latex-academic

Academic LaTeX — Working Guide

Use this to set up and troubleshoot LaTeX manuscripts for AEC/engineering venues. A starter template is in article-template.tex next to this file (reference it with ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT} or copy it for the user).

1. Choose the right document class (match the venue)

Elsevier (Automation in Construction, Energy and Buildings, etc.): elsarticle (\documentclass[ review,3p,times]{elsarticle}; use model5-names/elsarticle-num bib styles).
IEEE: IEEEtran (\documentclass[journal]{IEEEtran} or [conference]).
ASCE: the ascelike-new class (\documentclass[Journal]{ascelike-new}), ASCE bib style.
Springer: sn-jnl (Springer Nature) or legacy svjour3.
ACM: acmart.
Generic/thesis: article/report/book or institutional thesis class; memoir/koma-script for control.

Download the venue's official template first; don't hand-roll formatting a class already provides.

2. Minimal structure

\documentclass[11pt]{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}      % (modern: use lualatex/xelatex + fontspec)
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{graphicx,booktabs,siunitx,amsmath,amssymb}
\usepackage[hidelinks]{hyperref}
\usepackage[capitalise]{cleveref}
\title{...}\author{...}\date{}
\begin{document}\maketitle
\begin{abstract}...\end{abstract}
\section{Introduction}...
\bibliographystyle{elsarticle-num}\bibliography{references}
\end{document}

3. Bibliography (two routes — don't mix)

BibTeX + natbib (classic, what most publisher styles ship): \usepackage[numbers]{natbib} (or author-year), \bibliographystyle{<style>.bst}, \bibliography{references}; cite with \citep{}/\citet{}.
BibLaTeX + biber (modern, flexible): \usepackage[style=ieee,backend=biber]{biblatex}, \addbibresource{references.bib}, cite with \autocite{}/\textcite{}, print with \printbibliography.
Keep one references.bib (see citation-formats for entry hygiene: braces around acronyms {BIM}, -- page ranges, bare doi). Compile order (BibTeX): pdflatex → bibtex → pdflatex → pdflatex.

4. Figures & tables (publication quality)

\begin{figure}[t]
  \centering
  \includegraphics[width=.8\linewidth]{figs/workflow.pdf}  % vector PDF/EPS for diagrams
  \caption{Research workflow.}\label{fig:workflow}
\end{figure}

Use vector (PDF/EPS/SVG→PDF) for diagrams/plots, high-DPI for photos. Refer with \cref{fig:workflow}.
Tables: booktabs (\toprule\midrule\bottomrule) — no vertical rules. Caption above tables, below figures. siunitx's S columns align numbers on the decimal.
Subfigures: subcaption (\begin{subfigure}), not the obsolete subfigure package.

5. Math & units

Equations: equation/align (amsmath); never use eqnarray. Reference with \eqref{}.
Units & quantities: siunitx — \qty{2.5}{\kilo\watt\hour\per\meter\squared}, \num{1.2e-3}, \SI (legacy). Consistent significant figures; correct unit spacing handled automatically.
Use $...$ for inline math (not $...$ in new code is fine too); define notation once.

6. Cross-referencing & good practice

cleveref (\cref, \Cref) auto-prefixes "Fig./Table/Eq./Sec." and handles ranges — label everything (fig:, tab:, eq:, sec: prefixes) and never hardcode numbers.
hyperref last (or per package-order rules; load cleveref after hyperref).
One sentence per line in the source → cleaner git diff for collaboration.
Comment out, don't delete, while drafting; use \todo{} (todonotes) for review notes.

7. Overleaf & collaboration

Overleaf for real-time co-authoring; set the compiler (pdfLaTeX vs XeLaTeX/LuaLaTeX — the latter for custom fonts/Unicode) and TeX Live version to match the template.
Use Git/Overleaf-Git integration for version control; keep figs/ and references.bib in-repo.
For large theses: \input/\include per chapter, latexmk for builds, glossaries for acronyms.

8. Troubleshooting quick hits

"Undefined control sequence" → missing \usepackage.
Citations show as [?] → run BibTeX/biber, then re-run LaTeX twice; check .bib key & style.
"Overfull \hbox" → long URLs/words; use \sloppy, microtype, or url/\url{} line-breaking.
Float placement chaos → use [t]/[b], \clearpage, or the placeins/\FloatBarrier trick; don't fight it with [H] (float package) except sparingly.
Wrong reference style → you're using the wrong .bst/biblatex style; match the venue.
Unicode errors on pdfLaTeX → switch to LuaLaTeX/XeLaTeX or escape characters.

See article-template.tex (bundled) for a clean, commented starting point.