LaTeX Templates for Academic Papers

This repository contains LaTeX templates for writing academic papers.

Repository Structure

latex/
  |-- informs-template/     # INFORMS journal submissions (flat structure)
  |-- common-template/      # General templates (flat structure)
  |-- latex-coding-style.md # LaTeX coding guidelines

Getting Started

For INFORMS Journal Submissions

1. Copy the informs-template/ folder to your project
2. Rename template-informs.tex to your paper name
3. Compile with pdflatex + bibtex

cp -r informs-template/ my-informs-paper/
cd my-informs-paper/
mv template-informs.tex my-paper.tex
pdflatex my-paper.tex && bibtex my-paper && pdflatex my-paper.tex && pdflatex my-paper.tex

Change the journal by modifying the document class option:

\documentclass[opre,sglanonrev]{informs4}  % Operations Research
\documentclass[mnsc,dblanonrev]{informs4}  % Management Science
\documentclass[moor,sglanonrev]{informs4}  % Math of OR

Review options:

• sglanonrev - Single anonymous (non-blind)
• dblanonrev - Double anonymous (blind)

For General Papers (Working Papers, Course Projects)

1. Copy the common-template/ folder to your project
2. Use template-plain.tex for general papers
3. Use template-RGC.tex for RGC grant proposals

cp -r common-template/ my-paper/
cd my-paper/
mv template-plain.tex my-paper.tex
pdflatex my-paper.tex && bibtex my-paper && pdflatex my-paper.tex && pdflatex my-paper.tex

Template Contents

informs-template/

informs-template/
  |-- template-informs.tex  # Main template
  |-- preamble.tex          # Packages, macros (supplements informs4.cls)
  |-- informs4.cls          # Document class (fonts, hyperref, natbib, theorems)
  |-- informs2014.bst       # Bibliography style
  |-- ref.bib               # Sample bibliography
  |-- tikz/                 # TikZ figures (optional)
  |     |-- setup.tex       # TikZ/pgfplots packages
  |     |-- figure-*.tex    # Figure source files
  |-- pictures/             # Other graphics (JPG, PNG, PDF)

common-template/

common-template/
  |-- template-plain.tex    # General paper template
  |-- template-RGC.tex      # RGC grant proposal template
  |-- preamble.tex          # Packages, theorems, macros
  |-- ref.bib               # Sample bibliography
  |-- tikz/                 # TikZ figures (optional)
  |     |-- setup.tex       # TikZ/pgfplots packages
  |     |-- figure-*.tex    # Figure source files
  |-- pictures/             # Other graphics (JPG, PNG, PDF)

Preamble Contents

Both templates use a preamble.tex file that provides:

Packages:

• Math: amsmath, amssymb, amsthm, mathtools, mathrsfs, bm
• Tables: booktabs, multirow, array
• Figures: graphicx, caption, subcaption
• Typography: microtype, babel, setspace
• Hyperlinks: hyperref, bookmark
• Bibliography: natbib
• Algorithms: algorithm2e (optional)

Theorem environments:

• theorem, lemma, proposition, corollary
• definition, assumption, remark, example

Common macros:

• Number sets: \R, \Z, \N, \Q, \C
• Probability: \E, \Var, \Cov, \pr, \ind{}
• Operators: \argmin, \argmax
• Brackets: \abs{}, \norm{}, \inner{}{}, \floor{}, \ceil{}, \pos{}
• Convergence: \dto, \pto, \asto

Note: The INFORMS template's preamble.tex is lighter because informs4.cls already includes many packages.

TikZ Support

TikZ packages are in tikz/setup.tex. If your paper doesn't use TikZ figures, remove this line from your template:

\input{tikz/setup.tex}

This reduces compilation time and avoids loading unnecessary packages.

Bibliography

The ref.bib files are samples. You should:

1. Create your own .bib file for your research project, or
2. Replace the contents with your own references

Keep only the references you actually cite in your paper.

Coding Style

See latex-coding-style.md for guidelines on writing clean, maintainable LaTeX code.

Key points:

• One sentence per line (helps with git diff and backward search)
• Use proper labeling: \label{eq:name}, \label{thm:name}, \label{sec:name}
• Use equation environment, avoid \[...\]
• Create figures with TikZ/pgfplot
• Never comment out large chunks of code - delete or highlight instead