alterlab-venue-templates

name	alterlab-venue-templates
description	Provides LaTeX templates, formatting requirements, and submission guidelines for major scientific venues (Nature, Science, PLOS, IEEE, ACM, Cell Press), conferences (NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, CVPR, CHI), research posters, and grant proposals (NSF, NIH, DOE, DARPA). Also covers venue-specific writing style (tone, abstract format, what reviewers prioritize). Use when preparing a manuscript, conference paper, poster, or grant proposal and you need the right template, page/word limits, citation style, figure specs, or venue conventions. For substantive prose/content development defer to alterlab-scientific-writing; for grant argumentation defer to alterlab-research-grants. Part of the AlterLab Academic Skills suite.
allowed-tools	Read Write Edit Bash
license	MIT
compatibility	Requires a LaTeX distribution (pdflatex/latexmk) to compile the bundled templates; helper scripts (query/customize/validate) are stdlib Python. validate_format.py needs pdfinfo (poppler) for PDF checks.
metadata	{"skill-author":"AlterLab","version":"1.0.0"}

Venue Templates

Overview

LaTeX templates, formatting requirements, and writing-style guidance for academic journals, conferences, posters, and grants. Provides ready-to-use templates plus references that cover many more venues than are bundled.

Use this skill when you need venue-specific formatting (templates, page/word limits, citation style, figure specs, anonymization rules) or style (tone, abstract format, reviewer priorities). Hand off substantive prose development to alterlab-scientific-writing and grant argumentation strategy to alterlab-research-grants.

What's Bundled

6 ready-to-use LaTeX templates in assets/:

Type	File	Notes
Journal	assets/journals/nature_article.tex	Nature, single column
Journal	assets/journals/plos_one.tex	PLOS ONE
Conference	assets/journals/neurips_article.tex	NeurIPS, \documentclass{article} (single column)
Poster	assets/posters/beamerposter_academic.tex	beamerposter, A0 customizable
Grant	assets/grants/nsf_proposal_template.tex	NSF project description
Grant	assets/grants/nih_specific_aims.tex	NIH Specific Aims page

Formatting references in references/: journals_formatting.md, conferences_formatting.md, posters_guidelines.md, grants_requirements.md. These cover many venues beyond the bundled templates (Science, Cell Press, IEEE, ACM, ICML, ICLR, CVPR, CHI, ISMB, DOE, DARPA, foundations).

Writing-style guides in references/: venue_writing_styles.md (master overview), nature_science_style.md, cell_press_style.md, medical_journal_styles.md, ml_conference_style.md, cs_conference_style.md, reviewer_expectations.md.

Writing examples in assets/examples/: nature_abstract_examples.md, neurips_introduction_example.md, cell_summary_example.md, medical_structured_abstract.md.

Workflow

1. Identify the venue. Journal, conference, poster, or grant agency.
2. Query template + requirements. Run query_template.py (below) or read the relevant references/*.md. Verify currency against the official author guidelines — venue style files change yearly.
3. Customize the template. Use customize_template.py or edit placeholders by hand.
4. For writing register, load the matching style guide and check reviewer_expectations.md.
5. Validate + compile. Run validate_format.py on the PDF, then compile.

# Compile (run pdflatex 2-3x, or use latexmk for automatic rerun handling)
latexmk -pdf my_paper.tex

Helper Scripts

All scripts are stdlib Python; run from the skill root.

query_template.py — find templates and requirements

python scripts/query_template.py --list-all
python scripts/query_template.py --venue "Nature" --type journals
python scripts/query_template.py --venue "NeurIPS" --requirements
python scripts/query_template.py --keyword "machine learning"

customize_template.py — fill in title/authors/affiliations

--template takes the bare filename (not a path); the script searches assets/{journals,posters,grants}/ for it.

python scripts/customize_template.py \
  --template nature_article.tex \
  --title "Novel Approach to Protein Folding" \
  --authors "Jane Doe, John Smith" \
  --affiliations "MIT, Stanford" \
  --email "[e-mail]" \
  --output my_paper.tex

# Interactive picker
python scripts/customize_template.py --interactive

validate_format.py — check a compiled PDF against venue specs

Requires pdfinfo (poppler). Checks page count, margins, fonts heuristically.

python scripts/validate_format.py --file my_paper.pdf --venue "Nature" --check-all
python scripts/validate_format.py --file my_paper.pdf --venue "NeurIPS" --check page-count,fonts
python scripts/validate_format.py --file proposal.pdf --venue "NSF" --report validation.txt

Quick Reference

Page limits (typical — always re-verify yearly)

Venue	Limit	Notes
Nature Article	~5 pp	~3000 words excluding refs
Science Report	~5 pp	figures count toward limit
PLOS ONE	none	unlimited length
NeurIPS / ICML	8 pp	+ unlimited refs/appendix (recent years allow 9–10)
NSF	15 pp	project description only
NIH R01	12 pp	research strategy

Citation style

Venue	Style
Nature / Science	numbered superscript
PLOS / IEEE	numbered brackets (Vancouver / IEEE)
Cell Press	author-year
ACM	numbered
NeurIPS / ICML	numbered brackets

Figure specs

Venue	Resolution	Format	Color
Nature	300+ dpi	TIFF, EPS, PDF	RGB or CMYK
Science	300+ dpi	TIFF, PDF	RGB
PLOS	300–600 dpi	TIFF, EPS	RGB
IEEE	300+ dpi	EPS, PDF	RGB or grayscale

NeurIPS at a glance

Single-column (text block 5.5 × 9 in), Times 10pt, 8-page main text (+ unlimited refs/appendix), numbered bracket citations, anonymization required for the double-blind initial submission, colorblind-safe figures recommended. Official style file (neurips_<year>.sty) changes annually.

Why Style Matters

The same results read very differently across venues. Load the matching guide before drafting:

• Nature/Science (nature_science_style.md): accessible to non-specialists, story-driven, broad significance, flowing-paragraph abstract.
• Cell Press (cell_press_style.md): mechanistic depth, graphical abstract, Highlights, eTOC.
• Medical (medical_journal_styles.md): patient-centered, evidence-graded, structured abstracts (NEJM/Lancet/JAMA/BMJ).
• ML conferences (ml_conference_style.md): contribution bullets, ablations, reproducibility.
• CS conferences (cs_conference_style.md): field-specific conventions (ACL, EMNLP, CHI, SIGKDD).
• reviewer_expectations.md: what reviewers prioritize per venue and rebuttal tips.

Best Practices

• Verify currency: compare bundled templates against the latest official author guidelines (links in the references).
• Use the official style file where one exists; don't tweak margins/fonts (grounds for desk rejection at many venues).
• Preserve required structure: don't remove required sections or packages when customizing.
• Check page limits and anonymization before submission; remove identifying info for double-blind venues.

External author guidelines

• Nature: https://www.nature.com/nature/for-authors
• Science: https://www.science.org/content/page/instructions-authors
• PLOS: https://plos.org/resources/
• Cell Press: https://www.cell.com/author-guidelines
• NeurIPS: https://neurips.cc/ · ICML: https://icml.cc/ · CVPR: https://cvpr.thecvf.com/
• NSF PAPPG: https://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=pappg
• NIH: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/how-to-apply-application-guide.html
• DOE: https://science.osti.gov/grants