Elsarticle.cls
Introduction
elsarticle.cls
is a thoroughly rewritten document class
for formatting LaTeX submissions to Elsevier journals.
The class uses the environments and commands defined in LaTeX kernel
without change to the signature so that clashes with other
contributed LaTeX packages like hyperref.sty
,
preview-latex.sty
, etc., will be minimal.
elsarticle.cls
is primarily built upon the default
article.cls
. The class depends on the following packages
for its proper functionality:
pifont.sty
for openstar in the title footnotes.natbib.sty
for citation processing.geometry.sty
for margin settings.fleqn.clo
for left aligned equations.graphicx.sty
for graphics inclusion.txfonts.sty
optional font package, if document is to be formatted with Times and compatible math fonts.hyperref.sty
optional packages if hyper linking is required in the document.
All the above packages are part of any standard LaTeX installation.
Therefore, the users need not be bothered about downloading any
extra packages. Further, users are free to make use of AMS
math packages like, amsmath.sty
, amsthm.sty
,
amssymb.sty
, amsfonts.sty
, etc., if they want. All
these packages work in tandem with elsarticle.cls
without
any problems.
Major Differences
Following are the major differences between elsarticle.cls
and its predecessor package, elsart.cls
:
elsarticle.cls
is built uponarticle.cls
whileelsart.cls
is not.elsart.cls
redefines many of the commands in the LaTeX classes/kernel, which can possibly cause surprising clashes with other contributed LaTeX packages.- Provides preprint document formatting by default, and optionally formats the document as per the final style of models
1+
,3+
and5+
of Elsevier journals. - Some easier hooks for formatting
list
andtheorem
environments are provided while people can still useamsthm.sty
package. natbib.sty
is the main citation processing package which can comprehensively handle all kinds of citations and works perfectly withhyperref.sty
in combination withhypernat.sty
.- Long title pages are processed correctly in preprint and final formats.
Installation
The package is available at author resources page at Elsevier Science.
It can also be found in any of the nodes of the Comprehensive TeX Archive Network (CTAN), one of the primary nodes being http://www.ctan.org. Please grab the elsarticle.dtx
which is the composite class with documentation and elsarticle.ins
which is the LaTeX installer file. When we compile the elsarticle.ins
with LaTeX it provides the class file, elsarticle.cls
by stripping off all the documentation from the *.dtx
file. The class may be moved or copied to a place, usually, $TEXMF/tex/latex/elsevier/
, or a folder which will be read by LaTeX during document compilation. The TeX file database needs updation after moving/copying class file. Usually, we use commands like mktexlsr
or texhash
depending upon the distribution and operating system.
Usage
The class should be loaded with the command: <geshi lang="latex">
\documentclass[<options>]{elsarticle}
</geshi>
where the options
can be the following:
preprint
- default options which formats the document for submission to Elsevier journals.
review
- similar to
preprint
option, but increases the baselineskip to facilitate easier review process. 1p
- formats to the look and feel of the final format of model 1+ journals. This is always single column style.
3p
- formats to the look and feel of the final format of model 3+ journals. If the journal is a two column model use
twocolumn
option in combination. 5p
- formats for model 5+ journals. This is always two column style.
authoryear
- author-year citation style of
natbib.sty
. If you want to add extra options ofnatbib.sty
, you may use the options as a comma delimited strings as argument to\biboptions
command. An example would be:
<geshi lang="latex">
\biboptions{longnamesfirst,angle,semicolon}
</geshi>
number
- numbered citation style. Extra options can be loaded with
\biboptions
command. sort&compress
- sorts and compresses the numbered citations. Example, citation [1,2,3] will become [1-3].
longtitle
- if front matter is unusually long, use this option to split the title page across pages with correct placing of title and author footnotes in the first page.
times
- loads
txfonts.sty
if available in the system to use Times and compatible math fonts.
- All options of
article.cls
can be used with this document class. - The default options loaded are
a4paper
,10pt
,oneside
,onecolumn
andpreprint
.
