Writing an article for The Astrophysical Journal

[Adoniram]

Hello all,

I have been tasked with actually writing my own paper for the ApJ, rather than just submitting my results to my professor and letting him do the work. So, my question is this: Is there a place where I can get a sample tex file from the ApJ? I've seen many crap example files, but none in the 2-column format, and it would really make my life a lot easier to have a working tex file to follow as an example...

Thanks for any help you can provide!

 

[dipole]

I'm sure it's available, but it would probably be easier to just get one from your professor since he'll surely have it around.

 

[Bobbywhy]

I found the two pages of author instructions for the “Astrophysical Journal” in around three minutes. Surprising that you could not have done so yourself!

Author Instructions:
http://apjl.msubmit.net/cgi-bin/main.plex?form_type=display_auth_instructions

For detailed author guidelines on preparing your paper, go to: http://aas.org/authors/author-instructions

 

[Adoniram]

I've actually been through all that, including many links in from where you pointed. At first glance, it appears helpful, and it is for most journals but not for a 2-column ApJ format one. Thank you though!

 

[jtbell]

Doesn't the AASTeX package take care of the two-column format for you?

http://aas.org/publications/aastex

(added) I see it doesn't do two columns by default, but there's a style for it. See "two-column preprint" here:

http://aas.org/aastex/aastex-package-manuscript-preparation#style_options

Also see the emulateapj class listed in section 4 of this page:

http://aas.org/latex-resources/some-helpful-tex-hints

Disclaimer: I've only dabbled a little bit with TeX myself, so for detailed help with using these you'd best ask in our Math and Science Software forum.

 

[D H]

I've seen many crap example files, but none in the 2-column format.

Those "crap" example files are exactly what you should produce. Your goal as an author isn't to produce something that looks pretty. Your goal is to produce something that is easy to review. A 2-column format that has little white space is anything but easy to review. Easy to review and ugly to the eye are close to synonymous.

What makes something look pretty/readable -- that's a human factors skill that is pretty much orthogonal to what you know as an astronomer/physicist/astrophysicist. It is not your concern. The ApJ says exactly that: "The expenditure of great effort to adapt copy and markup for two-column pages is counterproductive. Remember that the main goal of this package is to produce draft-, or referee-, format pages. It is the responsibility of the editors and publishers to produce publication-format papers for the journals."