1 getwriting: A Minimal LATEX Template For Journal Articles

2 Notice the ORCID links, PhD * 1,2 , Emails are in the footnote †3
, and Usually only
‡1,3
3 this person’s email needs to be shown, PhD

1
4 Department of Science, University of Famoustown
2
5 Department of Mathematics, University of Lessfamoustown
3
6 Department of History, University of Historytown

7 Abstract

8 This is an example of the document that can be generated with the getwriting class. I
9 usually use this template or minor variations thereof to write manuscripts.
10 This is a tidy, minimal, readable, good enough format that has everything you need and noth-
11 ing you don’t. I offer a quick start to writing articles by including commonly used packages
12 and a template that matches the general format of most journal articles. I have kept avail-
13 able options to the bare minimum. If you really want to tweak something, edit the cls file. If
14 you need to reformat your document for journals later, it’s easy to copy and paste from this
15 template as there are no custom sections.
16 Don’t waste time formatting your document, just start writing.
17

18 Keywords: Article templates, Overleaf, minimal, bioRχiv, medRχiv, format-free submis-

20 1 Introduction

21 How to use this template:

22 1. If you got this template from the Overleaf Gallery: Easy, just edit as necessary. Keep

23 this tex file around for reference. Use a copy of this file to get started writing, and fill in

24 all the sections. I used the XeLaTex compiler Warning - I have submitted this to the
* [email protected]
†
[email protected]
‡
[email protected]

1
25 Overleaf Gallery, it is currently awaiting review.

26 2. If you didn’t get this template from the Overleaf Gallery:

27 a) If you’re a relative newcomer to LATEX and/or use Overleaf: Import all files in this

28 repository into Overleaf (yes, Overleaf, since it has the best package manager and

29 managing LATEX packages on a personal installation is a nightmare and you should be

30 writing. Edit a copy of this tex file as described above. Alternatively, view and copy

31 this project on Overleaf here https://www.overleaf.com/read/ytjyzbchkhhn.

32 b) If you use a local Tex installation: You can clone the GitHub repository from

33 https://github.com/mgp13/getwriting and use as needed. Alternatively, you can

34 fork the GitHub repository as a template.

35 This document uses the beautiful and free Atkinson Hyperlegible font, which is designed for

36 low-vision readers. You should consider doing the same. The TrueType font files are included

37 with this template and you can download the font from the Braille Institute here: https://

38 brailleinstitute.org/freefont.

39 Previous work has shown something, but not this, and I have cited a paper. 1

40 Look, this is a new paragraph. And here is some bold text. I can even italicize text.

41 I can refer to subsequent sections and elements like so: section 2 and modify the display text

42 like so: Look at figure 1!.

43 1.1 Disclaimers

44 This is a numbered subsection, by the way.

45 This template is provided as-is and I take no responsibility for any errors/disasters. I’m not

46 a LATEX expert even though I can typeset LATEX and I can even cite papers 1 and cross-reference

47 equations (Equation 1). Play with the .cls file, look it up on StackOverflow and/or the Overleaf

48 documentation, do whatever you like.

2
49 2 Results

50 2.1 Citations and cross-references

51 Here are some magnificent results. Previous work has shown something, but not this, and I

52 have cited a paper. 1

53 Here’s how to cross-reference a table: Table 1

54 Here is how I would typeset the name of a software package: software

55 2.2 All About Figures

56 Here is even more data. I can reference a figure to support my point section 7. You can find this

57 figure in section 7. You can even refer to a supplementary figure: section 8. Note the difference

58 in the figure title format. This is set by a renewcommand line in the Supplementary Information

59 section.

60 Speaking of figures, here are the rules for this minimal template. Most of these rules apply to

61 tables as well apart from the ones that don’t.

62 • Figures must all be in a section at the end. Don’t bother trying to have the figures near

63 where you reference them. This is a futile, time- consuming exercise & you should be

64 writing, not formatting. Notice how I formatted the ampersand (&).

65 • Each figure must start on a new page. This is the only clean way.