Front matter
There are two types of front matter coding — (1) each author is connected to an affiliation with a footnote marker; hence all authors are grouped together and affiliations follow; (2) authors of same affiliations are grouped together and the relevant affiliation follows this group. An example coding of the first type is provided below:
<geshi lang="latex"> \begin{frontmatter}
\title{This is a specimen title\tnoteref{t1,t2}} \tnotetext[t1]{This document is a collaborative effort.} \tnotetext[t2]{The second title footnote which is a longer longer than the first one and with an intention to fill in up more than one line while formatting.}
\author[rvt]{C.V.~Radhakrishnan\corref{cor1}\fnref{fn1}} \ead{cvr@river-valley.com}
\author[rvt,focal]{K.~Bazargan\fnref{fn2}} \ead{kaveh@river-valley.com}
\author[els]{S.~Pepping\corref{cor2}\fnref{fn1,fn3}} \ead[url]{http://www.elsevier.com}
\cortext[cor1]{Corresponding author} \cortext[cor2]{Principal corresponding author} \fntext[fn1]{This is the specimen author footnote.} \fntext[fn2]{Another author footnote, but a little more longer.} \fntext[fn3]{Yet another author footnote. Indeed, you can have any number of author footnotes.}
\address[rvt]{River Valley Technologies, SJP Building, Cotton Hills, Trivandrum, Kerala, India 695014} \address[focal]{River Valley Technologies, 9, Browns Court, Kennford, Exeter, United Kingdom} \address[els]{Central Application Management, Elsevier, Radarweg 29, 1043 NX\\ Amsterdam, Netherlands}
. . . . . . \end{frontmatter} </geshi>
Output of the above TeX sources will look like the following:
|
Most of the commands like \title
, \author
, \address
are self explanatory. Various components are linked each other by a
label–reference mechanism, for instance, title footnote is linked to the title with a footnote mark generated by referring to the \label
string of the \tnotetext
. We have used similar commands like \tnoteref
(to link title note to title); \corref
(to link corresponding author text to corresponding author); \fnref
(to link footnote text to the relevant author names). TeX needs two compilations to resolve the footnote marks in the preamble part. Given below are the syntax of various note marks and note texts.
<geshi lang="latex">
\tnoteref{<label(s)>} \corref{<label(s)>} \fnref{<label(s)>} \tnotetext[<label>]{<title note text>} \cortext[<label>]{<corresponding author note text>} \fntext[<label>]{<author footnote text>}
</geshi>
where <label(s)>
can be either one or more comma delimited
label strings. The optional arguments to the \author
command holds the ref label(s) of the address(es) to which the author
is affiliated while each \address
command can have an
optional argument of a label. In the same manner,
\tnotetext
, \fntext
, \cortext
will have optional arguments as their respective labels and note text
as their mandatory argument.
The following example code provides the markup of the second type of author-affiliation. <geshi lang="latex"> \author{C.V.~Radhakrishnan\corref{cor1}\fnref{fn1}}
\ead{cvr@river-valley.com} \address{River Valley Technologies, SJP Building, Cotton Hills, Trivandrum, Kerala, India 695014}
</geshi> <geshi lang="latex"> \author{K.~Bazargan\fnref{fn2}}
\ead{kaveh@river-valley.com} \address{River Valley Technologies, 9, Browns Court, Kennford, Exeter, United Kingdom}
</geshi> <geshi lang="latex"> \author{S.~Pepping\fnref{fn1,fn3}}
\ead[url]{http://www.elsevier.com} \address{Central Application Management, Elsevier, Radarweg 43, 1043 NX Amsterdam, Netherlands}
</geshi> <geshi lang="latex"> \cortext[cor1]{Corresponding author} \fntext[fn1]{This is the first author footnote.} \fntext[fn2]{Another author footnote, this is a very long footnote and
it should be a really long footnote. But this footnote is not yet sufficiently long enough to make two lines of footnote text.}
\fntext[fn3]{Yet another author footnote.} </geshi> Output of the above TeX sources will look like the following:
|
The front matter part has further environments like \begin{abstract} . . . \end{abstract}
and \begin{keyword} ... \end{keyword}
which contain the abstract and keywords respectively. Keywords can be marked up in the following
manner:
<geshi lang="latex">
\begin{keyword}
quadruple exiton \sep polariton \sep WGM \PACS 71.35.-y \sep 71.35.Lk \sep 71.36.+c
\end{keyword}
</geshi>
Each keyword shall be separated by \sep
command. PACS and MSC classifications shall be provided in the keyword environment with the commands \PACS
and \MSC
respectively. \MSC
accepts an optional argument to accommodate future revisions. eg., \MSC[2008]
. The default is 2000.
