence the term
“float”.
Authors are encouraged to embed their tables and figures within the text as they are mentioned. Please do not place
the figures and text at the end of the article as was the old practice. Editors and the vast majority of referees find itmuch easier to read a manuscript with embedded figures and tables.
Depending on the number of floats and the particular amount of text and equations present in a manuscript theultimate location of any specific float can be hard to predict prior to compilation. It is recommended that authors
textbfnot spend significant time trying to get float placement perfect for peer review. The AAS Journal’s publisher
has sophisticated typesetting software that will produce the optimal layout during production.
Note that authors of Research Notes are only allowed one float, either one table or one figure.
For authors that do want to take the time to optimize the locations of their floats there are some techniques that canbe used. The simplest solution is to placing a float earlier in the text to get the position right but this option will break
down if the manuscript is altered. A better method is to force LaTEX to place a float in a general area with the use of
the optional [placement specifier] parameter for figures and tables. This parameter goes after \begin{figure},\begin{table}, and \begin{deluxetable}. The main arguments the specifier takes are “h”, “t”, “b”, and “!”. These
tell LaTEX to place the float here (or as close as possible to this location as possible), at the top of the page, and at
the bottom of the page. The last argument, “!”, tells LaTEX to override its internal method of calculating the float
position. A sequence of rules can be created by using multiple arguments. For example, \begin{figure}[htb!] tells
LaTEX to try the current location first, then the top of the page and finally the bottom of the page without regard towhat it thinks the proper position should be. Many of the tables and figures in this article use a placement specifier
to set their positions.
Note that the LaTEX tabular environment is not a float. Only when a tabular is surrounded by \begin{table}... \end{table} is it a true float and the rules and suggestions above apply.
In AASTeX v6.3 all deluxetables are float tables and thus if they are longer than a page will spill off the bottom.
Long deluxetables should begin with the \startlongtable command. This initiates a longtable environment. Authors
might have to use \clearpage to isolate a long table or optimally place it within the surrounding text.
3.1. Tables
Tables can be constructed with LaTEX’s standard table environment or the AASTEX’s deluxetable environment.
The deluxetable construct handles long tables better but has a larger overhead due to the greater amount of defined
mark up used set up and manipulate the table structure. The choice of which to use is up to the author. Examples ofboth environments are used in this manuscript.
Tables longer than 200 data lines and complex tables should only have a short example table with the full data set
available in the machine readable format. The machine readable table will be available in the HTML version of thearticle with just a short example in the PDF. Authors are required to indicate in the table comments that the data inmachine readable format in the full article. Authors are encouraged to create their own machine readable tables using
the online tool at http://authortools.aas.org/MRT/upload.html.
AASTEX v6 introduced five new table features that were designed to make table construction easier and the resulting
display better for AAS Journal authors. The items are:
1. Declaring math mode in specific columns,
2. Column decimal alignment,
3. Automatic column header numbering,Sample article

5

4. Hiding columns, and
5. Splitting wide tables into two or three parts.
Full details on how to create each type are given in the following sections. Additional details are available in the
AASTeX guidelines at http://journals.aas.org/authors/aastex.html
3.1.1. Column math mode
Both the LaTEX tabular and AASTEX deluxetable require an argument to define the alignment and number ofcolumns. The most common values are “c”, “l” and “r” for center, left, and right justification. If these values arecapitalized, e.g. “C”, “L”, or “R”, then that specific column will automatically be in math mode meaning that $s are
not required. Note that having embedded dollar signs in the table does not affect the output.
3.1.2. Decimal alignment
Aligning a column by the decimal point can be difficult with only center, left, and right justification options. It
is possible to use phantom calls in the data, e.g. \phn, to align columns by hand but this can be tedious in long orcomplex tables. To address this AASTEX introduces the \decimals command and a new column justification option,“D”, to align data in that column on the decimal. In deluxetable the \decimals command is invoked before the\startdata call but can be anywhere in LaTEX’s tabular environment.
Two other important thing to note when using decimal alignment is that each decimal column must end with a space
before the ampersand, e.g. “&&” is not allowed. Empty decimal columns are indicated with a decimal, e.g. “.”. Do
not use deluxetable’s \nodata command.
The “D” alignment token works by splitting the column into two parts on the decimal. While this is invisible to theuser one must be aware of how it works so that the headers are accounted for correctly. All decimal column headers needto span two columns to get the alignment correct. This can be done with a multicolumn call, e.g \multicolumn2c{}or \multicolumn{2}{c}{}, or use the new \twocolhead{} command in deluxetable. Since LaTEX is splitting thesecolumns into two it is important to get the table width right so that they appear joined on the page. You may haveto run the LaTEX compiler twice to get it right.
3.1.3. Automatic column header numbering
The command \colnumbers can be included to automatically number each column as the last row in the header.
Per the AAS Journal table format standards, each column index numbers will be surrounded by parentheses. In a
LaTEX tabular environment the \colnumbers should be invoked at the location where the author wants the numbers
to appear, e.g. after the last line of specified table header rows. In deluxetable this command has to come before\startdata. \colnumbers will not increment for columns hidden by the “h” command, see Section 3.1.4.
Note that when using decimal alignment in a table the command \decimalcolnumbers must be used instead of\colnumbers and \decimals.
3.1.4. Hiding columns
Entire columns can be hidden from display simply by changing the specified column identifier to “h”. In the LaTEX
tabular environment this column identifier conceals the entire column including the header columns. In AASTEX’s
deluxetables the header row is specifically declared with the \tablehead call and each header column is marked
with \colhead call. In order to make a specific header disappear with the “h” column identifier in deluxetable use\nocolhead instead to suppress that particular column header.
Authors can use this option in many different ways. Since column data can be easily suppressed authors can include
extra information and hid it based on the comments of co-authors or referees. For wide tables that will have a machinereadable version, authors could put all the information in the LaTEX table but use this option to hid as many columns
as needed until it fits on a page. This concealed column table would serve as the example table for the full machinereadable version. Regardless of how columns are obscured, authors are responsible for removing any unneeded column
data or alerting the editorial office about how to treat these columns during production for the final typeset article.
Table 1 provides some basic information about the first ten Messier Objects and illustrates how many of these
new features can be used together. It has automatic column numbering, decimal alignment of the distances, and one
concealed column. The Common name column is the third in the LaTEX deluxetable but does not appear when the

