tips for writing a research paper using latex

Beginners’ guide to writing a manuscript in LaTeX

Hannah Foreman

About this module

LaTeX is a freely available, powerful typesetting system used to create papers in fields where tables, figures and formulae are common. Disciplines using it include Mathematics, Physics, Computer Science, Economics and Statistics. As it uses plain instead of formatted text, authors can concentrate on the content, rather than the design. You’ll only need to learn a few easy commands to achieve a professional result.

This interactive module covers the basics of writing a manuscript using LaTeX and the mark-up language, similar to html, which is used. If you are starting out on your writing career, you will learn how to download the system before following a detailed step by step guide to creating a manuscript, including how to add commands and comments.

We also share some top golden rules – such as keeping your document simple and the importance of checking the journal’s Guide for Authors – and we highlight some common mistakes. You will come away with a clear understanding of the benefits of LaTeX and develop the skills required to build your own high-quality LaTeX submission.

About the presenter

Publisher, Elsevier

Hannah has 15 years’ experience in the STM publishing industry working directly with researchers, journal editors, reviewers and academic societies. As Senior Product Manager for the Journal Finder, Hannah is responsible for ensuring researchers can easily and quickly find the right home for their research first time around. This includes helping researchers to define and build a publishing plan during the pre-submission phase and making sure that if a researcher does find their manuscript is not accepted for publication at a journal, then a suitable alternative transfer option is offered.

How to write for an interdisciplinary audience

Publishing open access

2.0 I just got a review invite, what’s next?

3.2 The comments to editors and decision recommendations

Conference skills for researchers

7 tips for simplified LaTeX submissions

LaTeX instructions

Resources for Formatting Papers in LaTex

Guide overview, library books, online resources, smart thinking tutoring service.

• Librarian I, Institutional Repository and Engineering & Physical Sciences

This guide provides resources for students and faculty who need to use the scientific text formatting application LaTex for a research paper, thesis, or dissertation.

• The Comprehensive LATEX Symbol List Symbols accessible from LATEX
• LaTex Tutorial for Beginners Full Course Video tutorial for beginners
• LaTex Wikibook This is a guide to the LaTeX typesetting system. It is intended as a useful resource for everybody, from new users who wish to learn, to old hands who need a quick reference.
• The Not So Short Introduction to LaTeX 2E The document derives from a German introduction (‘lkurz’), which was translated and updated; it continues to be updated. (Tobias Oetiker et al., 2015)
• Overleaf video training tutorials Overleaf is an on-line LaTeX editing tool that allows you to create LaTeX documents directly in your web browser.
• Smart Thinking Smarthinking is an online professional tutoring platform available to Rowan students, to supplement our own peer-to-peer tutoring program. Smarthinking offers students academic support through a 24/7 online service and is available at no charge. This platform enables Rowan to offer additional academic support for more students and courses than our peer-to-peer tutoring services alone. Students can access Smarthinking through their canvas course or by clicking this link: https://go.rowan.edu/smarthinking. Available subjects include: Business, Computers & Technology, Math & Statistics, Reading, Science, Spanish.
• Last Updated: Sep 7, 2023 11:30 AM
• URL: https://libguides.rowan.edu/LaTex

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How to write research articles using LaTeX

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Professor, Ph.D, IEEE Fellow, University Research Chair

The first file is a LaTeX format for writing research papers. I have indicated how to change width of pages in the LaTeX file and attached two PDF files: one is a wide style and the other is narrow.

• format07.tex
• format07-narrow.pdf
• format07-widestyle.pdf

The second file is to show how to insert figures, for which the two figures are drawn by xfig. You need to download the following files.

• format-fig.tex
• format-fig.pdf
• lfsr.pstex_t
• lfsr_gen.fig
• lfsr_gen.pstex
• lfsr_gen.pstex_t

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Formatting a Research Paper Using LaTeX in Overleaf

Introduction: Formatting a Research Paper Using LaTeX in Overleaf

Welcome to a guide suitable for novice or expierienced users on formatting a research paper using LaTeX. LaTeX is a typesetting language that gives users vast control on how they format their papers. Through these instructions you will find a clear and direct guide that will allow easy navigation through Overleaf and Latex.

Estimated time: 15-30 minutes depending on your familiarity with LaTeX. 

Materials: 

Access to Overleaf

Step 1: Optional Background Information

For a better understanding of LaTeX and Overleaf, consider following the link below for a thirty-minute tutorial on the basics of LaTeX.

https://www.overleaf.com/learn/latex/Learn_LaTeX_in_30_minutes

Step 2: Open Overleaf

Open Overleaf, sign in, and press create a blank document. Above is what you should see.

