Articles published in American Physical Society journals are converted to an XML file during final journal production. Other formats such as PDF are derived directly from the XML, which constitutes the version of record. Even before journal production, the APS editorial process can make use of the information in a properly prepared manuscript. Information such as title, authors, affiliations, PACS codes, etc., can be automatically extracted and used to populate our manuscript database. References can also be culled, cross-checked for accuracy, and used to create a linked version for referees and editors. Moreover, time can be saved as referrals can be made electronically rather than by conventional mail. Thus, a well-prepared electronic manuscript can enhance the entire peer review process from author to reader while making the whole process less expensive. To this end, authors should follow the guidelines in this document when preparing their submissions to Physical Review Letters, Reviews of Modern Physics, Physical Review A-E, Physical Review Special Topics - Accelerators and Beams, and Physical Review Special Topics - Physics Education Research.
Updated versions of this document will be made available at http://authors.aps.org/revtex4/. For more complete descriptions of how to use the REVTeX 4.1 macros, please see the REVTeX 4.1 Author’s Guide included with the REVTeX 4.1 distribution. Questions about REVTeX 4.1 and using it to submit to APS journals may be emailed to [email protected].
REVTeX 4.1 offers a new reprint class option to typeset a manuscript in a format that is a close approximation to the actual journal’s appearance. It should be emphasized that this is only an approximation; a manuscript may be substantially different in length or appearance after it goes through our production process. This is mostly due to the choice of fonts and the scaling of figures.
REVTeX 4.1 is designed to make it straightforward to switch between two-column and single-column formatting just by changing the class option. Authors may submit with either the reprint or the twocolumn class options. The preprint primarily does three things: It increases the font size to 12pt, increases the line spacing, and changes the formatting to single column.
Manuscripts should be submitted to APS formatted for letter size paper. Papers are sent electronically to referees who may want to print them out. Letter size formatting ensures that this will be trouble free for all referees.
Perhaps the most important macros are those pertaining to the markup of the front matter (title, authors, affiliations, abstract, PACS codes, etc.). Note that proper use of the REVTeX 4.1 macros means that explicit centering environments in the front matter are not needed and should not be used.
The title of the manuscript should be specified using the macro. A double backslash \\ may be used to force a line break in a long title.
\label{sec:authors} REVTeX 4.1 makes it straightforward to markup up author names and link them up properly with affiliations. Authors should let REVTeX 4.1 do the work of grouping authors and affiliations and, if using the superscript style, numbering affiliations. Please follow these guidelines:
Use a single macro for each author’s name. REVTeX 4.1 automatically puts in all commas and the word ‘and.’
Use the macro to explicitly indicate if an author’s family name consists of more than one name or if the family name is not the author’s last name.
The macro may be used to specify an author’s e-mail address. The macro must not be used for this. Only the e-mail address itself may appear in the macro’s required argument.
The macro may be used to specify a URL associated with an author. The macro must not be used for this. Only the URL may appear in the macro’s required argument.
The macro may be used to specify an alternate affiliation or temporary address for an author. The macro must not be used for this. Only the affiliation may appear in the macro’s required argument.
The macro may be used only if one of the more specific macros list above does not apply.
Use a single for each affiliation.
Superscripts linking authors to affiliations must be accomplished using the superscriptaddress class option rather than putting in explicit superscripts by hand.
A collaboration may be specified by using the macro. The macro must not be used for collaborations.
The abstract must be specified using the abstract environment. Note that in REVTeX 4.1, the abstract must come before the command. REVTeX 4.1 now allows the the use of the description environment within the abstract to provide structured abstracts. For instance, Physical Review C would like authors to provide abstracts with sections summarizing the paper’s Background, Purpose, Method, Results, and Conclusions. This can be accomplished in the following manner:
\begin{abstract}
\begin{description}
\item[Background] This part would describe the
context needed to understand what the paper
is about.
\item[Purpose] This part would state the purpose
of the present paper.
\item[Method] This part describe the methods
used in the paper.
\item[Results] This part would summarize the
results.
\item[Conclusions] This part would state the
conclusions of the paper.
\end{description}
\end{abstract}
If supplying suggested PACS codes, they must be supplied as a comma-separated list using a single macro.
