write-paper

name

write-paper

description

Write a complete scientific paper in LaTeX from experiment results, figures, and citations. Use this skill when the user wants to write a paper, generate a LaTeX document, create a PDF paper, draft a research manuscript, or compile a paper from results. Also use when discussing paper structure, LaTeX formatting, paper sections, or the user says "write it up" or "draft the paper." Supports both 4-page workshop and 8-page conference formats.

Write Paper

You are writing a complete scientific paper in LaTeX. Your job is to synthesize the research idea, experiment results, figures, and citations into a well-structured, clearly written manuscript that compiles into a PDF.

Prerequisites

• idea.md — the research plan
• Experiment summaries (baseline_summary.json, research_summary.json, ablation_summary.json)
• figures/ directory with publication-quality plots
• references.bib — bibliography
• Optionally: citation_notes.json — where each citation belongs

Step-by-Step Process

1. Choose Paper Format

Format	Pages	Use Case
Workshop (ICBINB-style)	4	Short focused paper
Conference (NeurIPS-style)	8	Full research paper

2. Create the LaTeX Project

Create a latex/ directory and write template.tex. Use a standard ML venue template or start from a clean article class.

Minimal LaTeX skeleton:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{amsmath,amssymb}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{hyperref}
\usepackage{natbib}
\usepackage[margin=1in]{geometry}

\title{Your Paper Title}
\author{Author Names}
\date{}

\begin{document}
\maketitle

\begin{abstract}
% 150-250 words summarizing the problem, method, results, and conclusion
\end{abstract}

\section{Introduction}
% What problem? Why important? What's your approach? What are the results?

\section{Related Work}
% Position your work relative to existing literature

\section{Method}
% Detailed description of your approach

\section{Experiments}
% Experimental setup, datasets, baselines, implementation details

\subsection{Results}
% Main results with tables and figures

\subsection{Ablation Studies}
% Component analysis

\section{Discussion}
% Interpret results, limitations, broader impact

\section{Conclusion}
% Summary of contributions and future work

\bibliographystyle{plainnat}
\bibliography{references}

\appendix
\section{Additional Results}
% Extra figures, tables, proofs

\end{document}

3. Write Each Section

Abstract (150-250 words)

Structure: Problem → Gap → Method → Key Result → Implication. Write this LAST, after all other sections are complete.

Introduction (1-1.5 pages)

• Paragraph 1: Problem context and motivation
• Paragraph 2: Why existing approaches fall short
• Paragraph 3: Your approach and key insight
• Paragraph 4: Summary of contributions (use a bulleted list)
• Paragraph 5: Paper organization (optional)

Related Work (0.5-1 page)

• Group by theme, not chronologically
• For each group: summarize the approaches, then explain how yours differs
• Cite every paper from references.bib that's relevant
• Be fair — acknowledge prior work's strengths

Method (1-2 pages)

• Start with a high-level overview (architecture diagram reference if applicable)
• Then detail each component
• Include mathematical formulations where appropriate
• Reference figures that illustrate the method

Experiments (1.5-3 pages)

• Setup: datasets, metrics, baselines, implementation details (learning rate, epochs, etc.)
• Main results: table comparing all methods, reference the comparison figure
• Ablation studies: table or figure showing impact of each component
• Use \ref{fig:...} and \ref{tab:...} for cross-references

Discussion / Conclusion (0.5-1 page)

• Interpret key findings
• Acknowledge limitations honestly
• Suggest future work directions

4. Include Figures

Reference figures from figures/ directory:

\begin{figure}[t]
\centering
\includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{figures/learning_curves.png}
\caption{Training convergence comparison. Our method (blue) converges
faster than the baseline (orange dashed) and achieves lower final loss.}
\label{fig:learning_curves}
\end{figure}

Rules for figures:

• Every figure in figures/ should be referenced at least once
• Place figures near their first reference in the text
• Write captions that are self-contained (a reader should understand the figure from the caption alone)
• Use [t] or [h] placement, not [H] (unless necessary)

5. Create Results Tables

\begin{table}[t]
\centering
\caption{Comparison of methods on the test set. Best results in \textbf{bold}.
Mean $\pm$ std over 3 seeds.}
\label{tab:main_results}
\begin{tabular}{lcc}
\toprule
Method & Accuracy (\%) & F1 Score \\
\midrule
Random Baseline & $50.2 \pm 1.1$ & $0.48 \pm 0.02$ \\
Linear Model & $72.3 \pm 0.8$ & $0.70 \pm 0.01$ \\
Prior Work \citep{smith2023method} & $85.1 \pm 0.5$ & $0.83 \pm 0.01$ \\
\textbf{Ours} & $\mathbf{91.2 \pm 0.3}$ & $\mathbf{0.90 \pm 0.01}$ \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}
\end{table}

6. Compile the PDF

cd latex
pdflatex -interaction=nonstopmode template.tex
bibtex template
pdflatex -interaction=nonstopmode template.tex
pdflatex -interaction=nonstopmode template.tex

Run pdflatex 3 times to resolve all cross-references.

If pdflatex is not available, note the LaTeX source is complete and the user can compile it with their preferred TeX distribution (Overleaf, TexLive, MiKTeX).

7. Self-Review and Revise (3 rounds)

After the first draft compiles, do up to 3 revision rounds:

Round 1 — Structural review:

• Does the paper flow logically?
• Are all figures and tables referenced?
• Is the page limit respected? (check by counting pages in the PDF)
• Are there any LaTeX errors or warnings?

Round 2 — Content review:

• Are claims supported by evidence?
• Are results accurately described (match the actual numbers)?
• Is the writing clear and concise?
• Are all citations properly placed?

Round 3 — Polish:

• Fix grammar and awkward phrasing
• Ensure consistent terminology throughout
• Check that the abstract accurately summarizes the final paper
• Verify figure/table captions are self-contained and informative

8. Page Limit Management

If over the page limit:

• Combine related figures into subplots
• Move less critical results to the appendix
• Tighten prose (eliminate redundancy)
• Reduce whitespace in tables

If under the page limit:

• Add more analysis or discussion
• Include additional experimental details
• Expand related work coverage

Writing Quality Guidelines

• Be precise: "improves accuracy by 7.3%" not "significantly improves accuracy"
• Be honest: acknowledge limitations and negative results
• Be consistent: same term for the same concept throughout
• Avoid filler: "It is worth noting that" → just state the fact
• Active voice: "We propose" not "A method is proposed"
• No plagiarism: rephrase ideas from cited work in your own words

Output

experiments/{idea_name}/
├── latex/
│   ├── template.tex        # Complete LaTeX source
│   └── template.pdf        # Compiled PDF (if pdflatex available)
└── references.bib          # (already exists from gather-citations)