6

Schwarz et al.
Table 1. Fun facts about the first 10 messier objects
Messier

NGC/IC

ObjectDistance

V

NumberNumber

Type

(kpc)

Constellation

(mag)

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

(6)

M1
M2
M3
M4
M5
M6
M7
M8
M9
M10

NGC 1952
NGC 7089
NGC 5272
NGC 6121
NGC 5904
NGC 6405
NGC 6475
NGC 6523
NGC 6333
NGC 6254

Supernova remnant
Cluster, globular
Cluster, globular
Cluster, globular
Cluster, globular
Cluster, open
Cluster, open
Nebula with cluster
Cluster, globular
Cluster, globular

2
11.5
10.4
2.2
24.5
0.31
0.3
1.25
7.91
4.42

TaurusAquarius
Canes Venatici
Scorpius
Serpens
Scorpius
Scorpius
Sagittarius
Ophiuchus
Ophiuchus

8.4
6.3
6.2
5.9
5.9
4.2
3.3
6.0
8.4
6.4

Note—This table “hides” the third column in the LaTEX when compiled. The
Distance is also centered on the decimals. Note that when using decimal alignment
you need to include the \decimals command before \startdata and all of thevalues in that column have to have a space before the next ampersand.

article is compiled. This hidden column can be shown simply by changing the “h” in the column identifier preamble
to another valid value. This table also uses \tablenum to renumber the table because a LaTEX tabular table wasinserted before it.
3.1.5. Splitting a table into multiple horizontal components
Since the AAS Journals are now all electronic with no print version there is no reason why tables can not be as
wide as authors need them to be. However, there are some artificial limitations based on the width of a print page.
The old way around this limitation was to rotate into landscape mode and use the smallest available table font sizes,
e.g. \tablewidth, to get the table to fit. Unfortunately, this was not always enough but now along with the hidecolumn option outlined in Section 3.1.4 there is a new way to break a table into two or three components so thatit flows down a page by invoking a new table type, splittabular or splitdeluxetable. Within these tables a new “B”
column separator is introduced. Much like the vertical bar option, “|”, that produces a vertical table lines the new“B” separator indicates where to Break a table. Up to two “B”s may be included.
Table 2 shows how to split a wide deluxetable into three parts with the \splitdeluxetable command. The\colnumbers option is on to show how the automatic column numbering carries through the second table component,
see Section 3.1.3.
3.2. Figures
Authors can include a wide number of different graphics with their articles but encapsulated postscript (EPS) or
portable document format (PDF) are encouraged. These range from general figures all authors are familiar with to
new enhanced graphics that can only be fully experienced in HTML. The later include figure sets, animations andinteractive figures. All enhanced graphics require a static two dimensional representation in the manuscript to serve as
the example for the reader. All figures should include detailed and descriptive captions. These captions are absolutely
critical for readers for whom the enhanced figure is inaccessible either due to a disability or offline access. This portionof the article provides examples for setting up all these types in with the latest version of AASTEX.
3.3. General figures
AASTEX has a \plotone command to display a figure consisting of one EPS/PDF file. Figure 1 is an example whichshows the approximate changes in the subscription costs and author publication charges from 1991 to 2013 in the AAS

7

Sample article
Table 5. Measurements of Emission Lines: two breaks
Model

Component

Shift

FWHM

Flux

(km s−1 )(km s−1 )(10−17 erg s−1 cm−2 )

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

BELs
IELs
NELs
BELs
IELs
NELs

-97.13-4049.123···-85-51000529117±38
1974±22641±48991±412025±26637±101033±332495±30449±23988±292494±32477±17Lyα(1)Model 1Model 2

NV

Si IV

C IV

Mg II

Hγ

(6)

(7)

(8)

(9)

(10)

< 35
< 42
<6
< 24
< 37
<4

< 166
< 109
<9
< 173
< 124
<8

637±31995±186–623±281005±190–

1951±2683±30
275±181945±2972±28278±17991±3075±23150±11989±2772±21153±10

Hβ

Hα

He I

Paγ

(11)

(12)

(13)

(14)

3502±42130±25313±123498±37
113±18317±1520285±80357±94958±4320288±73
271±85969±402025±116
194±64318±342047±143
205±72325±371289±10736±23151±171376±16734±21147±22

Note—This is an example of how to split a deluxetable. You can split any table with this command into two or three parts. The location of the
split is given by the author based on the placement of the “B” indicators in the column identifier preamble. For more information please look at
the new AASTEX instructions.

