Overview
LaTeX templates, formatting requirements, and writing-style guidance for academic journals, conferences, posters, and grants. Provides ready-to-use templates plus references that cover many more venues than are bundled.
When to Use This Skill
Use this skill when you need venue-specific formatting (templates, page/word limits, citation style, figure specs, anonymization rules, mandatory checklists and statements) or style (tone, abstract format, reviewer priorities) for a journal, conference, poster session, or funder.
Does NOT Trigger
| Scenario | Use Instead |
|---|---|
| Drafting or tightening the manuscript's prose itself | alterlab-scientific-writing |
| Grant argumentation — Specific Aims, significance, broader impacts strategy | alterlab-research-grants |
| Designing and laying out the poster itself in LaTeX | alterlab-latex-posters |
| Turkish journal / TR Dizin formatting and Turkish APA 7 | alterlab-tr-academic-style |
| Building or cleaning the bibliography (.bib) | alterlab-citation-mgmt |
What's Bundled
6 ready-to-use LaTeX templates in assets/:
| Type | File | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Journal | assets/journals/nature_article.tex |
Nature, single column |
| Journal | assets/journals/plos_one.tex |
PLOS ONE |
| Conference | assets/journals/neurips_article.tex |
NeurIPS, \documentclass{article} (single column) |
| Poster | assets/posters/beamerposter_academic.tex |
beamerposter, A0 customizable |
| Grant | assets/grants/nsf_proposal_template.tex |
NSF project description |
| Grant | assets/grants/nih_specific_aims.tex |
NIH Specific Aims page |
Formatting references in references/: journals_formatting.md, conferences_formatting.md, posters_guidelines.md, grants_requirements.md. These cover many venues beyond the bundled templates (Science, Cell Press, IEEE, ACM, ICML, ICLR, CVPR, CHI, ISMB, DOE, DARPA, foundations).
Writing-style guides in references/: venue_writing_styles.md (master overview), nature_science_style.md, cell_press_style.md, medical_journal_styles.md, ml_conference_style.md, cs_conference_style.md, reviewer_expectations.md.
Writing examples in assets/examples/: nature_abstract_examples.md, neurips_introduction_example.md, cell_summary_example.md, medical_structured_abstract.md.
Workflow
- Identify the venue. Journal, conference, poster, or grant agency.
- Query template + requirements. Run
query_template.py(below) or read the relevantreferences/*.md. Verify currency against the official author guidelines — venue style files change yearly. - Customize the template. Use
customize_template.pyor edit placeholders by hand. - For writing register, load the matching style guide and check
reviewer_expectations.md. - Validate + compile. Run
validate_format.pyon the PDF, then compile.
# Compile (run pdflatex 2-3x, or use latexmk for automatic rerun handling)
latexmk -pdf my_paper.tex
Helper Scripts
All scripts are stdlib Python; run from the skill root.
query_template.py — find templates and requirements
python scripts/query_template.py --list-all
python scripts/query_template.py --venue "Nature" --type journals
python scripts/query_template.py --venue "NeurIPS" --requirements
python scripts/query_template.py --keyword "machine learning"
customize_template.py — fill in title/authors/affiliations
--template takes the bare filename (not a path); the script searches assets/{journals,posters,grants}/ for it.
python scripts/customize_template.py \
--template nature_article.tex \
--title "Novel Approach to Protein Folding" \
--authors "Jane Doe, John Smith" \
--affiliations "MIT, Stanford" \
--email "doe@mit.edu" \
--output my_paper.tex
# Interactive picker
python scripts/customize_template.py --interactive
validate_format.py — check a compiled PDF against venue specs
Requires pdfinfo (poppler). Checks page count, margins, fonts heuristically.