66 3 Materials and Methods

67 4 How to Format

68 4.1 All About Text Formatting

69 You should almost never highlight text in the interests of readability, but here’s how you can:

70 this is a highlighted phrase.

71 Consider italics, bold or emphasis instead.

73 this (α + β = γ), and basic chemical formulae or any text requiring super/sub-scripts in math

3
74 mode like this O2 , O2 , O1,2,3 .

75 4.2 All About Equations

76 I can refer to equation eq:refname like so: this is some text about Equation 1 and I can also

77 modify display text in the hyperlink like this (Equation 1 This is a string)

1 3
cos3 θ = cos θ + cos 3θ (1)
4 4

78 5 All About Lists

79 I can list things like this:

80 1. First item in a list

81 a) This is a subitem.

82 2. Second item in a list

83 Or even like this:

84 • First item in a list

85 • Second item in a list

86 But I really prefer multi-level lists like this: I have pre-set the enumerate package options

87 to show Arabic numerals for level 1, lower-case alphabet for level 2, and lower-case Roman

88 numerals for level 3. This is a sensible default and you’re unlikely to gain much from changing

89 them.

90 1. First item in an outline

91 a) Second item in an outline

92 i) Third item in an outline

93 2. Fourth item in an outline

94 a) Fifth item in an outline

4
95 6 Discussion

96 All rules are meant to be broken (for good reasons). Use this template as just that, a tem-

97 plate.

98 Happy writing!

5
99 7 Figures

Figure 1: Here is the title of my caption Here is text describing each panel in this figure.

This is a photograph by Bob Brewer and incidentally this is how you typeset a URL: https:

//unsplash.com/photos/sFsumfD7Pbs

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100 8 Tables

101 Rules for tables:

102 • Each table goes on a new page. All tables should be in this section.

103 • I only use the longtable and booktabs packages, regardless of the length of the tables.

104 These produce beautiful and readable tables. It’s easy to generate longtable code from a

105 CSV with Pandas: https://pandas.pydata.org/docs/reference/api/pandas.DataFrame.

106 to_latex.html

107 • The makecell command allows multi-lined cells.

108 An example table (Table 1) will start on the next page.

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Table 1: Here’s a table made with longtable and booktabs.

This is the loooooong caption.

Column 1 Column 2 Column 3

Row 1 something anything

Row 2 something anything

Row 3 something anything

Row 1 something anything

Row 2 something anything

Row 3 something anything

Row 1 something anything

Row 2 something anything

Row 3 something anything

Row 1 something anything

Row 2 something anything

Row 3 something anything

Row 1 something anything

Row 2 something anything

Row 3 something anything

Row 1 something anything

Row 2 something anything

Row 3 something anything

Row 1 something anything

Row 2 something anything

Row 3 something anything

Row 1 something anything

Row 2 something anything

Continued on next page

8
Table 1: This is the SHORT caption that is shown when a table

continues to the next page

Column 1 Column 2 Column 3

Row 3 something anything

Row 1 something anything

Row 2 something anything

Row 3 something anything

9
109 Funding

110 Thanks for the money.

111 Acknowledgements

112 Shoutout to all my friends.

113 Abbreviations

114 HIV: human immunodeficiency virus; DNA: deoxyribonucleic acid

10
115 Supplementary Information

116 Supplementary Information should start on a new page.

117 The redefinitions below will make sure that your supplementary figures and tables are referred

118 to as ’Supplementary Figure X’ and ’Supplementary Table Y’ respectively.

11
119 Supplementary Figures

Supplementary Figure 1: Here is a VERTICAL figure that I have CENTERED. Here is text

describing each panel in this figure. This is a photograph by Andreas Dress and you can find

the original here: https://unsplash.com/photos/NNe6epzHGm8

12
120 Supplementary Tables

121 Add some tables here.

13
122 References

123 [1] Palshikar, M. G.; Palli, R.; Tyrell, A.; Maggirwar, S.; Schifitto, G.; Singh, M. V.; Thakar, J. npj

124 Systems Biology and Applications 2022, 8, 35.

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