Journals. For a general figure consisting of two EPS/PDF files the \plottwo command can be used to position thetwo image files side by side.
Both \plotone and \plottwo take a \caption and an optional \figurenum command to specify the figure
number3 . Each is based on the graphicx package command, \includegraphics. Authors are welcome to use\includegraphics along with its optional arguments that control the height, width, scale, and position angle of a file within the figure. More information on the full usage of \includegraphics can be found athttps://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX/Importing Graphics#Including graphics.
3.4. Grid figures
Including more than two EPS/PDF files in a single figure call can be tricky to easily format. To make the processeasier for authors AASTEX v6 offers \gridline which allows any number of individual EPS/PDF file calls within a
3 It is better to not use \figurenum and let LaTeX auto-increment all the figures. If you do use this command you need to mark all of themaccordingly.

8

Schwarz et al.

Figure 1. The subscription (squares) and author publication (asterisks) costs from 1991 to 2013. Subscription cost are on theleft Y axis while the author costs are on the right Y axis. All numbers in US dollars and adjusted for inflation. The author
charges also account for the change from page charges to digital quanta in April 2011.

single figure. Each file cited in a \gridline will be displayed in a row. By adding more \gridline calls an author
can easily construct a matrix X by Y individual files as a single general figure.
For each \gridline command a EPS/PDF file is called by one of four different commands. These are \fig,\rightfig, \leftfig, and \boxedfig. The first file call specifies no image position justification while the next two
will right and left justify the image, respectively. The \boxedfig is similar to \fig except that a box is drawn aroundthe figure file when displayed. Each of these commands takes three arguments. The first is the file name. The second
is the width that file should be displayed at. While any natural LaTEX unit is allowed, it is recommended that author
use fractional units with the \textwidth. The last argument is text for a subcaption.
Figure 2 shows an inverted pyramid of individual figure constructed with six individual EPS files using the \gridline
option.
3.5. Enhanced graphics
Enhanced graphics have an example figure to serve as an example for the reader and the full graphical item available
in the published HTML article. This includes Figure sets, animations, and interactive figures. The Astronomy Image
Explorer (http://www.astroexplorer.org/) provides access to all the figures published in the AAS Journals since they
offered an electronic version which was in the mid 1990s. You can filter image searches by specific terms, year, journal,
or type. The type filter is particularly useful for finding all published enhanced graphics. As of June 2019 there areover 3000 videos, 1000 figure sets, and 65 interactive figures. The next sections describe how to include these types ofgraphics in your own manuscripts.
3.5.1. Figure sets
The grid commands given above works great for a limited set of individual figure files but what do you do if you
have many 10s or 100s or even 1000s of individual figure files? Figure sets represents a virtual flip book of a large

9

Sample article

(a)

(b)

(d)

(c)

(e)

(f)

Figure 2. Inverted pyramid figure of six individual files. The nova are (a) V2491 Cyg, (b) HV Cet, (c) LMC 2009, (d) RS
Oph, (e) U Sco, and (f) KT Eri. These individual figures are taken from Schwarz et al. (2011).

group of similar style figures. The derived PDF article will only shows an example figure while the enhanced content isavailable in the figure set in the HTML edition. The advantage of a figure set gives the reader the ability to easily sort
through a large collection to find individual component figures. The advantage to the author is that grouping similar
figures into a figure set can result in significant cost savings in terms of reduced publication charges, see Appendix B.
All of the figure set components, along with their html framework, are also available to the reader for download in asingle .tar.gz package.
Special LaTEX mark up is required to create a figure set. Prior to AASTEX v6 the underlying mark up commands
had to be inserted by hand but is now included. Note that when an article with figure set is compiled in LaTEX noneof the component figures are shown and a floating Figure Set caption will appear in the resulting PDF.
Fig. Set 4. Swift X-ray light curves
Authors are encouraged to use an online tool at http://authortools.aas.org/FIGSETS/make-figset.html to generate
their own specific figure set mark up to incorporate into their LaTEX articles.
3.5.2. Animations
Authors may, and are in fact encouraged, to include animations in their manuscripts. The video will stream inline
with the published article and also be available for download. When writing the manuscript, a stand alone figure is

10

Schwarz et al.