Authors are strongly encouraged to use BibTeX when preparing their bibliographies. If BibTeX is used, current production processes require that the .bbl file be included directly into the manuscript’s main .tex file. REVTeX 4.1 comes with two BibTeX style files for formatting references, one for the Physical Review journals and one for Review of Modern Physics. The BibTeX styles support the optional display of journal article titles in the bibliography. To display the titles, use the longbibliography class option.
The following apply whether BibTeX is used or not.
Authors should use the and commands to create bibliographies and to refer to items in the bibliography. “By hand" numbering of references should be avoided.
REVTeX 4.1 provides new syntax for combining multiple citations into a single entry in the bibliography and for putting extra text before and after a reference. Please refer to REVTeX 4.1 Author’s Guide included with the REVTeX 4.1 distribution for full details.
Footnotes must be specified using the macro. REVTeX 4.1 will place the footnotes in the bibliography for the Physical Review journals. Please note that even if you don’t use BibTeX, you may have to run BibTeX to get the footnotes to appear. Footnotes giving additional information about authors (such as e-mail addresses) must not be specified using the macro (see Section \ref{sec:authors}).
Avoid custom footnotes using and [except in the context of tables (see Section \ref{sec:tablenotes})].
References should be formatted and specified according to the Physical Review Style Guide. Note that using BibTeX automatically ensures this.
In journal styles that use superscript citations (e.g., Phys. Rev. B), use to create references that appear on the baseline (i.e., Ref. 4). For superscript citations, use the proper journal class option rather than creating superscripts by hand.
URLs should be specified using the macro. BibTeX will automatically take care of this if the url field is used.
E-print identifiers should be included using the macro. BibTeX will automatically take care of this if the eprint field is used.
For sectioning a manuscript, the basic rule is to use the appropriate sectioning commands (, , , etc.). Cross-referencing a section must be done by using the proper and commands. Cross-referencing by hand is not allowed. , , and should not be used.
Appendices should be specified using the command which specifies that all following sections create with the commands are appendices. If there is only one appendix, then the command should be used instead.
Any acknowledgments should be included by using the acknowledgments environment. Note that in REVTeX 4.1, this is an environment and not a command.
No counters may be created and the standard ones may not be altered. If an exceptional label is needed for an equation, the command (requires the amsmath class option) should be used. Please note that the use of the command may conflict with the use of the hyperref package due an incompatibility between amsmath and hyperref.
It is preferable to avoid the older TeX and LaTeX 2.09 macros for controlling fonts such as , , etc. Rather, it is better to use the macros introduced in . If the older font commands are used (they really should be avoided!), be sure to use curly braces to properly limit the extent of the font change. {\bf ...} is the correct method. Commands for controlling text and math font changes are summarized in Table \ref{tab:fonts}.
|
Italics. Replaces |
|
Bold face. Replaces |
|
Roman. Replaces |
|
Slanted. Replaces |
|
Small caps. Replaces |
|
Sans serif. Replaces |
|
Typewriter. Replaces |
|
Medium series |
|
Normal |
|
Upright |
|
Bold face |
|
Replaces |
|
Italics |
|
Replaces |
|
Sans serif |
|
Typewriter |
|
Fraktur: Requires amsfonts or amssymb class option |
|
Bold blackboard: Requires amsfonts or amssymb class option |
|
Bold Greek and other math symbols: Requires \usepackage{bm} and may require the amsfonts class option |
Bold Greek letters and other bold math symbols should be accomplished with the use of bm.sty which is distributed as a required tool with the latest versions of and should be loaded via \usepackage{bm} . This package introduces the macro. Some bold characters may require using the amsfonts class option.
New fonts may not be declared with . Font attribute commands for selecting a font family, shape, and series are all disallowed; the standard font selection macros list above should be used instead.
Finally, the macro is also not allowed.
The standard list environments itemize, enumerate, and description are allowed. The macro with or without the optional argument is also allowed. Customization of the list environments (with macros such as , , , , etc.) is allowed but may be ignored in production. Generalized lists ({list}) and trivial lists ({trivlist}) are not allowed.
Creating generalized new environments with is not allowed. Creating a new theorem environment with is allowed though.
The tabbing environment and the macros \=, \>, \‘, and \’ are allowed but may be ignored in production. Conversion programs used in production should recognize the escapes =, ’, and ‘ for using the corresponding accents within a tabbing environment though.
