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I have been using LaTeX to write scientific articles for about 6-months now. I know quite well now how to manipulate and create great content but don’t really understand the formatting/style side to Latex. I need to submit a document soon which I want to make it look really good and professional much like this Nature article:

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v424/n6950/pdf/nature01935.pdf

I want to know more specifically how to:

  • Colour titles
  • Add a background frame to all figures and captions
  • Drop cap the first letter of the introduction

I know this question is very general but any help or pointers of how or where I could find out would be much appreciated! Are there templates on-line which you can download and just apply to your document for these sort of things?

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Welcome to TeX.sx! This site works best if you ask one question at the time. – N.N. Jan 25 '12 at 19:03
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I'd say that a submission would look more professional if it doesn't try looking like a published paper. – egreg Jan 25 '12 at 19:06
@egreg Agreed. I don't think the linked article looks very professional. Also, maybe I just don't have the right font installed, but the letter spacing makes the linked article practically illegible. – David L Jan 25 '12 at 19:18
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@Josh The pdf of the nature article you are referring to, hides behind a paywall. Only people surfing from inside an university network are probably able to see it. – uli Jan 25 '12 at 19:28
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As this question stands, it is too vague to be a 'good' question. Individual requirements, such as 'boxed' floats, coloured titles, etc., make good focussed questions, and some have already been dealt with here. – Joseph Wright♦ Jan 25 '12 at 20:19

closed as not a real question by Marco Daniel, Alan Munn, lockstep, Joseph Wright♦ Jan 26 '12 at 8:47

It's difficult to tell what is being asked here. This question is ambiguous, vague, incomplete, overly broad, or rhetorical and cannot be reasonably answered in its current form. For help clarifying this question so that it can be reopened, see the FAQ.

2 Answers

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If you know a title of the journal to which you want to submit the article you can check if they provide their own macros. Some journals will give you macros they expect you to use. That will enable you to see the paper in the exact form in which it is going to appears in the journal (of course if accepted).

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You could visit CTAN and search for nature.

And you will find the nature class: Prepare papers for the journal Nature.

(I have not checked, if it is correct, but it sounds good).

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Nature are not keen on LaTeX: I wonder how useful this will be! – Joseph Wright♦ Jan 25 '12 at 19:54
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Actually, one of their journals, Nature Physics, is typeset by LaTeX. The author guidelines say to use a standard class, e.g., article.cls or revtex.cls, and they ask the authors to "use the default Computer Modern fonts". So using a special class or trying to imitate the format of a published article is entirely unnecessary; it might even interfere with their production process. – John Collins Jan 26 '12 at 1:59

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