Figure 3. The Swift/XRT X-ray light curve for the first year after outburst of the suspected recurrent nova KT Eri. At a
maximum count rate of 328 ct/s, KT Eri was the brightest nova in X-rays observed to date. All the component figures (6) areavailable in the Figure Set. Note that these components that are not shown in the compiled pdf. The figure set consists of thesame figures as shown in Figure 2. The example figure shown for figure sets can be one component or many.

necessary to serve as an example for the reader. Ideally, this is a single still frame from the animation but in somecase the animation may only represent a small portion of the example figure, say one many panels as shown in Figure
4. Regardless, it is very important that the author provide descriptive text in the figure caption including start andstop times and the video duration. Authors should review the AAS animation guidelines in the graphics guide athttps://journals.aas.org/graphics-guide/#animations.
Animations and interactive figures (Section 3.5.3) should use the \begininteractive environment in the figure call.
This environment places a blue border around the figure to indicate that the figure is enhanced in the published HTML
article. The command also serves to alert the publisher what files are used to generate the dynamic HTML content.
\interactive takes two arguments. The first details the type and currently only three are allowed. The types arejs for generic javascript interactive figures, animation for inline videos, and timeseries for interactive light curves
produced by astropy Astropy Collaboration et al. (2013)4 . If these types are not provide the compiler will issue anerror and quit. The second argument is the file that produces the enhanced feature in the HTML article.
3.5.3. Interactive figures
Interactive figures give the reader the ability to manipulate the information contained in an image which can add
clarity or help further the author’s narrative. These figures consist of two parts, a static representative figure for the
manuscript and the dynamic javascript plus HTML framework that allows for interactive control.
An example of an interactive figure is a 3D model. The underlying figure is a X3D file while x3dom.js is the javascript
driver that displays it. An author created interface is added via a html wrapper. The first 3D model published by the
AAS Journals using this technique was Vogt et al. (2014).
4 To be release in the summer of 2019

Sample article

11

Figure 4. Figure 1 from Li et al. (2018). AIA 171Å(a,b), AIA 131Å(c), and AIA 304Åimages are shown. The red rectangle
in (a) shows the field of view of the other panels. An animation of panels (b-d) is available. It covers 8 hours of observing
beginning at 01:00 UT on 2012 January 19. The video duration is 20 seconds.

Figure 5 provides an interactive example which can be run locally to demonstrate how a simple javascript plus html
interface allows a reader to switch between figures. The necessary files for this particular interactive figure are in theinteractive.tar.gz file included with this package. Unpack the file and point the browser to the local html file. In
this case, the javascript that runs the interactive buttons is embedded in the html file but it could just as easily be calls
to external javascript libraries. Ideally, the javascript should be included with the submitted package of interactive
files to minimize external dependencies within the published article.
Authors should consult the online tutorials at https://journals.aas.org/graphics-guide/#interactive figures for more
information on what is currently supported and links to tutorials and examples.

4. DISPLAYING MATHEMATICS

12

Schwarz et al.

Figure 5. Figure 4 from Cloutier et al. (2018). Upper panel : the cumulative median observing time to measure the 3σ RVmasses of TESS planets as a function of host star spectral type and up to 103 hours. The dashed blue curves represent theresults from the optical spectrograph whereas the solid red curves represent the near-IR spectrograph. Lower panel : the time
derivative of the cumulative observing time curves used to indicate the RV planet detection efficiency. The horizontal dashedline highlights the value of the detection efficiency at 20 hours per detection. Note that unlike the lower panels, the upper
panels do not share a common ordinate due to the differing number of planet detections around stars in each spectral type bin.
The interactive version has two buttons that allows one to turn the optical and NIR layers.

13

Sample article

The most common mathematical symbols and formulas are in the amsmath package. AASTEX requires this package
so there is no need to specifically call for it in the document preamble. Most modern LaTEX distributions alreadycontain this package. If you do not have this package or the other required packages, revtex4-1, latexsym, graphicx,
amssymb, longtable, and epsf, they can be obtained from http://www.ctan.org
Mathematics can be displayed either within the text, e.g. E = mc2 , or separate from in an equation. In order to beproperly rendered, all inline math text has to be declared by surrounding the math by dollar signs ($).
A complex equation example with inline math as part of the explanation follows.
v̄(p2 , σ2 )P−τ â1 â2 · · · ân u(p1 , σ1 ),(1)where p and σ label the initial e± four-momenta and helicities (σ = ±1), âi = aµi γν and Pτ = 21 (1 + τ γ5 ) is a chirality
projection operator (τ = ±1). This produces a single line formula. LaTEX will auto-number this and any subsequent
equations. If no number is desired then the equation call should be replaced with displaymath.
LaTEX can also handle a a multi-line equation. Use eqnarray for more than one line and end each line with a \\.
Each line will be numbered unless the \\ is preceded by a \nonumber command. Alignment points can be added withampersands (&). There should be two ampersands per line. In the examples they are centered on the equal symbol.

