LaTeX paper template

This repository serves as a template for LaTeX papers. Furthermore, it guides you to the process of writing a scientific paper using LaTeX for a computer science conference or journal. The repository contains several different paper formats (acmart, llncs, and preprints). The content is explained below in Repo Content.

Basic steps are

1. Set up and rename the repository.

2. Manage collaborators, permissions and links to the repository

3. Create a work-plan and distribute tasks

4. Document your research to allow for greater reproducibility

5. Select templates and plan paper outline

6. Write the paper collaboratively on GitHub

7. Get your paper proofread

8. Format shorten and submit

9. Get the preprint

10. submit to arxiv and archive the repo

Repo Content

For writing your paper you only need to consider the files with numbers in front 01-08. When ever you push your changes to github, it automatically compiles your files (takes about 3min). You find all important files under releases.

If you want to compile your files locally, take one the following files:

• acm.tex if you submit to an acm conference with sigconf format
• llncs.tex if you submit to a conference with the LLNCS format
• article_preprint.tex for a preprint version with the article format (one column)
• acm_preprint.tex for the preprint version with the acmart format (two columns)

You do not need to change these files in general! All you need to change to edit the content of your paper, edit the files with numbers in front 01-08. If you know you don't need acm, than you can ignore all numbered files followed by acm, e.g. 05_acm_authors.tex. Likewise, if you do not need LLNCS at all, you can ignore the files with llncs in it.

Here is an explaination for each file:

1. 01_title.tex defines the title and short title of the paper. If you do not have a short (also known as running title), just keep it argument for shortTitle empty.
2. 02_abstract.tex contains the abstract of your paper.
3. 03_mainmatter.tex contains the entire paper content, with sections, textes, figures, etc.
4. 04_keywords.tex contains the keywords for your paper. If you don't have any, simply delete the content of this file.
5. 05_[acm|llncs]_authors.tex defines the authors of your paper. Change the file that fits your conference format. For acm use 05_acm_authors.tex. Unfortunately, the formats are restrictive how to setup authors. Hence, we recommend you change the authors for both 05_acm_authors.tex and 05_llncs_authors.tex. Hence, all generated PDFs show the correct authors, also the preprints.
6. 06_[acm|llncs]_acknowledgments.tex defines the acknowledgments. If you dont have any, just delete the content of the file.
7. 07_reference.tex contains the reference to this paper. This is needed once you want to publish your preprint! Here you enter the bib-reference to your paper.
8. 08_acm_categories.tex you only need to bother with this file if you submit to an acm conference. In this case, change the categories accordingly.

Double Blind: For double-blind proceedings in acm format, simply the first line in acm.tex to:

\documentclass[sigconf,natbib=false,anonymous]{acmart}

Packages: If you require more packages, add them to header.tex. Check the releases on GitHub, when you add more packages. Sometimes there are conflicts that appear in different formats.

Preprints: The generated preprints are the official preprint layout from ag-gipp. If you publish your preprints on arxiv, you need to upload only either article-arxiv.tar.gz or acm-arxiv.tar.gz. They contains all files necessary for arxiv to compile your paper. If you want to check how your preprints look like, simply check the preprint pdfs in releases: article_preprint.pdf and acm_preprint.pdf.

What are the other files in releases? You will also find main.docx which is a word version of your latex llncs-formatted paper (not acm-formatted). You also find spellcheck.html which is a spellchecker also based on your llncs-formatted paper.

1) Set up and rename the repository

To start a new LaTeX paper project, do the following:

1. Consider starting with Word: Writing in LaTeX comes with some overhead. If you are unsure if your paper project will mature and be eventually submitted start with a word document. Also, consult the corresponding wikipage. If you just created this repository, please consider deleting it.
2. Rename the GitHub repository according to the following naming convention YYConfTopic. Here YY is the year of the publication, Conf is the Camel-case acronym of the conference, e.g, Jcdl, Sigir, or Neurips. Topic is a descriptive word for your paper projekt to distinguish it from other papers from the group submitted to the same conference. You can update the name later, especially if you decide to change the conference.
3. Generate a GitHub token and check the repo permissions (the first group). This enables automated features of this repository, like the creation of PDF, spellchecking or conversion to a word document.
4. Set up the GITHUB_TOKEN on travis. Log in to travis and identify the newly created repository. From the repository go to More options -> Settings. Eventually, you should end up at the following URL https://travis-ci.com/ag-gipp/YYConfTopic/settings, where YYConfTopic is your repo name as described above. In the section Environment Variables, create a new variable and pass the token you generated in the last step. 1) Change the title of the paper in the file header.tex. If you set up the environment variables correctly, the PDF, Word and Spellcheck document should appear in about 5 minutes after the change as release.
5. Retrigger the initial build and ensure that the build passes. You should see the first release in the releases section.

2) Manage collaborators, permissions and links to the repository

Take a moment to review the permissions and settings of your new repo. Invite collaborators that are on GitHub. Contact other collaborators and ask for their GitHub account names. Also, link the newly created repository from the corresponding issue in JIRA and to the Confluence page.

3) Create a work-plan and distribute tasks

After having invited all collaborators to the repository make a work plan, e.g. using Github issues. Make sure to schedule the work ahead. Discuss with your collaborators the distribution of the workload. Only a significant contribution warrants the co-authorship on the paper. It is the job of the first author to manage all coauthors and to ensure that everyone contributes their fair share to the project.

4) Document your research to allow for greater reproducibility

You can use this GitHub Repository to document your daily progress on the research project. For example, create a folder called log and create a plaintext or markdown file. Before you stop working on the project, document the most critical steps you did. Copy and paste locations and commands you used during your research including links to help pages and screenshots. Spending 5 minutes before leaving might save 1 hour the next day.

5) Select templates and plan paper outline

Consult the conference website on the requirements regarding formatting. Decide if you are heading for a long or a short paper. Plan the length of the sections individually

6) Write the paper collaboratively on GitHub

If multiple co-authors are contributing to the document text it might be most convenient to split the paper into different files so that each coauthor works on its own file. Otherwise, only the first author should do changes to the repository. Other co-authors should use pull-request to submit changes.

7) Get your paper proofread

Be sure to get your paper proofread at least one week prior to the submission deadline. See the hints in the wiki.

8) Format shorten and submit

Plan one day to format and shorten the paper. Be sure to commit regularly so that you can revert changes if something goes wrong. After you are done with reformatting, ensure that all your coauthors review the paper before submission.

9) Get the preprint

After your paper was accepted, the first author should carefully review the step-by-step instructions in the wiki

10) submit to arxiv and archive the repo