# ScientificManuscriptTemplate



A multi-project Quarto template for a manuscript, a research report, and supplements, sharing one set of resources (bibliography, CSL style, author/affiliation data, reference docx) and rendered via [Task](https://taskfile.dev).





## Requirements



- [Quarto](https://quarto.org) 

- [Task](https://taskfile.dev) 

- Python 3 (used for zipping/cleaning)



Make sure that Quarto, Task and Python are on your PATH. 



## How to use



Clone the repo and edit `*.qmd` files, update author information in `resources/author_profiles/_quarto-default.yml` include references in `resources/references.bib` and render all projects using `task finalize`. 



In any arch-based Linux distro, run `go-task finalize` instead.



More on how to include more detail in the front matter can be found in the official [quarto manual](https://quarto.org/docs/authoring/front-matter.html). Their quick introduction into [Markdown Basics](https://quarto.org/docs/authoring/markdown-basics.html) is also worth reading. 



## Project layout



Each of `Manuscript/`, `ResearchReport/`, and `Supplements/` is its own Quarto project with its own `_quarto.yml`, `index.qmd`, `data/`, and `figures/` folders.



```

ScientificManuscriptTemplate/

├── Manuscript/                         ← the paper itself

├── ResearchReport/                     ← longer-form report

├── Supplements/                        ← supplementary materialss

├── resources/                          ← shared across all three projects

│   ├── references.bib                  ← biblatex references

│   ├── apa7.csl                        ← citation style, grab from https://www.zotero.org/styles/

│   ├── custom-reference-doc.docx       ← docx template

│   └── author_profiles/

│       ├── _quarto-default.yml         ← real author/affiliation metadata

│       └── _quarto-anonymized.yml      ← anonymized-profile metadata

├── Taskfile.yml                        ← run commands from here for the whole project

└── finalized/                          ← created by `task finalize`, date-stamped output

```



## Writing content



Edit the `.qmd` file(s) in whichever project you're working on (e.g. `Manuscript/index.qmd`). Put source data in that project's `data/` folder and images/plots in `figures/`. These are per-project, not shared.



Shared resources live once in `resources/` and are referenced via relative paths from each project's `_quarto.yml` (bibliography, CSL, reference docx, author metadata) - edit them there, not inside an individual project folder, so all three projects stay in sync.



## Authors and affiliations



Real author names and affiliations are defined once in `resources/author_profiles/_quarto-default.yml`. The anonymized counterpart lives in `_quarto-anonymized.yml` in the same older. Update uthor info there. It's picked up automatically by every project.



## Rendering



Each project has its own profile pair - `default` (real author info) and `anonymized` (for blind peer review) - selected via Quarto's `--profile` flag, which the Task commands below already handle for you.



**Render one project**, from inside that project's folder:



```

cd Manuscript

task render              # default profile, all formats

task render:anonymized   # anonymized profile, all formats

task render:html         # single format, default profile

task render:docx

task render:pdf

task render:jats

```



**Or run any project's task from the repo root**, using its namespace:



```

task manuscript:render

task researchreport:render:anonymized

task supplements:render:docx

```



**Render everything at once**, from the repo root:



```

task render:all              # all three projects, default profile

task render:all:anonymized   # all three projects, anonymized profile

```



## Packaging and finalizing



```

task manuscript:package          # zip Manuscript's default output

task manuscript:package:data     # zip Manuscript/data into data.zip

task package:all                 # package every project, both profiles, plus data

task finalize                    # render everything, package everything,

                                 # collect it all into finalized/<today's date>/

```



`task finalize` is the one command to run before submitting: it renders both profiles for all three projects, zips each project's output, and copies every zip into a fresh `finalized/YYYY-MM-DD/` folder so you have a clean, dated record of exactly what was submitted.



## Cleaning up



> [!WARNING]

> Be careful using this: the command also cleans caches, meaning that all computations will have to be re-evaluated. 



```

task manuscript:clean   # remove Manuscript's _output, .quarto, and stray cache folders

task clean:all          # same, for all three projects

```