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:
\title{your title}
\subtitle{your subtitle}
If a long \title or \subtitle needs to split across two or more lines, please insert linebreaks (\\).
Authors and institutes
For every manuscript, all authors and all institutes must be listed. A number must precede each institute and the authors' names must be marked with the appropriate numerical superscript(s).
N.B.: The mention " xxx Fellow" alone is not considered as a real affiliation, therefore it must be placed in a footnote linked to the author's name, and the author must have a real affiliation indicated.
Class update - March 2026:
For each author, please specify ONE e-mail address with the following commands:
- "\corrauth": reserved to the corresponding author(s), automatically inserts a footnote displayed on the PDF.
- "\email" for all other authors (not compiled in PDF, used by EDP editorial system).
IMPORTANT: It is the authors' sole responsibility to ensure the correct listing of each co-author (presence/absence), the correct spelling of their names, the correct distinction between surnames and first names (or first names initials), and all details of affiliations upon submission. Please double-check these information carefully. No post-publication changes or errata will be issued unless the error originated during production.
Names of authors
The preferred form for each name is: initial(s) of the forename(s) followed by the family name. The names must 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. Please provide ONE e-mail for each author and clearly identify the corresponding author with \corrauth:
\author{J. Kepler\inst{1,2}\corrauth{This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
}
\and E. Hubble\inst{3}\email{This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
}
\and W. Herschel\inst{3,4}\email{This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
}}
A&A offers authors the possibility of being identified with non-Roman alphabets, such as Chinese, Japanese, Cyrillic characters (see specific instructions here).
Institutes
\institute{Name of the first institute
\and Name of the second institute}
If there is more than one address, the entries are numbered automatically with \and. 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:
\author{V.~Arsenijevic\inst{\ref{inst1}}
\and S.~Fabbro\inst{\ref{inst2}}
\and A.~M.~Mour\~ao\inst{\ref{inst3}}
\and A.~J.~Rica da Silva\inst{\ref{inst1}}}
\institute{Centro Multidisciplinar de Astrof\'{\i}sica, IST, Avenida Rovisco Pais, 1049 Lisbon, Portugal\label{inst1}
\and INAF - Osservatorio Astrofisico di Torino, via Osservatorio 20, 10025 Pino Torinese, Italy\label{inst2}
\and D\'epartement d'astronomie de l'Universit\'e de Gen\`eve, Chemin Pegasi 51, 1290 Versoix, Switzerland\label{inst3}
}
In the case of large collaborations involving several tens of authors, the "longauth" option is recommended: all institutes and the full author list are displayed after the references, while the first 8 authors remain displayed on page 1 (see section Loading the class).
N.B.: with the recent policy on the articles length, very long lists of authors and affiliations are not included in the 12-page (or 4-page, as applicable) limit.
Footnote to the title block
...\thanks{text of footnote}
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:
\date{Received date /
Accepted date }
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:
\abstract
{}{}{}{}{}
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 common to the major astronomical and astrophysical journals.
List of key words.
In your TEX file, the key words should read as follows:
\keywords{stars: chromospheres -- stars: late-type -- stars: winds, outflows -- radio continuum: stars }
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:
\maketitle
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 :
\titlerunning{short title}
\authorrunning{name(s) of author(s)}
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.