manuscript-templates

LaTeX templates for manuscripts (switchable bioRxiv preprint and journal submission templates), for use on Overleaf.

Basic idea

An ideal manuscript LaTeX template should be able to generate two versions of the manuscript:

1. a preprint version - typeset to look like a finished paper
2. a journal submission version - better for reviewing, with line numbers and different spacing, etc.

The ideal template should be able to switch between these two manuscript layouts. A preview of both outputs is shown below.

Use

To use, just clone this repo and import into Overleaf or a directory on your own computer to use a local LaTeX installation. The following files and folders are not required: img, examples, README.md, LICENSE.

Write your manuscript in 01_Article_MainText.tex and then comment either line 2 or 3 of 00_Article_Merge.tex to select between outputs. There are optional Supplementary tex files that can also be edited. If they are not required, comment the appropriate lines in 00_Article_Merge.tex.

Tested on Overleaf - TeXLive 2025 with pdfLaTeX compiler.

Contributions

The initial overleaf template was forked from the template created by Henriques lab available here. This is a modification of the PNAS template (also available on Overleaf) which is widely used on bioRxiv. We have made a few changes to the HenriquesLab bioRxiv template and made it possible to easily generate a journal submission version.

Changes include:

• genuine bioRxiv logo used in the footer
• support for ORCiDs using \orcidlink
• Helvetica for readability
• greater range of custom units
• simplified directory structure

What do they look like?

Preprint version (for bioRxiv)

Journal submission version

Further details

The provided files (with comments) provide guidance on how to put your manuscript together. There are a few things to be aware of:

• the manuscript is compiled from separate .tex files which are listed in 00_Article_Merge.tex. The first included .tex file is the main text (01_Article_MainText.tex) and this has its own reference section, which means that a subsequent "Supplementary Information" section will have a separate reference section.
• switching from the preprint version (\documentclass[twocolumn]{bioRxiv}) to the plain manuscript version (\documentclass[submit]{bioRxiv}) works well, but has some foibles. Any figures that use figure{} environment rather than figure*{} may need resizing by a factor of 0.5 to remain at the intended size.
• figures should be prepared as a single file and placed in the figures folder - use of figures compiled from multiple files in LaTeX is not supported.