µ

γ =

µ
0 σ+
µ
σ−
0

!
5

,γ =

−1 0
0 1

!
,

µ
σ±
= (1, ±σ),

â =

(2)
(3)

0 (â)+(â)− 0!
,µ(â)± = aµ σ±(4)5. REVISION TRACKING AND COLOR HIGHLIGHTING

Authors sometimes use color to highlight changes to their manuscript in response to editor and referee comments.
In AASTEX new commands have been introduced to make this easier and formalize the process.
The first method is through a new set of editing mark up commands that specifically identify what has been changed.
These commands are \added{<text>}, \deleted{<text>}, and \replaced{<old text>}{<replaced text>}. To
activate these commands the trackchanges option must be used in the \documentclass call. When compiled
this will produce the marked text in red. The \explain{<text>} can be used to add text to provide information to the reader describing the change. Its output is purple italic font. To see how \added{<important
added info>}, \deleted{<this can be deleted text>}, \replaced{<old data>}{<replaced data>}, and\explain{<text explaining the change>} commands will produce important added information and replaced data,
toggle between versions compiled with and without the trackchanges option.
A summary list of all these tracking commands can be produced at the end of the article by adding the\listofchanges just before the \end{document} call. The page number for each change will be provided. If thelinenumbers option is also included in the documentclass call then not only will all the lines in the article be numbered for handy reference but the summary list will also include the line number for each change.
The second method does not have the ability to highlight the specific nature of the changes but does allow theauthor to document changes over multiple revisions. The commands are \edit1{<text>}, \edit2{<text>} and\edit3{<text>} and they produce <text> that is highlighted in bold red, italic blue and underlined purple, respectively. Authors should use the first command to indicated which text has been changed from the first revision.
The second command is to highlight new or modified text from a second revision. If a third revision is needed then thelast command should be used to show this changed text. Since over 90% of all manuscripts are accepted after the 3rd
revision these commands make it easy to identify what text has been added and when. Once the article is accepted
all the highlight color can be turned off simply by adding the \turnoffediting command in the preamble. Likewise,
the new commands \turnoffeditone, \turnoffedittwo, and \turnoffeditthree can be used to only turn off the\edit1{<text>}, \edit2{<text>} and \edit3{<text>}, respectively.

14

Schwarz et al.

Similar to marking editing changes with the \edit options there are also the \authorcomments1{<text>},\authorcomments2{<text>} and \authorcomments3{<text>} commands. These produce the same bold red, italic
blue and underlined purple text but when the \turnoffediting command is present the <text> material does notappear in the manuscript. Authors can use these commands to mark up text that they are not sure should appear in
the final manuscript or as a way to communicate comments between co-authors when writing the article.
6. SOFTWARE AND THIRD PARTY DATA REPOSITORY CITATIONSThe AAS Journals would like to encourage authors to change software and third party data repository referencesfrom the current standard of a footnote to a first class citation in the bibliography. As a bibliographic citation theseimportant references will be more easily captured and credit will be given to the appropriate people.
The first step to making this happen is to have the data or software in a long term repository that has made these items available via a persistent identifier like a Digital Object Identifier(DOI). A list of repositories that satisfy this criteria plus each one’s pros and cons are given athttps://github.com/AASJournals/Tutorials/tree/master/Repositories.
In the bibliography the format for data or code follows this format:
author year, title, version, publisher, prefix:identifier
Corrales (2015) provides a example of how the citation in the article references the external code athttps://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15991. Unfortunately, bibtex does not have specific bibtex entries for these typesof references so the “@misc” type should be used. The Repository tutorial explains how to code the “@misc” typecorrectly. The most recent aasjournal.bst file, available with AASTEX v6, will output bibtex “@misc” type properly.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank all the people that have made this AASTeX what it is today. This includes but not limited to Bob
Hanisch, Chris Biemesderfer, Lee Brotzman, Pierre Landau, Arthur Ogawa, Maxim Markevitch, Alexey Vikhlinin and
Amy Hendrickson. Also special thanks to David Hogg and Daniel Foreman-Mackey for the new ”modern” style design.
Considerable help was provided via bug reports and hacks from numerous people including Patricio Cubillos, Alex
Drlica-Wagner, Sean Lake, Michele Bannister, Peter Williams, and Jonathan Gagne.

Facilities: HST(STIS), Swift(XRT and UVOT), AAVSO, CTIO:1.3m, CTIO:1.5m,CXO
Software: astropy (Astropy Collaboration et al. 2013), Cloudy (Ferland et al. 2013), SExtractor (Bertin & Arnouts
1996)
APPENDIX

A. APPENDIX INFORMATION

Appendices can be broken into separate sections just like in the main text. The only difference is that each appendix
section is indexed by a letter (A, B, C, etc.) instead of a number. Likewise numbered equations have the section letter
appended. Here is an equation as an example.
I=

1
P (1+d2 )1 + d1(A1)

Appendix tables and figures should not be numbered like equations. Instead they should continue the sequence fromthe main article body.
B. AUTHOR PUBLICATION CHARGES

Finally some information about the AAS Journal’s publication charges. In April 2011 the traditional way of
calculating author charges based on the number of printed pages was changed. The reason for the change wasSample article

