How would this be used?

[BioDocPete]

Formatting before sending out for review?
Formatting of the final version for posting the version that the journal does not own?

[eddelbuettel]

These questions for your workflow with your submission seem a little orthogonal to us "merely" providing a helpful template.

I had papers in the past where the draft was done with such RMarkdown templates. You get a LaTeX document as an intermediary output. Fine-tuning to editor and journal specifications is than possible from the LaTeX document.