The verbatim environment is allowed.
Most boxes and macros to manipulate them are not allowed. These include , , , , , , , , , , , and the environment {lrbox}. Rules produced with are not allowed.
Margin notes created with are not allowed, as are the associated style parameters , , and .
In general, all math markup and the standard math environments from are allowed. These include {math}, {displaymath}, {equation}, {eqnarray}, and {eqnarray*}. The shortcuts $, $$, \[, and \] are allowed. In addition, authors may use almost all of the additional markup introduced by AMS-LaTeX by using the amsmath class option. The explicit exceptions are , , and . The markup contained in amsextra and amsthm may not be used though. Commutative diagrams created with the amscd package are acceptable.
Figures should be included into a REVTeX 4.1 manuscript by using the standard macros. includes several powerful packages for including the files in various formats. The two main packages are graphics and graphicx. Both offer a macro called ; they mainly differ in how arguments for controlling figure placement (e.g., scaling and rotation) are passed to the .
The figure environment should be used to add a caption to the figure and to allow LaTeX to number and place the figures where they fit best. If a figure needs to be referred to in the text, rather than manually numbering the figures a should be added to the figure environment (best practice is to put the label within the argument of the command) and the macro should be used to reference this label. Figures that span the page should use the environment. The picture environment must not be used directly (one can include an Encapsulated PostScript figure that was produced using the picture environment of course).
Figures should be placed as close as possible to the point where they are first referenced. There is no need to place all figures separately at the end of the manuscript and it is preferred that authors leave the figures in their natural locations. Authors may also find useful the REVTeX 4.1 floatfix class option which adds emergency float placement processing to avoid “stuck” floats which would otherwise be deferred to the end of the job (and can lead to the fatal Too many unprocessed floats message).
\label{sec:tables} The standard table formatting environments are supported as is the use of the longtable package. Tables may be reformatted during production to meet APS style guidelines. Here are some helpful hints for trying to get tables formatted correctly:
Use the longtable package to get tables to break across pages.
The macro will reduce the font size of the table. This macro must occur within a group outside the table environment. The proper markup is:
\begingroup
\squeezetable
\begin{table}
...
\end{table}
\endgroup
Try using the float placement option H which will enable LaTeX to break a float across pages. Long tables are more attractively set with longtable however.
\begin{table}[H]
\begin{ruledtabular}
\begin{tabular}
...
\end{tabular}
\end{ruledtabular}
\end{table}
REVTeX 4.1 provides the ruledtabular environment which automatically puts the scotch rules (double lines) around tables and formats all enclosed tabular environments to the full width of the tables and improves inter-column spacing. This environment should be used whenever possible.
When typesetting using twocolumn, tables can either span a single column or both columns. Using the ’* ’-ed version of the table or longtable environments produces wide tables that span the columns.
Tables that are very wide and that may be better typeset in a landscape orientation (rotated 90 degrees) should be enclosed in a turnpage environment. This will place the rotated table on its own page. Note that some dvi previewers may not be able to show the table properly, but dvips and pdflatex work correctly.
Tables should be placed as close as possible to the point where they are first referenced. There is no need to place all tables separately at the end of the manuscript and this is not desirable for APS purposes. The class option floatfix may be helpful for table placement as well as figure placement (see Section \ref{sec:figplace}).
The standard macro package dcolumn should be used to accomplish this.
\label{sec:tablenotes} Footnotes in tables (tablenotes) should use the macro. However, if more than one reference to the same footnote is needed, authors may use and . This will produce notes (labeled by lower-case roman letters) inserted below the table rather than in the reference section or at the bottom of the page.
Authors may define convenience macros to save keystrokes. This means that the macros may not invoke TeX macros such as or other context dependent commands. Also, provides three macros for declaring new commands: , , and (as well as their ‘* ’-ed versions). These should be used. Authors may not use TeX’s low-level commands , , and .
To ensure the best use of TeX manuscripts, authors need to follow the guidelines specified here. Use of low-level formatting commands to finely control horizontal and vertical spacing may be ignored during production, or even worse, make it impossible to convert the manuscript to XML. Authors should keep things as simple as possible and correctly use the proper REVTeX 4.1 or macros. Any questions about usage may be directed to [email protected].