15

due to a recognition of the growing number of article items that could not be represented in print. Now author charges are determined by a number of digital “quanta”. A single quantum is 350 words, one figure, one
table, and one enhanced digital item. For the latter this includes machine readable tables, figure sets, animations, and interactive figures. The current cost for the different quanta types is available at https://journals.aas.
org/article-charges-and-copyright/#author publication charges. Authors may use the ApJL length calculator to
get a rough estimate of the number of word and float quanta in their manuscript. The calculator is located athttps://authortools.aas.org/ApJL/betacountwords.html.
C. ROTATING TABLES

The process of rotating tables into landscape mode is slightly different in AASTEXv6.3. Instead of the \rotate
command, a new environment has been created to handle this task. To place a single page table in a landscape mode
start the table portion with \begin{rotatetable} and end with \end{rotatetable}.
Tables that exceed a print page take a slightly different environment since both rotation and long table printing are
required. In these cases start with \begin{longrotatetable} and end with \end{longrotatetable}. Table 1 is an
example of a multi-page, rotated table. The \movetabledown command can be used to help center extremely wide,
landscape tables. The command \movetabledown=1in will move any rotated table down 1 inch.

8.2 (41)

7.4 (44)

8.7 (46)

8.53 (48)

3.79 (51)

8.8 (55)

7.1 (58)

V1065 Cen

V1187 Sco

V1188 Sco

V1213 Cen

V1280 Sco

V1281 Sco

V1309 Sco

6.7 (82)

7.4 (88)

7.54 (91)

9.5 (97)

8.5 (102)

11.1 (104)

9.2 (106)8.52 (108)9.9 (111)11.1 (115)V2467 Cyg

V2468 Cyg

V2491 Cyg

V2487 Oph

V2540 Oph

V2575 Oph

V2576 Oph

V2615 Oph

V2670 Oph

V2671 Oph

7.8 (76)

8.5 (38)

V1047 Cen

V2362 Cyg

8.05 (35)

9.3 (73)

4.5 (31)

RS OphU Sco

V2361 Cyg

8.1 (29)

4.3 (70)

10.4 (27)

SMC 2005

QY MusV1974 Cyg

10.6 (25)

LMC 2009a

3.8 (61)

11.5 (21)

LMC 2005

10.5 (65)

11.45 (18)

LMC 2000

V1494 Aql

10.7 (16)

LMC 1995

V1663 Aql

7.84 (11)5.42 (14)

KT Eri7.2 (7)

GQ MusIM Nor···2454617.5 (115)2454613.11 (111)2454187.5 (108)2453832.5 (106)2453778.8 (104)2452295.5 (102)2450979.5 (97)2454567.86 (91)2454534.2 (88)2454176.27 (82)2453831.5 (76)2453412.5 (73)2448654.5 (70)2453531.5 (65)2451515.5 (61)2454714.5 (58)2454152.21 (55)2454147.65 (14)2454959.5 (48)2453577.5 (46)2453220.5 (44)2454123.5 (41)2453614.5 (39)2455224.94 (35)2453779.44 (14)2454739.90 (29)2453588.5 (27)2454867.5 (25)2453700.5 (21)2451737.5 (18)2449778.5 (16)2455150.17 (14)2452289 (2)2445352.5 (7)2451665.5 (1)2454596.5

8.83 (1)

(JD)

(mag)

CSS081007

Date

Vmax

CI Aql

Name

8:

15:

26.5 (108)8:NH

2.0 (117)

1.3: (113)

0.9 (108)0.25 (107)

1.4 (105)···

0.38±0.08 (98)0.43 (94)0.77 (89)

1.5 (84)

0.575±0.015 (79)

1.2: (75)0.36±0.04 (71)

2: (68)0.6 (63)

1.2 (30)

0.7 (57)

0.36 (54)3.3e+212.9e+213.1e+212.6e+213.3e+212.3e+212.0e+214.7e+211.0e+221.4e+224.4e+217.0e+212.7e+211.6e+223.6e+214.0e+213.2e+211.6e+211.0e+225.0e+21···2.07 (30)8.0e+211.56 (44)3.75e+21

1.4e+22···0.5±0.1 (42)1.2e+210.2±0.1 (4)2.25e+21

4.2e+215e+20

5.7e+20

1e+21

7.8e+207.8e+205.5e+208e+21

3.8e+211.1e+211.2e+22(cm−2 )

Table 1 continued on next page1210 (116)

600 (112)

800 (109)

1470 (106)560 (104)···20:

10000 (98)···4860 (93)1000 (88)950 (82)

1850 (78)3200 (74)2000 (19)1900 (67)1200 (62)670 (60)

1800 (56)640 (53)2300 (50)1730 (47)3000 (44)2700 (43)840 (38)

7600 (37)

6.3 (98)

4.6 (92)

10:7 (83)

9 (77)

6 (40)

17 (71)17 (66)6.6±0.5 (61)23±2 (59)15:

21 (52)

11±2 (49)

7 (40)

7: (45)

11 (42)6 (40)

1.2 (36)

7.9 (14)0.73 (32)···3930 (31)···0.71 (30)3200 (28)···60:

0.15 (203)0.15 (203)3900 (25)900 (23)

