Paper Writer

Guide for writing academic papers from experiment results using a two-stage process.

When to Use

•After experiments are complete and REPORT.md exists
•When explicitly asked to write a paper
•When generating publication-ready documents

Before Writing - Required Steps

IMPORTANT: Before writing any content, you MUST complete these steps:

•
Read the style guide: Review templates/paper_writing/lab_style_guide.md for comprehensive formatting and language conventions
•
Study example papers: Browse paper_examples/ to understand our lab's style:
- •Language patterns: Look at sections/1.introduction.tex or sections/introduction.tex
- •Table formatting: Look at tables/*.tex files
- •Figure layouts: Look at figures/*.tex files
- •Macro usage: Look at commands/*.tex files
•
Copy command templates: Use files from templates/paper_writing/commands/ as your starting point:
- •math.tex - Math notation macros
- •general.tex - Formatting macros (\para{}, colors, etc.)
- •macros.tex - Template for project-specific terms
•
CRITICAL: Reference example papers for FORMATTING and LANGUAGE STYLE only
- •Do NOT copy content, phrasing, or narrative structure
- •The example papers are in different research domains
- •Focus only on HOW things are formatted, not WHAT is written

Two-Stage Writing Process

Stage 1: Outline Development

Before writing prose, create a detailed outline:

•Skeleton: Section headers and subsection structure
•Key points: Bullet points for each section (3-5 per section)
•Evidence mapping: Link each claim to supporting data/figures
•Citation placeholders: Note where references are needed
•Figure/table planning: List required visuals

Save outline to paper/OUTLINE.md for review before proceeding.

Stage 2: Prose Writing

Convert outline to full prose:

•Write section by section (don't jump around)
•Expand each bullet into 2-4 sentences
•Add transitions between paragraphs
•Insert citations as you write
•Create figures/tables as needed

Paper Structure (IMRAD Format)

1. Title

•Clear, specific, informative
•Conveys main finding or contribution
•No acronyms unless universally known

2. Abstract (150-250 words)

Follow this structure:

•Context/Problem (1-2 sentences): Why does this matter?
•Gap/Challenge (1 sentence): What's missing?
•Our approach (1-2 sentences): What did we do?
•Key results (2-3 sentences): What did we find?
•Significance (1 sentence): Why does it matter?

3. Introduction

Structure:

•Hook (1 paragraph): Why does this problem matter?
•Background (1-2 paragraphs): What do readers need to know?
•Gap (1 paragraph): What's missing in existing work?
•
Contribution (1 paragraph): What do we provide? Be specific with bullets:
- •Contribution 1
- •Contribution 2
- •Contribution 3
•Organization (optional): Brief roadmap of paper

4. Related Work

Organization strategies:

•By theme: Group papers by approach/concept
•By timeline: Historical development (less preferred)
•By relationship: How papers relate to ours

For each group:

•Summarize the approach
•Identify limitations
•Position our work: "Unlike X, we..." or "Building on X, we..."

5. Method/Approach

Essential elements:

•Problem formulation (formal if appropriate)
•Method description (clear enough to reproduce)
•Design justifications (why this choice?)
•Algorithm/pseudocode (if complex)
•Complexity analysis (if relevant)

6. Experiments

Structure:

•
Setup
- •Datasets: source, size, preprocessing
- •Baselines: what and why
- •Metrics: what and why
- •Implementation: hardware, hyperparameters
•
Main Results
- •Tables with clear captions
- •Statistical significance (confidence intervals or p-values)
- •Bold best results
•
Analysis
- •What do the numbers mean?
- •Why does our method work?
- •Where does it fail?
•
Ablations
- •Component contributions
- •Sensitivity analysis
- •Design choice validation

7. Discussion

Cover:

•Limitations (be honest and specific)
•Broader implications
•Failure cases and edge cases
•Connections to theory (if applicable)

8. Conclusion

Format:

•Summary (1 paragraph): What did we do and find?
•Key takeaway (1 sentence): What should readers remember?
•Future work (2-3 sentences): What comes next?

LaTeX Template

Style files (.sty, .bst) are copied to the paper_draft/ directory. The exact preamble (package name, options, bibliography style) is specified in your prompt - follow it exactly.

Template Structure

latex

\documentclass{article}
% Conference style package - USE THE EXACT LINE FROM YOUR PROMPT
\usepackage{<style_package>}  % e.g., neurips_2025, icml2026, etc.

% Required packages - ALWAYS include these
\usepackage[hidelinks]{hyperref}  % Clickable links (REQUIRED)
\usepackage{booktabs}  % Better tables (REQUIRED)
\usepackage{graphicx}  % Figures
\usepackage{amsmath,amssymb}  % Math

% Import command files
\input{commands/math}
\input{commands/general}
\input{commands/macros}

\title{Clear Title That Conveys Main Contribution}

\author{
  Author One \\
  Affiliation \\
  \texttt{email@example.com}
}

\begin{document}
\maketitle

\begin{abstract}
Your abstract here (150-250 words).
\end{abstract}

\section{Introduction}
...

