Author list and affiliation formatter: LaTeX for AASTeX, MNRAS, A&A, REVTeX and elsarticle, or a superscript list for Word

What it does

Every journal wants the author list written its own way. AAS journals repeat the full affiliation under every author, MNRAS wants superscript numbers and a list of institutions, A&A uses \inst and \and, and Word templates want superscript numbers typed by hand. Keeping the numbers right when an author is added or moved is where mistakes creep in. This page keeps one simple list and writes all of these for you:

• Affiliations are numbered for you, in order of first use, so the first author always has 1. The same affiliation written twice (even with different spacing, a missing space after a comma or a full stop at the end) is merged into one number.
• ORCID iDs are checked with the check digit that ORCID uses, so a typo in the last digits is caught before submission.
• The corresponding author gets the right command: \correspondingauthor and \email for AASTeX, \thanks{E-mail: ...} for MNRAS, \corref and \cortext for elsarticle, and a star in the Word list.
• Special characters are escaped (an & or % in an address would break LaTeX), and accents can be written as LaTeX commands for old templates.

How to use it

1. Authors. Write one author per line, in author order: name; affiliations; ORCID; email; *. Only the name is needed; the other parts can come in any order. Define affiliations once with a short key, such as 1 = Department of Physics, Example University, City, Country, then give the keys (1, 2), or write the affiliation in full on the author line.
2. Style. Pick the journal style. Tick Accents as LaTeX commands if your template does not read UTF-8, and ORCID icons to add \orcidlink after each name.
3. Checks. Read the warnings: an author with no affiliation, a corresponding author with no email, an ORCID with a wrong check digit or an affiliation key no author uses.
4. Copy. Copy the block into your paper, or download it. For Word, choose Superscript list and press Copy for Word; the superscripts paste as real superscripts.

Worked example

Press Use the example. Four made-up authors share three affiliations. José Núñez-García’s affiliation is typed out in full with a missing space and a full stop at the end, but the page sees it is the same as key 1 and merges them, so the page shows 4 authors and 3 affiliations. In the MNRAS style the block starts:

\author[A. Lovelace et al.]{ Ada Lovelace,$^{1,2}$\thanks{E-mail: ada@example.org} Charles Babbage,$^{2}$ José Núñez-García$^{1}$ and Mira van der Berg$^{3}$

and the plain-text style gives Ada Lovelace¹,²,*, Charles Babbage², José Núñez-García¹ and Mira van der Berg³. With accents as LaTeX commands, the third name becomes Jos{\'e} N{\'u}{\~n}ez-Garc{\'\i}a.

Tips

• Keep the list here in a text file next to your paper and paste it in again when the author order changes.
• Write the family name first with a comma for names like van der Berg or García Márquez, so the short running-head list and the JATS surname are right.
• MNRAS, A&A, REVTeX and elsarticle have no ORCID command of their own; without the orcidlink option the iDs are listed as comments for you to add the way the journal asks.
• Journals update their classes. Check the current template and author guide before you submit.

FAQ

Does it change the order of authors? No. Authors stay in your order; only the affiliation numbers are worked out.

Why are the affiliation numbers sorted for each author? Most journals list them in increasing order (1,2 rather than 2,1). Because affiliations are numbered by first use, moving an author up the list renumbers everything correctly.

Is my author list sent anywhere? No. The list is formatted on this page and is not saved or uploaded.

Last updated 2026-11-09.