Specimen of a title page coding
Following is the specimen of a title page coding. <geshi lang="latex"> \documentclass[preprint,1p,12pt]{elsarticle}
\journal{Nuclear Physics B}
\begin{document}
\begin{frontmatter}
\title{This is a specimen title\tnoteref{t1,t2}}
\tnotetext[t1]{This document is a collaborative effort.} \tnotetext[t2]{The second title footnote which is a longer longer than the first one and with an intention to fill in up more than one line while formatting.} \author[rvt]{C.V.~Radhakrishnan\corref{cor1}\fnref{fn1}} \ead{cvr@river-valley.com} \author[rvt,focal]{K.~Bazargan\fnref{fn2}} \ead{kaveh@river-valley.com} \author[els]{S.~Pepping\corref{cor2}\fnref{fn1,fn3}} \ead[url]{http://www.elsevier.com} \cortext[cor1]{Corresponding author} \cortext[cor2]{Principal corresponding author} \fntext[fn1]{This is the specimen author footnote.} \fntext[fn2]{Another author footnote, but a little more longer.} \fntext[fn3]{Yet another author footnote. Indeed, you can have any number of author footnotes.} \address[rvt]{River Valley Technologies, SJP Building, Cotton Hills, Trivandrum, Kerala, India 695014} \address[focal]{River Valley Technologies, 9, Browns Court, Kennford, Exeter, United Kingdom} \address[els]{Central Application Management, Elsevier, Radarweg 29, 1043 NX\\ Amsterdam, Netherlands}
\begin{abstract} In this work we demonstrate the formation of a new type of polariton on the interface between a cuprous oxide slab and a polystyrene micro-sphere placed on the slab. ..... \end{abstract}
\begin{keyword}
quadruple exiton \sep polariton \sep WGM \PACS 71.35.-y \sep 71.35.Lk \sep 71.36.+c
\end{keyword}
\end{frontmatter}
\section{Introduction}\label{sec1} Although quadrupole excitons (QE) in cuprous oxide crystals are good candidates for BEC ...... </geshi>
Floats
Figures may be included using the command, \includegraphics
in combination with or without its several options to further control the graphic. \includegraphics
is provided by graphic[s,x].sty
which is part of any standard LaTeX distribution.
graphicx.sty
is loaded by default. LaTeX accepts figures in postscript format while pdfLaTeX accepts *.pdf
, *.mps
(metapost), *.jpg
and *.png
formats. pdfLaTeX does not accept graphic files in postscript format.
The table environment is handy for marking up tabular material. If users want to use multirow.sty
, array.sty
, etc., to fine control/enhance the tables, they are welcome to load any package of their choice and elsarticle.cls
will work in combination with all loaded packages.
Theorem and theorem like environments
elsarticle.cls
provides a few hooks to format theorems and theorem like environments with ease. In all commands the options that are used with \newtheorem
command will work exactly in the same manner. elsarticle.cls
provides three commands to format theorem or theorem like environments:
<geshi lang="latex">
\newtheorem{thm}{Theorem}
\newtheorem{lem}[thm]{Lemma}
\newdefinition{rmk}{Remark}
\newproof{pf}{Proof}
\newproof{pot}{Proof of Theorem \ref{thm2}}
</geshi>
\newtheorem
command formats a theorem in LaTeX's default style with italicized font, bold font for theorem heading, theorem number at the right hand side of the theorem heading. It also optionally accepts an argument which will be printed as an extra heading in parentheses. The following text will show you how some text enclosed between \begin{thm} . . . \end{thm}
will look like.
\newdefinition
command is same in all respects as its \newtheorem
counterpart except that the font shape is roman instead of italic. Both \newdefinition
and \newtheorem
commands automatically defines counters for the environments defined. See the output of of \begin{rmk} . . . \end{rmk}
which is given below.
\newproof
command is for defining proof environments with upright font shape. No counters are defined. See the output of \begin{pot} . . . \end{pot}
which is given below.
Users can also make use of amsthm.sty
which will override all the default definitions described above.
Enumerated and Itemized Lists
elsarticle.cls
provides an extended list processing macros which makes the usage a bit more user friendly than the default LaTeX list macros. With an optional argument to the \begin{enumerate}
command, you can change the list counter type and its attributes.
<geshi lang="latex">
\begin{enumerate}[1.]
\item The enumerate environment starts with an optional argument `1.' so that the item counter will be suffixed by a period.
\item If you provide a closing parenthesis to the number in the optional argument, the output will have closing parenthesis for all the item counters.
\item You can use `(a)' for alphabetical counter and '(i)' for roman counter.
\begin{enumerate}[a)] \item Another level of list with alphabetical counter. \item One more item before we start another. \begin{enumerate}[(i)] \item This item has roman numeral counter. \item Another one before we close the third level. \end{enumerate} \item Third item in second level. \end{enumerate}
\item All list items conclude with this step. \end{enumerate} </geshi>
The typeset copy of the above source code is given below:
Further, the enhanced list environment allows one to prefix a string like `step' to all the item numbers. Take a look at the example below: <geshi lang="latex"> \begin{enumerate}[Step 1.]
\item This is the first step of the example list. \item Obviously this is the second step. \item The final step to wind up this example.
