latex-research-paper

name	latex-research-paper
description	Generate complete, compilable LaTeX research papers in formal academic style with full section structure, BibTeX references, and figure support.
category	research

LaTeX Research Paper Generator

When to Use

Generate complete, compilable LaTeX research papers in formal academic style with full section structure, BibTeX references, and figure support.

Overview

This skill contains a reusable operational workflow. Follow the existing task-specific steps and examples in the sections below.

Pitfalls

• Do not hardcode credentials, tokens, or personal secrets.
• Verify external service URLs, paths, and permissions before making changes.
• Keep generated outputs reproducible and record input assumptions.

Verification

• Confirm required inputs and credentials are available.
• Run the smallest safe command or example before scaling up.
• Check produced files, API responses, or plots before reporting success.

Trigger Conditions

Use when the user asks to:

• Write a research paper in LaTeX
• Generate an academic manuscript
• Create a full paper draft (not just a template)
• Produce a compilable .tex document with all sections

Workflow

1. Title Slug Derivation

Convert the paper title into a directory name:

• Lowercase all characters
• Replace spaces with hyphens
• Remove all special characters (retain only [a-z0-9-])

Output path: /home/hermes/<titleslug>/

2. Directory & File Creation

Create the following structure:

/home/hermes/<titleslug>/
├── main.tex
├── references.bib
└── figures/          (only if figures are needed)

3. LaTeX Document Structure (main.tex)

Use \documentclass{article} with these packages (minimum set):

\usepackage{amsmath, amssymb}          % Math
\usepackage{graphicx}                  % Figures
\usepackage{hyperref}                  % Links
\usepackage{booktabs}                  % Tables
\usepackage{microtype}                 % Typography
\usepackage{geometry}                  % Margins
\geometry{margin=1in}

Mandatory sections (do NOT skip unless explicitly told otherwise):

1. Title and Author(s) — derive from context or use a reasonable placeholder
2. Abstract — concise summary of the problem, method, results, and conclusion
3. Introduction — problem statement, motivation, contributions
4. Related Work — survey of relevant literature (use \cite{} placeholders)
5. Methodology — approach, methods, framework, or experiments
6. Results — findings, quantitative outcomes, tables/figures
7. Discussion — interpretation, limitations, implications
8. Conclusion — summary, future work
9. References — \bibliographystyle{plain} + \bibliography{references}

4. Writing Style

• Formal academic tone throughout
• No conversational language, first-person plural preferred over first-person singular
• Precise technical terminology
• Logical flow between sections (explicit transitions)
• Include equations where appropriate (use equation or align environments)
• Include tables/figures when they add value (use table/figure environments with \caption and \label)

5. Citations & Bibliography

• Use \cite{key} throughout the text
• Generate realistic references.bib entries matching the topic
• Use plain bibliography style
• If specific references are provided, include them; otherwise, use plausible placeholder citations for the domain

6. Figures & Tables

• Place images in figures/ subdirectory
• Use placeholder paths: \includegraphics{figures/plot1.png}
• Add \caption{} and \label{} to every figure and table
• Reference figures/tables in text with \ref{}

7. Compilation Verification

After writing, compile to verify:

cd /home/hermes/<titleslug>/
rm -f main.aux main.log main.out main.toc main.bbl main.blg  # clean stale files first
pdflatex main.tex
bibtex main
pdflatex main.tex
pdflatex main.tex

Fix any compilation errors. The document must compile cleanly.

Practical compilation pitfalls:

• Missing images: Always use \usepackage[draft]{graphicx} so missing image files fall back to draft boxes instead of fatal errors
• \\textquote{} is NOT standard LaTeX: It requires the csquotes package. Use standard LaTeX ``quotes'' or \\textit{} for inline quotes
• At least 2 pdflatex passes + bibtex between them are required for citations to resolve and cross-references to stabilize
• Clean stale aux files before compiling to avoid phantom "undefined reference" warnings from old runs

7.1 Quality Checklist

• Directory name correctly derived from title
• All 9 mandatory sections present
• Uses draft mode for graphicx (unless images are real files)
• No undefined control sequences (verify \\textquote isn't used — replace with ``quotes'' or standard alternatives)
• Compiles without errors (clean aux files → pdflatex → bibtex → pdflatex ×2)
• Formal academic tone throughout
• Citations in text match entries in references.bib
• Figures/tables have captions, labels, and are referenced in text
• Equations properly formatted with LaTeX math environments

7.2 Generating Diagrams for Papers

When the user asks for architecture diagrams or figures:

1. Generate with Python/matplotlib (not as placeholder text):

   • Write a standalone Python script in figures/generate_<name>.py
   • Use matplotlib.use('Agg') (headless)
   • Set fig, ax = plt.subplots(..., facecolor=BG_COLOR)
   • Use FancyBboxPatch for cards — CRITICAL: use facecolor='none' NOT facecolor='transparent' — matplotlib's colors.to_rgba throws a ValueError on 'transparent'
   • Output to figures/<name>.png at 150 dpi
   • Run the script with python3 (not python — may not exist)

2. Integrate into the paper:

   • Change \usepackage[draft]{graphicx} to \usepackage{graphicx} (remove draft mode)
   • Use \includegraphics[width=0.95\textwidth]{figures/<name>.png}
   • Compile again — the full chain: rm -f main.{aux,log,out,toc,bbl,blg} && pdflatex main.tex && bibtex main && pdflatex main.tex && pdflatex main.tex

3. BibTeX warnings: @misc entries with URLs but no journal field are fine — BibTeX only warns (doesn't fail). Suppress by leaving journal out rather than adding fake data.