If any part of fm98 (you see i use a new subject line, i propose we start referring to this new specification in that way) uses keyword=value, then we might as use it for *everything*. and it does get more and more like BibTeX (for good reason, bibliographies have had a lot of study). thus: \author{surname=Rahtz, inits=S., mainauthor=true, forename=Sebastian Patrick, qual=AJFL, title={}, address=add1, affiliation=aff1} \author{surname=Einstein, inits=A.,forename=Albert,title=Dr,address=add2} \author{forename=Maria de Dolores de Garcia,surname=de la Vega,inits=M.,title=Professor,address=add1, [log in to unmask] \address{name=add1,address={Le Petit Mignon, Despair Street, Ash Mountain}} \address{id=add2,address=Eternity} \affiliation{id=aff1,name=Devils Island} \date{revised=,accepted=...} \journalinfo{volume=33,issue=6,startpage=67,endpage=94, pii=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx} (BTW I like the idea of the portable database fragment that we paste into our papers. if we want to get trendy, how about a short form of \author{url=http://x.y.z/~rahtz/artheader.cfg} or, perhaps more likely, if we have used BibTeX, \author{bibkey=rahtz:data} and store the fragment in the .bib file with the article.... ) Bothers ------ 1) Jean-Francois's point about using addresses for mailing. how about no more and no less than \address{name=add1,address={Le Petit Mignon,\\ Despair Street,\\ Ash Mountain}} where the class throws away the \\ if they are not appropriate? 2) multiple addresses and affiliations. how do i indicate that person A has address X, and person B address Y, but A is on study leave at Y? We don't want to repeat address Y, do we? do we simply add more and more keys to \author, to cover such situations? Summary ------- Assuming you buy a key-val interface, and accept that journals can and will use different extra keys in some fields, beyond the bare minimum required by the fm98 spec, then the question is how many top level commands there are. i have used above: \author \address \affiliation \journalinfo \date (the latter two could be combined together, actually; do we also combine affiliation and address?) but what else is there? Thinking of Barbara's post last week, where she listed the many tags the AMS apply to an article, the keyval approach has the great advantage that she need not commit herself immediately to what all those tags are Sebastian