0.15 (203)0.15 (203)···1700 (20)0.08 (15)0.8±0.2 (4)0.45 (9)0.1463000 (15)1150 (12)1000 (8)···0.8±0.2 (4)(mag)(km s−1 )2300 (3)E(B-V)

FWHM

4±1

63 (22)9±2 (19)15±2 (17)6.6 (14)50 (2)

18 (7)···

32 (2)

(d)

t2

50

···

61

0.159 (85)······3.7±0.2 (108)
···
···

···
···
···
···
···

27.5±3 (99)5.2±0.8 (103)···0.284781 (103)10.5 (96)···3.1±0.5 (86)0.09580: (95)0.242 (90)7.75±3 (77)

···

···
0.06577 (80)1.8±0.1 (72)0.081263 (70)1.6±0.1 (63)

···

···

8.9±3.6 (69)

···

···

···

1.6±0.4 (54)···0.13467 (64)

···

···

4.9±0.5 (44)···7.5 (39)9.05±2.8 (42)

···
···

···

12±2 (4)1.6±0.3 (33)

···

···

1.23056 (36)456 (33)

···

···

50

50

···
1.19 (26)50

6.5 (15)···4.25±3.4 (4)···4.8±1 (9)4.45±1.95 (6)6.25±5 (4)

(kpc)

D

0.102 (13)0.059375 (10)1.77 (5)0.62 (4)(d)

PeriodTable 1. Observable Characteristics of Galactic/Magellanic Cloud novae with X-ray observations

M (117)

N (114)

Y (110)N

N (105)N

N (100)NN

M (87)Y (81)Y (40)

N

N

N

···

N

Y (54)

···

···

N

Y (42)···N

N (34)M···N

M (24)

···

···

N

N

N (7)

···

N

Dust?

···

···

···

···

···

···

Y (101)

M

···

···

···

···

···

···

···

···

···

···

···

···

···

···

···

Y

Y

···

···

Y

···

···

···

M

Y

···

···

Y

RN?

16
Schwarz et al.

7.57 (137)

7.8 (141)8.07 (145)

5.0 (149)

7.41 (153)

10.3 (157)

9.8 (160)

8.38 (164)

7.7 (167)

8.15 (170)

6.53 (175)

5.56 (180)7.43 (182)

6.93 (183)7.0 (186)

3.46 (14)7.55 (191)

V459 Vul

V4633 SgrV4643 SgrV4743 SgrV4745 SgrV476 Sct

V477 Sct

V5114 Sgr

V5115 Sgr

V5116 SgrV5558 SgrV5579 SgrV5583 SgrV574 Pup

V597 Pup

V598 Pup

V679 Car12 (201)

8.24 (132)V458 VulXMMSL1 J06

6.8 (128)

V407 Cyg

7.1 (192)

2.85 (125)V382 Vel

5 (197)8.9 (124)

V382 NorV838 Her

6.5 (120)

V723 Cas

10.0 (118)2453643.5 (202)2448340.5 (197)2450069.0 (192)2454797.77 (191)2454257.79 (14)2454418.75 (186)2453332.22 (183)2455051.07 (182)2454579.62 (180)2454291.5 (175)2453556.91 (170)2453459.5 (167)2453081.5 (164)2453655.5 (160)

2453643.5 (157)2452747.5 (153)2452537.5 (149)2451965.867 (145)2450895.5 (141)2454461.5 (137)2454322.39 (132)2455266.314 (128)2451320.5 (125)2453447.5 (124)

2448617.5 (120)2455060.02 (118)

(JD)

(mag)

V2672 Oph

Date

Vmax

V351 PupName

8±2 (202)

2 (198)263 (2)20:

9±1 (190)

3:

13 (184)5:7:125 (176)

6.5 (171)

7 (40)

11 (165)

3 (160)15 (158)

8.6 (154)

9 (150)4.8 (146)

19±3 (142)18 (138)

7 (133)5.9 (129)

4.5 (126)

12 (40)16 (121)

2.3 (119)(d)t2

0.5 (194)
0.5±0.1 (198)
0.15 (203)

···
···

···

···
600 (193)

0.3 (188)
0.16 (190)···0.5±0.1

0.39 (30)

1.2 (181)0.80 (178)0.25 (173)0.53 (169)

8.7e+202.6e+212.35e+21

1.3e+221.4e+215.0e+216.2e+212.0e+213.3e+211.6e+221.5e+212.3e+214e+21
1.5e+21···1800 (187)2800 (184)2300 (182)1500 (23)1000 (177)970 (172)

1300 (168)2000 (23)1.2e+229.0e+20

1.2e+211.4e+221.4e+215.5e+213.6e+218.8e+213.4e+21

1.2: (162)

1.9 (158)···
2900 (161)

0.1 (154)

0.25 (151)

1.67 (148)0.21 (142)1.0 (140)

0.6 (135)

0.5±0.05 (130)1600 (155)2400 (149)4700 (147)1700 (143)910 (139)

1750 (134)2760 (129)2400 (126)0.05: (126)1.7e+22···1850 (23)4.0e+216.2e+21)1.6±0.1 (119)(cm

0.72±0.1 (122)

(mag)

−2

NH

···

)

E(B-V)

8000 (118)

(km s

−1

FWHM

Table 1 (continued)···

M (163)N (188)

6.5±1
···

···

···

0.2975 (199)

0.69 (195)

···

···

50

3±1 (198)

3.86±0.23 (196)···2.95±0.8 (190)

10.5

···
0.11119 (189)M (185)

···

···

···

Y (200)

N

···

···

···

Y (181)N (179)1.3±0.3 (176)···

N (174)11±3 (173)

N (169)N (166)

···

···

···

···

···

···

···

···

···

···

···

···

···

···

···

···
M (159)

···
···

···

···

···

···

N

N

N

Y (140)N (135)

···
Y

···

···

···

M

RN?