\bibliography{references}
\bibliographystyle{<bib_style>}  % Use the style from your prompt

\end{document}

Table Formatting

latex

\begin{table}[h]
\centering
\caption{Results comparing methods on [benchmark].
         Higher is better for all metrics.
         Best results in \textbf{bold}.}
\begin{tabular}{lcc}
\toprule
Method & Accuracy (\%) & F1 (\%) \\
\midrule
Baseline 1 & 75.2 {\scriptsize $\pm$ 0.3} & 72.1 {\scriptsize $\pm$ 0.4} \\
Baseline 2 & 78.4 {\scriptsize $\pm$ 0.2} & 75.8 {\scriptsize $\pm$ 0.3} \\
\midrule
Ours & \textbf{82.1} {\scriptsize $\pm$ 0.2} & \textbf{79.4} {\scriptsize $\pm$ 0.3} \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}
\label{tab:main_results}
\end{table}

Figure Formatting

latex

\begin{figure}[h]
\centering
\includegraphics[width=0.8\linewidth]{figures/main_result.pdf}
\caption{Caption should be self-contained. Explain what is shown,
         highlight key observations, and note any important details.}
\label{fig:main_result}
\end{figure}

Citation Guidelines

BibTeX Format

bibtex

@inproceedings{author2024title,
  title={Full Paper Title},
  author={Last, First and Last2, First2},
  booktitle={Conference Name},
  year={2024}
}

Citation Style

•Use \cite{key} for parenthetical: "...as shown previously (Author et al., 2024)"
•Use \citet{key} for textual: "Author et al. (2024) showed that..."

Lab Style Conventions

Quick Reference

These are the key conventions from our lab's writing style. See templates/paper_writing/lab_style_guide.md for complete documentation.

Language:

•Active voice: "We propose", "We examine", "We focus on"
•Clear and simple - prefer plain language over jargon
•Bold questions as organizers: {\bf what is hypothesis generation?}
•Specific quantitative claims: "8.97% over baselines"

Structure:

•Modular commands/ directory with math.tex, general.tex, macros.tex
•Import with \input{commands/math} etc.

Macros:

•Vectors: \va, \vb, ..., \vz (bold lowercase)
•Matrices: \mA, \mB, ..., \mZ (bold uppercase)
•References: \figref{}, \Figref{}, \secref{} (not raw \ref{})
•Method names: \newcommand{\methodname}{\textsc{Name}\xspace}

Tables:

•Always use booktabs (\toprule, \midrule, \bottomrule)
•Use \resizebox{\textwidth}{!}{...} for wide tables
•Use @{} at edges, \cmidrule(lr){x-y} for sub-headers
•Bold best results

Hyperlinks (Required):

•Always use \usepackage[hidelinks]{hyperref}
•All citations, refs must be clickable

Figures:

•Use 0.32\textwidth for 3-column subfigures
•Use \input{figures/legend} for shared legends
•Self-contained captions

Contribution Lists:

latex

\begin{itemize}[leftmargin=*,itemsep=0pt,topsep=0pt]
    \item We propose...
    \item We conduct...
\end{itemize}

Output

Save to paper_draft/ directory with this structure:

code

paper_draft/
├── main.tex              # Main document
├── references.bib        # BibTeX citations
├── commands/
│   ├── math.tex          # Math notation macros
│   ├── general.tex       # Formatting macros
│   └── macros.tex        # Project-specific terms
├── sections/
│   ├── abstract.tex
│   ├── introduction.tex
│   └── ...
├── figures/              # Figure files (PDF preferred)
└── tables/               # Complex standalone tables

Compile with:

bash

cd paper_draft && pdflatex main && bibtex main && pdflatex main && pdflatex main

Quality Checklist

Content

• Title reflects main contribution
• Abstract is self-contained (no citations, no undefined terms)
• Contributions clearly stated in introduction
• All claims supported by evidence
• Limitations honestly discussed
• Related work positions paper clearly

Technical

• Method reproducible from description
• All experimental details provided
• Statistical significance reported
• Ablations validate design choices

Presentation

• Figures have informative captions
• Tables are properly formatted
• All citations present and correct
• No placeholder text
• Consistent notation throughout
• Proofread for typos

Ethics

• Broader impact considered
• Potential negative uses discussed
• Data/model limitations noted

References

See references/ folder for:

•writing_guidelines.md: Section-specific writing advice

See assets/ folder for:

•paper_outline_template.md: Template for Stage 1 outline