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LaTeX I: Getting Started with Academic Writing in LaTeX

Field Details
Date 3 June 2026
Time 14:00 - 15:30
Location House of Prominence, Attic (Top floor), Luxemburger Str. 299, Cologne
Speakers TBC
Prerequisites No prior LaTeX experience required. Bringing a laptop is recommended.
Materials status Slides are available.
Slides / recording HTML slides are linked below; no recording is currently listed.

Overview

This beginner-friendly session introduces LaTeX as a writing environment for academic documents. Starting from scratch, participants learn the structure of a LaTeX document, core markup commands, and how to choose an editor that fits their workflow. The session also covers bibliography basics with Zotero and BetterBibTeX, and closes with a hands-on exercise.

Learning Objectives

  • Understand what LaTeX is and when it is useful for academic writing
  • Write and compile a minimal LaTeX document
  • Use basic markup: text formatting, math, figures, tables, and cross-references
  • Choose an appropriate editor (web-based or local)
  • Know the difference between LaTeX distributions and when to use each
  • Understand how Zotero and BetterBibTeX connect to a LaTeX project

Topics Covered

LaTeX Basics

  • What LaTeX is; why researchers use it
  • Document structure: preamble and body; \documentclass, \usepackage
  • Commands, environments, and comments
  • Text formatting and lists
  • Math: inline $...$, display \[...\], and numbered equations
  • Figures, tables, and cross-references with \label/\ref

Tooling and the Local Installation Problem

  • Why local LaTeX setups are fragile (package versions, merge conflicts)
  • LaTeX distributions: TeX Live, MiKTeX, TinyTeX
  • Editors: Overleaf, Prism (OpenAI), TeXlyre, TeXstudio, VS Code + LaTeX Workshop
  • Alternatives: Typst, Quarto/MyST, Lattics, Obsidian, Typora

Reproducible Research

  • Plain LaTeX, R Markdown, Quarto, and Jupyter in reproducible workflows

Learning Resources

  • lshort, DKZ.2R workshop materials, Overleaf Learn, CTAN, tex.stackexchange.com

Collaborative LaTeX

  • Overleaf and the Sciebo-linked instance at Universität zu Köln

Bibliography: First Look

  • Zotero: collecting and organising references
  • BetterBibTeX: continuous auto-export to .bib

AI and LaTeX

  • Opportunities: AI assistance with LaTeX syntax and code
  • Concerns: AI-generated scientific content and the impact on peer review

Materials

Additional Resources