Advice on how to use the MNRAS L^aT_eX class file mnras.cls, version 3.0

In 2015 May MNRAS released version 3.0 of the L^aT_eX class file mnras.cls for preparing papers. However, this is mangled in various ways, with the instructions/template provided not being consistent with the mnras.cls file.

So, here is some advice/hints about how to use the MNRAS class file.

Here is what I used at the start of a MNRAS paper.

   \documentclass[usenatbib,usedcolumn]{mnras}
   %==============================================================================%
   \usepackage[british]{babel}             % British English hyphenation
   \usepackage{newtxtext}                  % Good fonts
   \usepackage[slantedGreek]{newtxmath}    %   "    "   (slanted Greek)
   %
   \let\la=\lesssim % for less than similar from newtxmath, not \la from mnras.cls
   %
   \usepackage[T1]{fontenc}                % Good font encoding
   \usepackage{graphicx}                   % Including figures
   %
   ...
   \begin{document}
   ...

Notes:

• Do not use the a4paper or usegraphicx options for mnras.cls, but load the graphicx package explicitly if you want to include images.
• I use the newtx packages (i.e. newtxtext and newtxmath) for nice Times Roman fonts, with the slantedGreek option to ensure all greek letters are slanted, as is appropriate for mathematical variables (non-slanted greek letters are also available, e.g. $\muup$ to give a micro prefix for units, or $\upDelta$ for an upright capital delta for a difference/increment).
• As I have loaded the newtx packages, I reset \la to point to the amssymb-named character that is defined by newtxmath, not the one in mnras.cls. This could be done for other characters as needed.
• If you want to load AMS packages (e.g. amsmath, amssymb), then load these before newtxtext and newtxmath, not after.
• The usedcolumn option loads the dcolumn package which is useful to align table columns by decimal places (mnras.cls defines three new column types, ‘d’, ‘.’ and ‘,’ similar to the first page of the documentation for the dcolumn package; the only difference is that the ‘d’ column does not use a centred dot for the decimal point).
• Also, assuming you are using pdfL^aT_eX, include a \hypersetup{...} declaration, after your last \usepackage{...}. Something like

     \hypersetup{pdfauthor={D. A. Green},
                 pdftitle={Constraints on the distribution of supernova
                           remnants with Galactocentric radius},
                 pdfkeywords={supernova remnants, Galaxy: structure, ISM: structure},
                 bookmarksnumbered=true}
  

  This gives useful document properties in the output .pdf (and ensures that sections/subsections are numbered in the navigation table of the contents in the .pdf, which is useful, but is not the default).

If you want to include landscape figures, using the rotating package, then add these lines to the preamble of your .tex file (i.e. before the \begin{document}):

   \usepackage{rotating}
   \makeatletter
   \let\@makecaption=\SFB@makefigurecaption
   \makeatother
   \setlength{\rotFPtop}{0pt plus 1fil}
   \setlength{\rotFPbot}{0pt plus 1fil}

Then you can use \begin{sidewaysfigure*} ... \end{sidewaysfigure*} to include a sideways figure.

Previously I also provided more advice about how to change several things to make submitting an MNRAS paper to arXiv easier, as arXiv was running a rather old L^aT_eX implementation, which did not have the newtx font packages. But from early 2017 arXiv has been running more up-to-date versions of TeX Live, that do include newtx, which makes it much simpler to submit a MNRAS paper to arXiv.

Still, I would recommend the following.

• Put \pdfoutput=1 as the first line of your .tex file, which forces .pdf output.
• Just before the \begin{document} you can add lines

     \setlength\topmargin{-3pc}
     \volume{{\rm in press}}
  

  to better centre the page vertically on A4 paper and make the header a bit more meaningful.
• You can also include a text file called 00README.XXX containing the line nohypertex, so that the arXiv AutoTeX processing system does not include hyperref.sty, which is already loaded by mnras.cls, and so the arXiv processing goes more smoothly.

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