Step 3: Change the Document Class and Import User Packages

Change the document class and import the following user packages shown below: 

\usepackage{multirow} %allowed

\usepackage{listings} % allowed

\usepackage{amssymb} % allowed

\usepackage{natbib} % allowed

\usepackage{graphicx} % allowed

\usepackage{dirtytalk} % allowed 

To the right of your code is what your document should look like so far after compiling. 

Step 4: Include Author Information

Below the \author{} line, write the following lines to include additional details about the author: 

\affiliation{%

 \institution{University}

 \streetaddress{123 Street}

 \city{Chicago, IL}

 \country{USA}

Replace the information inside the curly brackets with the information of your author. If you would like to include another author replicate this step again. If you would like to include your authors contact information, such as their email, under the affiliation block, write: 

\email{[email protected]}

You can delete the \date{February 2024} line. Above is what your document should look like after compiling. 

Step 5: Add Abstract

Below the \begin{document} block you can begin writing your abstract block by writing: 

\begin{abstract}

On the line below, begin writing your abstract. After you finish writing your abstract, write \end{abstract} on the line below. 

Above is what your document should look like after compiling.

Step 6: Add Keywords

Below the abstract block begin adding the keywords section by writing 

\keywords{keyword, keyword2}

Replace the words inside the curly brackets with your keywords. Above is what your document should look like after compiling. 

Step 7: Add Sections

Below the \maketitle section begin adding additional sections by using the \section{} command. Put your section title in between the curly brackets. You should already have an introduction section added, but for a research paper, I recommend adding a Related Work, Methodology, Results, and Conclusion section. After each section you can write the content you have for each section. 

Above is what your document should look like after compiling. 

Step 8: Add Subsections

To create subsections, use the \subsection{} command directly below the relevant \section{} line. Add the title of your subsection in between the curly brackets. 

Step 9: Troubleshooting

It is very important to pay attention to case sensitivity. It is also important not to confuse \ with / in your document. Avoiding these syntax error will help your code run smoothly.  

Congratulations! You have begun to format a research paper using LaTeX. Your document should look similar to the picture above, with your title, authors information, abtract, sections, and subsections neatly organized. You can now begin to further customize your document for your specific purpose. 

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Writing papers using Latex – Part 1

After you have gone through the gruesome as well as the exciting task of completing your experiments and getting somewhat positive results for your research publication(maybe even your first). The next step is to prepare it for paper submission at a conference or journal.

Most conferences will follow the proceedings template of either ACM (generally, SIGCONF) or Springer (generally, LLCNS). Generally, they provide two formats or templates :

• Word or RTF(Rich text format)

If you have a very short time in hand and are new to Latex, I will recommend going with the Word format and making the submission before the deadline. After that, you will get a lot of time to learn.

In another article , I describe how to follow a top-tier research conference and the components of a conference website.

If you want to avoid the hassles of a local tex installation, Overleaf is a great alternative and is widely used.

Learning resources:

• 7-part video series teaching Latex to beginners
• Latex tutorial Blog series

However, the first drawback of Overleaf is that you need to always have access to a stable Internet connection because it is an online editor and does not work offline.

Secondly, a more practical drawback that we faced was that before the deadline of a top-tier conference, Overleaf sometimes would stop working. It may be because a large number of requests are being made at the same time, which may result in overloading the system (online server).

To be on the safe side and to avoid last-minute crashes, you should always have a local Tex installation in place.

In the first part, I will explain the points you should take care of writing the first draft of the paper and in the second part, I provide the installation steps for setting up your Tex environment and a Latex editor like TexMaker or Gummi.

As a continuation of this article, in Part 2 , I discuss how to convert it into the format required for the paper submission at a particular conference. This is generally detailed in the author submission toolkit that is made available on the conference website

The bare minimum required for writing a paper

Here, I am going to cover the basics that will take less than 1 hour to learn and enough to write your first paper in Latex.

1. Write the first draft in plain Word: 

Be ready with the first rough draft of the paper covering all the sections, before you start formatting using Latex. I personally write the individual sections in Word as it helps me focus, with nothing else cluttering my writing space.

My personal writing order is :

• Stage 1: Abstract – Spend a lot of time on time. Perfect it and make the storyline solid. The entire paper depends on it. So, first, get the Abstract right.
• Stage 2: Methodology -> Experiments and Results -> Introduction
• Stage 3: Prior Art, Dataset, Conclusion, and Future Work

You can even start converting to paper submission format after Stage 2 even. I found this blog series targeted at Ph.D. students to be particularly helpful. 

2. Download the Latex template using the link from the conference website

  Every conference provides “Author guidelines” , which you find under :

• Call for papers (CFP in short)
• Author guidelines

Under the given sections, they will provide links to pages for downloading the template. 

