Removing unnecessary horizontal space (gap) from the superscript

Question

I am using the 'rticle' package in R which allows building R markdown documents based on pre-specified templates for the journal submission. The template is in .tex format and as shown in the figure, I am using PLOS template. However, I am not able to remove the space from the superscript.

The code responsible for this is the following (I believe)

    % Template for PLoS
% Version 3.4 January 2017
\documentclass[10pt,letterpaper]{article}
\usepackage[top=0.85in,left=2.75in,footskip=0.75in]{geometry}

% amsmath and amssymb packages, useful for mathematical formulas and symbols
\usepackage{amsmath,amssymb}

% Use adjustwidth environment to exceed column width (see example table in text)
\usepackage{changepage}

% Use Unicode characters when possible
\usepackage[utf8x]{inputenc}

% textcomp package and marvosym package for additional characters
\usepackage{textcomp,marvosym}

% cite package, to clean up citations in the main text. Do not remove.
% \usepackage{cite}

% Use nameref to cite supporting information files (see Supporting Information section for more info)
\usepackage{nameref,hyperref}

% line numbers
\usepackage[right]{lineno}

% ligatures disabled
\usepackage{microtype}
\DisableLigatures[f]{encoding = *, family = * }

% color can be used to apply background shading to table cells only
\usepackage[table]{xcolor}

% array package and thick rules for tables
\usepackage{array}

% create "+" rule type for thick vertical lines
\newcolumntype{+}{!{\vrule width 2pt}}

% create \thickcline for thick horizontal lines of variable length
\newlength\savedwidth
\newcommand\thickcline[1]{%
  \noalign{\global\savedwidth\arrayrulewidth\global\arrayrulewidth 2pt}%
  \cline{#1}%
  \noalign{\vskip\arrayrulewidth}%
  \noalign{\global\arrayrulewidth\savedwidth}%
}

% \thickhline command for thick horizontal lines that span the table
\newcommand\thickhline{\noalign{\global\savedwidth\arrayrulewidth\global\arrayrulewidth 2pt}%
\hline
\noalign{\global\arrayrulewidth\savedwidth}}


% Remove comment for double spacing
%\usepackage{setspace}
%\doublespacing

% Text layout
\raggedright
\setlength{\parindent}{0.5cm}
\textwidth 5.25in
\textheight 8.75in

% Bold the 'Figure #' in the caption and separate it from the title/caption with a period
% Captions will be left justified
\usepackage[aboveskip=1pt,labelfont=bf,labelsep=period,justification=raggedright,singlelinecheck=off]{caption}
\renewcommand{\figurename}{Fig}

% Use the PLoS provided BiBTeX style
% \bibliographystyle{plos2015}

% Remove brackets from numbering in List of References
\makeatletter
\renewcommand{\@biblabel}[1]{\quad#1.}
\makeatother

% Leave date blank
\date{}

% Header and Footer with logo
\usepackage{lastpage,fancyhdr,graphicx}
\usepackage{epstopdf}
\pagestyle{myheadings}
\pagestyle{fancy}
\fancyhf{}
\setlength{\headheight}{27.023pt}
\lhead{\includegraphics[width=2.0in]{PLOS-submission.eps}}
\rfoot{\thepage/\pageref{LastPage}}
\renewcommand{\footrule}{\hrule height 2pt \vspace{2mm}}
\fancyheadoffset[L]{2.25in}
\fancyfootoffset[L]{2.25in}
\lfoot{\sf PLOS}

%% Include all macros below
\newcommand{\lorem}{{\bf LOREM}}
\newcommand{\ipsum}{{\bf IPSUM}}

$if(highlighting-macros)$
$highlighting-macros$
$endif$

$for(header-includes)$
$header-includes$
$endfor$

$preamble$

\usepackage{forarray}
\usepackage{xstring}
\newcommand{\getIndex}[2]{%
  \ForEach{,}{\IfEq{#1}{\thislevelitem}{\number\thislevelcount\ExitForEach}{}}{#2}
}

\setcounter{secnumdepth}{0}

\newcommand{\getAff}[1]{%
  \getIndex{#1}{$for(address)$$address.code$$sep$,$endfor$}
}

\providecommand{\tightlist}{%
  \setlength{\itemsep}{0pt}\setlength{\parskip}{0pt}}

\begin{document}
\vspace*{0.2in}

% Title must be 250 characters or less.
\begin{flushleft}
{\Large
\textbf\newline{$title$} % Please use "sentence case" for title and headings (capitalize only the first word in a title (or heading), the first word in a subtitle (or subheading), and any proper nouns).
}
\newline
\\
$for(author)$
$author.name$\textsuperscript{$for(author.affiliation)$\getAff{$author.affiliation$}$sep$, $endfor$}$if(author.corresponding)$\textsuperscript{*}$endif$$sep$,
$endfor$
\\
\bigskip
$for(address)$
\textbf{\getAff{$address.code$}}$address.address$\\
$endfor$
\bigskip
$for(author)$
$if(author.corresponding)$
* Corresponding author: $author.email$\\
$endif$
$endfor$
\end{flushleft}
% Please keep the abstract below 300 words
$if(abstract)$
\section*{Abstract}
$abstract$
$endif$

% Please keep the Author Summary between 150 and 200 words
% Use first person. PLOS ONE authors please skip this step.
% Author Summary not valid for PLOS ONE submissions.
$if(author_summary)$
\section*{Author summary}
$author_summary$
$endif$

\linenumbers

% Use "Eq" instead of "Equation" for equation citations.
$body$

\nolinenumbers

$if(biblio-files)$
\bibliography{$biblio-files$}
$endif$

\end{document}

Thank you in advance.

D.

Answer 1

Since there is no MWE to try out, I can only guess, that you are introducing unwanted whitespace in the definition of \getAff and \getIndex. You can get rid of it by adding a % at the line endings:

\newcommand{\getAff}[1]{% <-- HERE
\getIndex{#1}{$for(address)$$address.code$$sep$,$endfor$}% <-- HERE
}

\newcommand{\getIndex}[2]{% <-- HERE
  \ForEach{,}{\IfEq{#1}{\thislevelitem}{\number\thislevelcount\ExitForEach}{}}{#2}% <-- HERE
}

To understand what is going on, have a look here: What is the use of percent signs (%) at the end of lines?