# Reduce extra space with sidecap and iopart

Is there a way to reduce the white space between the figure and the caption in this MWE:

\documentclass{iopart}
%\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{mwe}
\usepackage{sidecap}
\begin{document}
\begin{SCfigure}[50]
\includegraphics[width=0.6\linewidth]{example-image-a}
\caption{Long long long long long long long long long long long
long long long long long long long long long long long long long
long long long caption}
\end{SCfigure}
\end{document}


I would like this to look more like in the same example with the article document class:

This is a consequence of how iopart indents captions; set \mathindent to zero in the SCfigure environment to avoid the issue.

\documentclass{iopart}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{sidecap}
\usepackage{etoolbox}

\usepackage{showframe} % just for the example

\AtBeginEnvironment{SCfigure}{\mathindent=0pt }

\begin{document}

\begin{SCfigure}[50]
\includegraphics[width=0.6\linewidth]{example-image-a}

\caption{Long long long long long long long long long long long
long long long long long long long long long long long long long
long long long caption}

\end{SCfigure}

\begin{figure}[htp]
\centering
\includegraphics[width=0.6\linewidth]{example-image-a}

\caption{Long long long long long long long long long long long
long long long long long long long long long long long long long
long long long caption}

\end{figure}

\end{document}


• Thank you, this is way more elegant than the hack that I found. – bers Oct 26 '18 at 8:24
• @bers Yours would change the appearance of all captions, which I don't think is what people at IOP wants. If you aren't submitting to them, I suggest not using iopart at all. – egreg Oct 26 '18 at 8:51
• You sure are aware that I can use my patch in a group cotaining just the figure in question, so that other captions would not be impacted. Still, your solution is better (just not for the reason you mention). – bers Oct 26 '18 at 9:02

This works:

\usepackage{xpatch}
\makeatletter
\patchcmd{\@makecaption}{\begin{indented}
\item[]}{}{}{err}
\patchcmd{\@makecaption}{\end{indented}}{}{}{err}
\makeatother