Paper policies

Literature on "Writing Research Papers" and "English for Academic Research"

There are probably tons of books and resources on this topic, but I've read some books of this author and find them quite useful: Adrian Wallwork

Language editing guide for A&A can be found here
A&A uses the past tense to describe the specific steps used in a paper and the present tense to describe general methods and recent findings.

All abbreviations and acronyms are introduced at first use, once in the Abstract and again in the main text.

Quote marks should not be used for emphasis. If you are indicating that a word is being used in an unusual way or with a special meaning, the quote marks can remain (‘single’ quote marks in UK convention, “double” in US), but only for the first use. All subsequent uses of the word should be without quote marks.

When listing two references in the running text of a sentence (i.e. not in brackets), use "and" between two references, not ";". With three or more the references must be separated by commas and the last reference set off with "and": ref1, ref2, and ref3.

Start with a brief title for the figure as a whole before describing the individual panels.

Slashes ( / ) are used in equations, and to denote ratios, instrument pairings, and wavelength ranges (e.g., optical/UV). All other appearances should be removed and the sentence rephrased. You can substitute "and", "or", "and/or", or a double hyphen (which can be used to indicate a range or dual nature: Hertzsprung–Russell diagram).

Table Captions: Titles should be short and placed above the table. Descriptions and references should be moved to a "Notes:" section below the table. See A&A Table Guidelines for details.

Titles & Headings: Use lowercase for all titles (main title, sections, subsections, appendices, tables), except for the first word and proper nouns.

Figures: Remove all background grids in accordance with A&A's graphic policy.

Abbreviations & Acronyms:
- Do not start a sentence with an abbreviation. If necessary, add an article (e.g., "The NASA mission") or spell it out.
- Use e.g. and i.e. only in parentheses or figure/table legends. In the main text, use alternatives like "for example" (instead of e.g.) or "that is" (instead of i.e.). UK style does not use a comma after e.g. and i.e. (e.g. i.e.), while US style does (e.g., i.e.,).
- Always abbreviate Sect., Fig., Eq., and Col. when referring to a specific item, except at the beginning of a sentence where they should be written in full.

Spell Check: Run a spell check based on your preferred language (US or UK English).

TO DO