python scripts/validate_format.py --file my_paper.pdf --venue "Nature" --check-all
python scripts/validate_format.py --file my_paper.pdf --venue "NeurIPS" --check page-count,fonts
python scripts/validate_format.py --file proposal.pdf --venue "NSF" --report validation.txt
Quick Reference
Page limits (typical — always re-verify yearly)
| Venue | Limit | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Nature Article | ~5 pp | ~3000 words excluding refs |
| Science Report | ~5 pp | figures count toward limit |
| PLOS ONE | none | unlimited length |
| NeurIPS 2026 | 9 pp | + unlimited refs/appendix; paper checklist mandatory (desk reject without it) |
| ICML 2026 | 8 pp | 9 pp camera-ready; impact statement mandatory (not counted) |
| ICLR 2027 | 9 pp | 10 pp in rebuttal and camera-ready; AI-use statement required |
| CVPR 2026 | 8 pp | excluding references; official author kit required |
| CHI 2027 | 5,000-8,000 words | word-based; single-column acmart manuscript format for review |
| NSF | 15 pp | project description only |
| NIH R01 | 12 pp | research strategy |
Citation style
| Venue | Style |
|---|---|
| Nature / Science | numbered superscript |
| PLOS / IEEE | numbered brackets (Vancouver / IEEE) |
| Cell Press | author-year |
| ACM | numbered |
| NeurIPS / ICML | numbered brackets |
Figure specs
| Venue | Resolution | Format | Color |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nature | 300+ dpi | TIFF, EPS, PDF | RGB or CMYK |
| Science | 300+ dpi | TIFF, PDF | RGB |
| PLOS | 300–600 dpi | TIFF, EPS | RGB |
| IEEE | 300+ dpi | EPS, PDF | RGB or grayscale |
NeurIPS at a glance
Single-column (text block 5.5 × 9 in), Times 10pt, 9-page main text for 2026 (+ unlimited refs/appendix), numbered bracket citations, anonymization required for the double-blind initial submission, and the NeurIPS Paper Checklist appended after the appendices (missing checklist = desk rejection). Official style file (neurips_2026.sty for 2026) changes annually; colorblind-safe figures recommended.
Why Style Matters
The same results read very differently across venues. Load the matching guide before drafting:
- Nature/Science (
nature_science_style.md): accessible to non-specialists, story-driven, broad significance, flowing-paragraph abstract. - Cell Press (
cell_press_style.md): mechanistic depth, graphical abstract, Highlights, eTOC. - Medical (
medical_journal_styles.md): patient-centered, evidence-graded, structured abstracts (NEJM/Lancet/JAMA/BMJ). - ML conferences (
ml_conference_style.md): contribution bullets, ablations, reproducibility. - CS conferences (
cs_conference_style.md): field-specific conventions (ACL, EMNLP, CHI, SIGKDD). reviewer_expectations.md: what reviewers prioritize per venue and rebuttal tips.
Best Practices
- Verify currency: compare bundled templates against the latest official author guidelines (links in the references).
- Use the official style file where one exists; don't tweak margins/fonts (grounds for desk rejection at many venues).
- Preserve required structure: don't remove required sections or packages when customizing.
- Check page limits and anonymization before submission; remove identifying info for double-blind venues.
- Check required statements: many venues now require a checklist, impact statement, limitations section, or AI-use disclosure (e.g. NeurIPS checklist, ICML impact statement, ACL Limitations section, ICLR AI-use statement).
External author guidelines
- Nature: https://www.nature.com/nature/for-authors
- Science: https://www.science.org/content/page/instructions-authors
- PLOS: https://plos.org/resources/
- Cell Press: https://www.cell.com/author-guidelines
- NeurIPS: https://neurips.cc/ · ICML: https://icml.cc/ · ICLR: https://iclr.cc/ · CVPR: https://cvpr.thecvf.com/ · ACL Rolling Review: https://aclrollingreview.org/
- NSF PAPPG: https://www.nsf.gov/policies/pappg
- NIH: https://grants.nih.gov/grants-process/write-application/how-to-apply-application-guide
- DOE: https://science.osti.gov/grants
Part of the AlterLab Academic Skills suite.