\end{enumerate} </geshi> The typeset copy of the above source code is given below:
Cross-references
In electronic publications articles may be internally hyperlinked. Hyperlinks are generated from proper cross-references in the article. For example, the words
Fig. 1
will never be more than simple text, whereas the proper cross-reference \ref{tiger}
may be turned into a hyperlink to the figure itself: Fig. 1
. In the same way, the words Ref. [1]
will fail to turn into a hyperlink; the proper cross-reference is \cite{Knuth96}
. Cross-referencing is possible in LaTeX for sections, subsections, formulae, figures, tables, and literature references.
Mathematical symbols and formulae
Many physical/mathematical sciences authors require more mathematical symbols than the few that are provided in standard LaTeX. A useful package for
additional symbols is the amssymb
package, developed by the American Mathematical Society. This package includes such oft used symbols as \lesssim
, \gtrsim
or \hbar
. Note that your TeX system should have the msam
and msbm
fonts installed. If you need only a few symbols, such as \Box, you might try the package latexsym
.
Another point which would require authors' attention is the breaking of longer equations. When you use elsarticle.cls
for formatting your submissions in preprint mode, the document is formatted in single column style with a text width of 384pt or 5.3in. When this document is formatted for final print and if the journal happens to be a double column journal, the text width will be reduced to 224pt at for 3+ double column and 5+ journals respectively. All the nifty fine tuning in equation breaking done by the author goes to waste in such cases. Therefore, authors are requested to check this problem by typesetting their submissions in final format as well just to see if their equations are broken at appropriate places, by changing appropriate options in the document class loading command, which is explained in the section Usage. This allows authors to fix any equation breaking problem before submission for publication. elsarticle.cls
supports formatting the author submission in different types of final format. This is further discussed in
the section Final print.
Bibliography
Three bibliographic style files (*.bst) are provided -- elsarticle-num.bst
, elsarticle-num-names.bst
and elsarticle-harv.bst
-- the first one for numbered scheme, the second for numbered with new options of natbib.sty and the last one for author year scheme.
In LaTeX literature references are listed in the thebibliography
environment. Each reference is a \bibitem
; each \bibitem
is identified by a label, by which it can be cited in the text: \bibitem[Elson et al.(1996)]{ESG96}
is cited as \citet{ESG96}
. In connection with cross-referencing and possible future hyperlinking it is not a good idea to collect more than one literature item in one \bibitem
. The so-called Harvard or author-year style of referencing is enabled by the LaTeX package natbib
. With this package the literature can be cited as follows:
- Parenthetical:
\citep{WB96}
produces (Wettig & Brown, 1996). - Textual:
\citet{ESG96}
produces Elson et al. (1996). - An affix and part of a reference:
\citep[e.g.][Ch. 2]{Gea97}
produces (e.g. Governato et al., 1997, Ch. 2).
In the numbered scheme of citation, \cite{<label>}
is used, since \citep
or \citet
has no relevance in numbered scheme. natbib
package is loaded by elsarticle.cls
with numbers as default option. You can change this to author-year or harvard scheme by adding option authoryear
in the class loading command. If you want to use more options of the natbib
package, you can do so with the \biboptions
command, which is described in the section Usage. For details of various options of the natbib
package, please take a look at the natbib documentation, which is part of any standard LaTeX installation.
Final print
Authors can format their submission to the page size and margins of their preferred journal. elsarticle
provides three class options for the same:
1p
- 1+ journals with a text area of 384pt × 562pt or 13.5cm × 19.75cm or 5.3in × 7.78in, single column style only.
3p
- 3+ journals with a text area of 468pt × 622pt or 16.45cm × 21.9cm or 6.5in × 8.6in, single column style.
5p
- 5+ with text area of 522pt × 682pt or 18.35cm × 24cm or 7.22in × 9.45in, double column style only.
Following is the first page of a typical single column article.
Model 1+ and 3+ will have the same look and feel in the typeset copy when presented in this document. That is also the case with the double column 3+ and 5+ journal article pages. The only difference will be wider text width of higher models. Therefore we will look at the different portions of a typical single column journal page and that of a double column article in the final format.
Following is the first page of a typical double column article.
Displayed equations and double column journals
Many Elsevier journals print their text in two columns. Because the preprint layout uses a larger line width than such columns, the formulas are too wide for the line width in print. Here is an example of an equation (see equation 6) which is perfect in single column preprint format:
When this document is typeset for publication in a model 3+ journal with double columns, the equation will overlap the second column text matter if the equation is not broken at the appropriate location.
The typesetter will try to break the equation which need not necessarily be to the liking of the author or as it happens, typesetter's break point may be semantically incorrect. Therefore, authors may check their submissions for the incidence of such long equations and break the equations at the correct places so that the final typeset copy will be as they wish.