N

···

N

···

Dust?

0.1238 (171)

···

···

···
7.7±0.7 (165)

···
···

4±1 (158)

14±5 (154)···0.20782 (156)3.9±0.3 (151)

3 (148)···0.281 (152)8.9±2.5 (142)0.125576 (144)8.5±1.8 (133)3.65±1.35 (138)···

2.7 (131)1.68±0.3 (126)···2.7±0.7 (122)19±2 (119)

(kpc)

D

0.06812255 (136)15595 (131)0.146126 (127)···0.1182 (123)(d)

PeriodSample article
17

18

Schwarz et al.

A handy ”cheat sheet” that provides the necessary LaTeX to produce 17 different types of tables is available at
http://journals.aas.org/authors/aastex/aasguide.html#table cheat sheet.
D. IAU RECOMMENDATIONS FOR NOMINAL UNITSThe IAU 2015 resolution B3 defines nominal solar and planetary values by establishing conversions between solar
and planetary values and SI units. The rational and specifications are given in Prša et al. (2016). The recommended
nominal conversion constants for LaTeX have been incorporate into v6.3 to help authors follow the IAU resolution.
The general commands take this form:
Command

ExampleResults\nom{}\nom{Q}

QN⊙\Eenom{}\Eenom{Q} QN
Ee\Epnom{}\Epnom{Q} QN
Ep\Jenom{}\Jenom{Q} QN
Je\Jpnom{}\Jpnom{Q} QN
Jpwhich can be used for any units the author requires. Examples of the most common uses would be:N=nominal solar mass parameter

RN
⊙

=

nominal solar radius\nom{S}N
S⊙=

nominal total solar irradiance\nom{L}LN⊙=

nominal solar luminosity

1.

\nom{(GM)} (GM)⊙2.

\nom{R}

3.
4.

AASTeX v6.3 also contains specific commands for other commonly used units. These are:\nomSolarEffTemp

N
Teff
⊙

=

nominal solar effective temperature

2. \nomTerrEqRadius

RN
Ee

=

nominal terrestrial equatorial radius\nomTerrPolarRadius

RN
Ep

=

nominal terrestrial polar radius\nomTerrEqRadiusRN
Ee

3. \nomJovianEqRadius

RN
Je

=

nominal one-bar equatorial radii of Jupiter\nomJovianPolarRadius RN
Jp=nominal polar radii of Jupiter1.

\nomJovianEqRadius
4. \nomTerrMass\nomJovianMass

should be used if equatorial vs. polar radius is not
explicitly specified.

RN
Jeshould be used if Jovian equatorial vs. polar radius
is not explicitly specified.

(GM)N
E

=

nominal terrestrial mass parameter

(GM)N
J

=

nominal Jovian mass parameterAll of these commands work equally well in text and math mode.
REFERENCES
Astropy Collaboration, Robitaille, T. P., Tollerud, E. J.,
et al. 2013, A&A, 558, A33,
doi: 10.1051/0004-6361/201322068

Bertin, E., & Arnouts, S. 1996, A&AS, 117, 393,
doi: 10.1051/aas:1996164

Sample article
Cloutier, R., Doyon, R., Bouchy, F., & Hébrard, G. 2018,
AJ, 156, 82, doi: 10.3847/1538-3881/aacea9Corrales, L. 2015, ApJ, 805, 23,doi: 10.1088/0004-637X/805/1/23
Ferland, G. J., Porter, R. L., van Hoof, P. A. M., et al.
2013, RMxAA, 49, 137. https://arxiv.org/abs/1302.4485
Hanisch, R. J., & Biemesderfer, C. D. 1989, in BAAS, 780
Lamport, L. 1994, LaTeX: A Document Preparation
System, 2nd edn. (Addison-Wesley Professional)

19

Li, L., Zhang, J., Peter, H., et al. 2018, ApJ, 868, L33,
doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/aaf167
Prša, A., Harmanec, P., Torres, G., et al. 2016, AJ, 152, 41,doi: 10.3847/0004-6256/152/2/41
Schwarz, G. J., Ness, J.-U., Osborne, J. P., et al. 2011,
ApJS, 197, 31, doi: 10.1088/0067-0049/197/2/31
Vogt, F. P. A., Dopita, M. A., Kewley, L. J., et al. 2014,
ApJ, 793, 127, doi: 10.1088/0004-637X/793/2/127