paper-writer - SKILL.md Agent Skill

name: paper-writer description: Write academic papers from experiment results using LaTeX. Use when experiments are complete and REPORT.md exists, when asked to write a paper, or when generating publication-ready documents in NeurIPS style.

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
Verify command templates: Command templates are pre-copied to paper_draft/commands/:
- math.tex - Math notation macros
- general.tex - Formatting macros (\para{}, colors, etc.)
- macros.tex - Template for project-specific terms (customize for your paper)
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
Set paper author: Read .neurico/idea.yaml to find idea.metadata.author:
- If metadata.author exists: use <author name> and NeuriCo
- If no metadata.author: use NeuriCo

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

\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}

% Set author based on .neurico/idea.yaml metadata.author:
%   If metadata.author exists: \author{<author name> and NeuriCo}
%   If no metadata.author:     \author{NeuriCo}
\author{NeuriCo}

\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

\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

\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

@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:

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

Output

Save to paper_draft/ directory with this structure:

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:

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