TL;DR
đ Use the command \rlap{$^*$} when you list multiple equally contributed authorsâ names, separated by commas (e.g., ICLR template).
% For example:
[1stAuthor1]\thanks{Equal Contribution.},~~[1stAuthor2]\rlap{$^*$},~~[1stAuthor3]\rlap{$^*$},~~[2ndAuthor],...
Whatâs the Problem?
Iâd like to share a visually appealing LaTeX trick(?) for listing multiple co-first authors that I recently figured out.
Let me introduce three of my âcolleaguesâ (graduate students from KAIST AI) who will assist me in this document: meet Chahun Seol, Sanchul Heo, and Honseul Cha! Of course, they are all imaginary characters I created. (You may notice these names are all anagrams of my name, Hanseul Cho.) But in this document, they and I will play the role of co-authors of a brilliant paper submitted to ICLR 2026, preparing together for a camera-ready version of our manuscript. đ (Please donât get me wrong; I donât want to advertise an imaginary paper that I havenât actually taken part in!)
Youâre probably familiar with the command \thanks{...} for indicating equal contributions, affiliations, or side information about specific authors.
But how should we mark the same footnote symbol (e,g. asterisk(*), âŠ) to mutiple author names among us (e.g., co-first authors)?
For example, one of the simplest line of code would be âŠ
\author{
% Please be aware that the default template for ICLR main conference papers recommends us putting commas to delimit the author names.
Hanseul Cho\thanks{Equal Contribution.},~~Chahun Seol$^*$,~~Sanchul Heo$^*$,~~Honseul Cha \\ % author names
Kim Jaechul Graduate School of AI, KAIST \\ % affiliation
\texttt{\{jhs4015,chahun.seol,sanchul\_heo,honseul-cha\}@kaist.ac.kr} \\ % e-mail addresses
\And
...[More CoAuthors]...
}
It seems good⊠or does it? When we actually compile this, we get the following:
Do you notice anything weird? Yes, the gap between the asterisk and the comma!
- The command
\thanks{...},somehow reduces the gap between the footnote mark and the comma, so that the compiled result shows the comma right after the last letter of an author name; đ - The command
$^*$, however, is just a letter (in math mode of LaTeX)! It has no additional function to shrink the gap between the commas and the author names. đż
What should we do to match the lengths of the gaps? đ€
Common Failure(?) Cases
đș Failure 1: If the command \thanks is the only answer, how about using the same command several times?:
...
Hanseul Cho\thanks{Equal Contribution.},~~Chahun Seol\thanks{Equal Contribution.},~~Sanchul Heo\thanks{Equal Contribution.},~~Honseul Cha \\ % author names
...
The compiled result:
Obviously, this isnât the right wayâŠđ« it applies distinct footnote marks for all co-author names (attached with \thanks).
âŠ
đș Failure 2: How about manually adjusting the horizontal spaces?
...
Hanseul Cho\thanks{Equal Contribution.},~~Chahun Seol$^*$\hspace{-1.6mm},~~Sanchul Heo$^*$\hspace{-1.6mm},~~Honseul Cha \\ % author names
...
The compiled result:
Okay, now it seems (almost) perfect, at least visually!
However, I donât want to do it this way: the size of shrinkage (e.g., -1.6mm above) needs to be determined carefully through multiple compilations.
Not only is it not elegant, but itâs also practically undesirable, especially when your entire LaTeX project is so heavyâŠ
The Solution That Iâve Found
To figure out an elegant & practical solution, I probed the ICLR template style file (iclr2026_conference.sty), with the keyword âthanksâ.
And I found the following code linesâŠ
\def\maketitle{\par
\begingroup
\def\thefootnote{\fnsymbol{footnote}}
\def\@makefnmark{\hbox to 0pt{$^{\@thefnmark}$\hss}} % for perfect author
% name centering
% The footnote-mark was overlapping the footnote-text,
% added the following to fix this problem (MK)
\long\def\@makefntext##1{\parindent 1em\noindent
\hbox to1.8em{\hss $\m@th ^{\@thefnmark}$}##1}
\@maketitle \@thanks
\endgroup
\setcounter{footnote}{0}
\let\maketitle\relax \let\@maketitle\relax
\gdef\@thanks{}\gdef\@author{}\gdef\@title{}\let\thanks\relax}
Can you guess how the command \thanks is redefined?
Iâm not an expert on LaTeX, but I somehow realized that the fourth line above (\def\@makefnmark{\hbox to 0pt{$^{\@thefnmark}$\hss}}) is sort of an important part, which seems to put the footnote mark behind the author name!
But what is \hss?
I asked Google Search for help (side note: I âstillâ prefer to find solutions for debugging my code without using LLM, although Iâm a PhD student studying AIâŠ). The Google Search told me: SEE THIS POST ON STACKEXCHANGE (âWhat are the \hbox \hss \hskip commands?â). ROGER THAT.
It basically tells us:
\hbox to <WIDTH>{<SOMETHING>}puts<SOMETHING>inside a horizontal box of width<WIDTH>.- You can adjust the alignment within the box using
\hssinside<SOMETHING>.- If
<SOMETHING>is\hss <STUFF>\hss, it aligns<STUFF>at the center. - Also,
\hss <STUFF>corresponds to the right alignment of<STUFF>. - Similarly,
<STUFF>\hsscorresponds to the left alignment of<STUFF>.
- If
- For the cases where
<WIDTH>equals0pt, TeX introduces their shorthand commands:clap,llap, andrlap.\hbox to 0pt{\hss <STUFF>\hss}==\clap{<STUFF>}.\hbox to 0pt{\hss <STUFF>}==\llap{<STUFF>}: the right end of<STUFF>comes to center, so the text<STUFF>goes left of the center.\hbox to 0pt{<STUFF>\hss}==\rlap{<STUFF>}: the left end of<STUFF>comes to center, so the text<STUFF>goes right of the center.
So, my conjecture is: Since the style file contains \hbox to 0pt{$^{\@thefnmark}$\hss}, if \@thefnmark is substituted with the asterisk(*), then it must be equivalent to \rlap{$^*$}!
Therefore, my FINAL TRIAL is as follows:
...
Hanseul Cho\thanks{Equal Contribution.},~~Chahun Seol\rlap{$^*$},~~Sanchul Heo\rlap{$^*$},~~Honseul Cha \\ % author names
...
And the compiled result isâŠ
TADA! An elegant code (without laborious decision of numerics) and visually satisfying result! đ
Conclusion
I hope this document help some researchers who are still novice in LaTeX writing (like me). Lastly, say goodbye to my awesome imaginary colleagues, Chahun Seol, Sanchul Heo, and Honseul Cha! đ
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