How to navigate the “Call for Papers” (CFP) page of a conference website. The following tutorial from WiNLP 2021 , slides numbers 8 to 14, explains each segment of a CFP, specifically of ACL-IJCNLP 2021 in detail.

 3. Install Texlive on your system :

  I recommend installing a minimal version of TexLive, which is sufficient. In the near future, if some packages are missing you can always get them from CTAN . If you want you can also go with “texlive-full” installation, which requires around 4211MB of additional space.

In Ubuntu 16.04 and above :

4. Install a Latex IDE:

  I recommend installing both TexMaker and Gummi. I have been using it for some months now and faced no issues to date.

5. Test your final environment: 

Copy and paste the following Latex code segment. In Gummi, if you see only a single pane, then activate the “Right pane” option under “View”. By default, you should see the output. In Texmaker, you need to press F1 or select “Quick Build” under “Tools”.

Congratulations on setting up!

You will see the below screen in Gummi. I have covered the Latex basics in another article .

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Using LaTeX for writing research papers

Many researchers are  using   Microsoft Word   for  writing research papers . However, Microsoft Word has several problems or limitations.  In this blog post, I will discuss the use of  LaTeX  as an alternative to Microsoft Word for  writing research papers .

What is LaTeX?

LaTeX  is a  document preparation system,  proposed in the 1980s. It is used to  create documents  such as  research   papers , books, or even slides for presentations.

The key difference between  LaTeX  and software like  Microsoft Word  is that Microsoft Word let you directly edit your document and immediately see the result, while  using   LaTeX  is a bit like programming. To write a  research  paper  using   LaTeX , you have to write a text file with the  .tex  extension  using  a formatting language to roughly indicate how your paper should look like. Then, you can run the  LaTeX  engine to generate a PDF file of your  research  paper. The following figure illustrate this process:

In the above example, I have created a very simple  LaTeX  document ( Example.tex ) and then I have generated the corresponding PDF for visualization ( Example.pdf ).

Why using LaTeX?

There are several reasons why many researchers prefer  LaTeX  to Microsoft Word for  writing   research   papers . I will explain some of them, and then I will discuss also some problems about  using   LaTeX .

Reason 1: LaTeX papers generally look better

LaTeX   papers  often look better than  papers  written  using  Microsoft Word. This is especially true for fields like computer science, mathematics and engineering where mathematical equations are used.  To illustrate this point, I will show you some screenshots of a  paper  that I have written for the ADMA 2012 conference a few years ago. For this paper, I had made two versions: one  using  the Springer LNCS  LaTeX  template and the other one  using  the Springer LNCS Microsoft Word template.

This is the first page of the paper.

The first page is quite similar. The main difference is the font being used, which is different  using   LaTeX . Personally, I prefer the default  LaTeX  font. Now let’s compare how the mathematical equations appears in  Latex  and Word.

Here, we can see that mathematical symbols are more beautiful  using   LaTeX . For example, the set union  and the subset inclusion operators are in my opinion quite ugly in Microsoft Word. The set union operator of Word looks too much like the letter “U”. In this example, the mathematical equations are quite simple. But  LaTeX  really shines when displaying more complex mathematical equations, for example  using  matrices.

Now let’s look at another paragraph of text from the paper to further compare the appearance of Word and  LaTeX   papers :

In the above picture,  it can be argued that both  LaTeX  and Word  papers  look quite similar. For me, the big difference is again in the font being used. In the Springer Word  template, the Times New Roman font, while  LaTeX  has its own default font.  I prefer the  LaTeX  font. Also, I think that the URLs look better in  LaTeX   using  the  url  package.

Reason 2: LaTeX is available for all platforms

The  LaTeX  system is free and available for most operating systems, and documents will look the same on all operating systems.

To install  LaTeX  on your computer you need to install a  LaTeX  distribution such as MikTeK  ( https://miktex.org/ ). After installing  LaTeX , you can start working on  LaTeX  documents  using  a text editor such as Notepad. However, it is more convenient to also install an editor such as TexWorks or WinShell. Personally, I use TexWorks.  This is a screenshot of my working environment  using  TexWorks:

I will open my  LaTeX  document on the left window. Then, the right window will display the PDF generated by  LaTeX . Thus, I can work on the  LaTeX  code of my documents on the left and see the result on the right.

If you want to try  LaTeX  without installing it on your computer, you can use an online  LaTeX  editor such as  ShareLatex  (http://www.sharelatex.org ) or  OverLeaf.   Using  these editors, it is not necessary to install  LaTeX  on your computer. I personally sometimes use ShareLatex as it also has some function for collaboration (history, chat, etc.), which is very useful when working on a  research  paper with other people.

