latex-writing-style

name	latex-writing-style
description	Expert LaTeX writing assistant following academic conventions for mathematical papers. Use when writing or editing LaTeX files, managing citations, formatting equations, or structuring academic documents.

LaTeX Paper Writing Style

Expert LaTeX writing assistant following academic conventions for mathematical papers.

References and Citations

• Never start a sentence with a citation in parentheses
• Use \label{} immediately after \section, \subsection, \begin{equation}, \begin{figure}, \begin{table}, etc.

Label Naming Conventions

• Sections: sec:name (e.g., sec:introduction)
• Equations: eq:name (e.g., eq:vfe)
• Figures: fig:name (e.g., fig:factor_graph)
• Tables: tab:name (e.g., tab:results)
• Theorems: thm:name (e.g., thm:main)
• Lemmas: lem:name (e.g., lem:helper)
• Appendix sections: appx:name (e.g., appx:proofs)

Math Notation

• Use \bm{x} for bold sequences of random variables, e.g., \bm{x} = x_{k+1:T}
• Individual time-indexed variables are not bolded: x_t, u_t, y_t
• Order variables by rate of change (fastest first): observations, states, controls, parameters
  • Example: p(\bm{y}, \bm{x}, \bm{u}, \theta) or q(\bm{y}, \bm{x}, \theta | \bm{u})
• Use \bar{p}(\bm{x}) for preference/target distributions (bar for "desired")
• Use \E_{q} for expectations: \mathbb{E}_{q}
• Use \KL{q}{p} for KL divergence: \mathbb{D}_{\mathrm{KL}}[q \| p]
• Use \mathcal{F}[q] for a standard free energy functional.
• Use \mathcal{B}[q] for a Bethe free energy functional.
• Use \mathcal{L}[q] for a Lagrangian.
• Use \mathcal{G}[q] for an expected free energy functional.
• Use G(u) for an expected free energy function.
• Use \dif for differentials: \int f(x) \dif x
• Use \text{} for text within math mode, not \mathrm{} for words
• Subscripts that are words should use \text{}: D_{\text{KL}} not D_{KL}
• Please use [] for functionals and () for functions.

Equations

• Use equation environment for single important equations
• Use align for multi-line derivations (not eqnarray)
• Use split inside equation to break long single equations
• Add \label{} to equations that will be referenced

Equation Punctuation

Displayed equations are part of the sentence and must have appropriate punctuation:

• End with a period if the equation concludes a sentence
• End with a comma if the sentence continues after the equation (e.g., "where...")
• End with no punctuation only if followed by conditions on the same line (e.g., \quad \text{if ...})
• In multi-line align environments, add punctuation to each line that ends a clause:
  • Intermediate lines typically end with , (comma)
  • The final line ends with . (period) or , if text follows
• Use \,, or \,. for proper spacing before punctuation in display math
• Example:

  \begin{align}
      F[q] &= \text{term}_1\,, \label{eq:first} \\
      &= \text{term}_2\,. \label{eq:second}
  \end{align}
  

Figures and Tables

• Figures: caption goes below (\caption{} after \includegraphics)
• Tables: caption goes above (\caption{} before \begin{tabular})
• Use \centering not \begin{center}...\end{center} inside floats
• Use booktabs package: \toprule, \midrule, \bottomrule (no vertical lines)
• Use table* or figure* for two-column spanning floats

Writing Style

• Vary sentence structure.
• Define acronyms on first use: "Variational Free Energy (VFE)"
• Use "we" for actions taken in the paper, "the reader" or passive voice for general statements
• Prefer active voice when clarity permits
• Keep paragraphs focused on one idea
• Use \emph{} for emphasis and introducing terms, not bold
• Avoid the use of the em-dash as it reveals LLM-generated text

Capitalization Conventions

Named Quantities and Principles (Always Capitalize)

These are specific named technical terms in the literature:

• Free Energy Principle (FEP) - the theoretical framework
• Expected Free Energy (EFE) - the scoring of policies
• Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence - proper name

General Techniques and Methods (Always Lowercase)

These are general methodological terms, not specific named quantities:

• variational inference - the general technique/method
• planning as inference - the general approach/framework (unless starting a sentence)
• active inference - the general field/framework (same treatment as reinforcement learning)
• reinforcement learning - general field
• optimal control - general field
• message passing - general technique

Examples of context-dependent usage

• ✓ "We minimize the variational free energy functional $F[q]$"
• ✓ "The Expected Free Energy combines instrumental and epistemic value"
• ✓ "Planning is performed using variational inference"
• ✓ "We use planning as inference to solve this problem"
• ✗ "We use Variational Inference to minimize the cost" (should be lowercase)
• ✗ "The expected free energy is defined..." (should be capitalized when referring to the EFE)

Structure

• Each \section and \subsection should have a \label
• Use % comments to mark section boundaries and TODOs
• Keep one sentence per line for easier git diffs
• Use consistent indentation (2 or 4 spaces)

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Don't use \def; use \newcommand
• Don't load conflicting packages
• Don't hardcode spacing; let LaTeX handle it
• Don't use \\ for paragraph breaks; use blank lines
• Use American spelling over British. Never use British spelling
• Don't use em-dashes (—) as they reveal LLM-generated text; use commas or parentheses instead
• Never change the references.bib file directly; prompt the user to add them to their Zotero library.