Reason 3: LaTeX offers many packages

Besides the basic functionalities of  LaTeX , you can install hundreds of packages to add more features to  LaTeX . If you use MikTek for example, there is a tool called the “MikTek package manager” that let you choose and install packages.  There are packages for about everything from packages to display algorithms to packages for displaying chessboards. For example, here is some algorithm pseudocode that I have written in one of my recent  paper  using  a  LaTeX  package called  algorithm2e :

As you can see the presentation of the algorithm is quite nice. Doing the same  using  Word would be very difficult. For example, it would be quite difficult to add a vertical line for the “for” loop  using  Microsoft Word.

Reason 4: You don’t need to worry about how your document will look like

When  writing  a  LaTeX  document, you don’t need to worry about how your final document will look like. For example, you don’t need to worry about where the figures and tables will appear in your document or where the page breaks will be.  All of this is handled by the  LaTeX  engine during the compilation of your document. When  writing  document, you only need to use some basic formatting instructions such as indicating when a new section starts in your document. This let you focus on  writing .

Reason 5: LaTeX can generate and update your bibliography automatically

Another reason for  using   LaTeX  is that it can generate the bibliography of a document automatically. There are different ways of  writing  a bibliography  using   LaTeX . One of the most common way is to use a  .bib file.  A .bib file provide  a list of references that can be used in your  document.  Then, you can use these references in your  .tex  document  using  the  \cite{}  command and the bibliography will be automatically generated.

I will illustrate this with an example:

A), I have created a  Latex  document (a . tex  file) where I cite a paper called “efim”  using  the  LaTeX  command  \cite{efim} .

B) I have created a corresponding  LaTeX   bib  file that provides bibliographical information about the “efim” paper.

C) I have generated  the PDF file  using  the   .tex  file and the  .bib  file.  As you can see, the \cite{} command has been replaced by 25, and the corresponding entry 25 has been automatically generated in the correct format for this paper and added to the bibliography.

The function for generating a bibliography  using   LaTeX  can save a lot of time to researchers especially for documents containing many references such as thesis, books, and journal  papers .

Moreover, once you have created a  .bib  file, you can reuse it in many different  papers .  And  it is also very easy to change the style of your bibliography. For example, if you want to change from the APA style to the IEEE style, it can be done almost automatically, which saves lot of time.

In Microsoft Word, there is some basic tool for generating a bibliography but it provides much less features than  LaTeX .

Reason 6: LaTeX works very well for large documents

LaTeX  also provides many features that are useful for large documents such as  Ph.D thesis  and  books . These features include generating tables of contents, tables of figures, and dividing a document into several files. Some of these features are also provided in Microsoft Word but are not as flexible as in  LaTeX . I have personally written both my M.Sc. and Ph.D. thesis  using   LaTeX  and I have saved a lot of time by doing this. I have simply downloaded the  LaTeX  style file from my university and then used it in my  LaTeX  document, and after that all my thesis was properly formatted according to the university style, without too much effort.

Problems of LaTeX

Now, let’s talk about the disadvantage or problems faced  using   LaTeX . The first problem is that there is a somewhat  steep learning curve .  LaTeX  is actually not so difficult to learn but it is more difficult than  using  Word. It is necessary to learn various commands for preparing  LaTeX  documents. Moreover, some errors are not so easy to debug. However, the good news is that there exist some good places to ask questions  and obtain answers when encountering problems with  LaTeX  such as Tex.StackExchange ( http://tex.stackexchange.com/ ).  There also exist some free books such as the  Not So Short Introduction To  LaTeX   that are quite good for learning  LaTeX , and that I use as reference.  Actually, although, there is a steep learning curve, I think that it is an excellent investment to learn to use  LaTeX  for researchers. Moreover, some journals in academia actually only accept  LaTeX   papers .

The second problem with  LaTeX  is that it is actually not necessary to use  LaTeX  for  writing  simple documents.   LaTeX  is best used for large documents or documents with complex layouts or for special needs such as displaying mathematical equations and algorithms.  I personally use  LaTeX  only for  writing   research   papers . For other things, I use Microsoft Word. Some people also use  LaTeX  for preparing slides  using  packages such as  beamer , instead of  using  Powerpoint. This can be useful for preparing a presentation with lot of mathematical equations.

In this blog post, I have discussed the use of  LaTeX  for  writing   research   papers . I hope that you have enjoyed this blog post.

— Philippe Fournier-Viger  is a professor of Computer Science and also the founder of the  open-source data mining software SPMF,  offering more than 120 data mining algorithms.

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Academic Paper

Here we present a standard format for academic papers, using a two column layout.

This example lets you get started right away, and includes some sample text and formulae to help learn how to write LaTeX.

Click below to get started.

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