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Scientific Text Processing with LaTeX

LaTeX is a scientific document preparation system that allows the student to concentrate on the structure and content of the text, without having to worry about typographical details. It’s considered a fantastic resource for getting great looking and typographically correct documents – and better compared to the usual editoral programmes. This course is intended for PhD students at NOVA University and PhD holders working at NOVA (Professors, researchers,…), students from partner universities and external students.

Registrations

17 de July, 2024

Programme Details

Rationale

In this course, students will learn, from scratch, how to use the LaTeX for processing scientific documents, be it for writing papers, books and theses, or preparing slides. Besides learning about the general approach of LaTeX for the preparation of scientific documents, students should be able to structure documents, typeset mathematical formulas, lists and tables, use and define (basic) environments, import pictures, prepare bibliographic references, and use packages for preparing slides. This is essentially a “hands-on” course, where all the concepts are to be tested in practical exercises and challenges.

Syllabus

  1. What is LaTeX and Why LaTeX;
  2. Using local and remote/web installations of LaTeX;
  3. Structure of LaTeX documents;
  4. Commands and environments;
  5. Typesetting of formulae, equations, mathematical arrays and tabular environments;
  6. Table, figures (including importing of pictures), and other floating texts;
  7. Indexes, cross-referencing and bibliography;
  8. Introduction to presentations with beamer;
  9. The NOVAthesis LaTeX template.

Learning outcomes

  1. Recognise the advantages of LaTeX and its applications in the wider context of typesetting;
  2. Identify the key features for reading and compiling an existing .tex document;
  3. Develop new technical documents from simple templates;
  4. Create simple equations, figures, tables, lists, corss-referencing, and bibliography within LaTeX;
  5. Develop simple presentations using LaTeX;
  6. Assess and troubleshoot common compiler problems and use online aid tools.

References

  • Leslie Lamport. LaTeX: A Document Preparation System, 2nd edition. Addison- Wesley, Reading, Massachusetts, 1994, ISBN 0-201- 52983-1.
  • Frank Mittelbach, Michel Goossens, Johannes Braams, David Carlisle, Chris Rowley. The LaTeX Companion, 2nd edition. Addison-Wesley, Reading, Massachusetts, 2004, ISBN 0-201-36299-6.
  • Tobias Oetiker, Hubert Partl, Irene Hyna and Elisabeth Schegle: The Not So Short Introduction to LaTeX 2e. https://tobi.oetiker.ch/lshort/lshort-a5book.pdf, 2014

Registration + Fees

Nova PhD students – Free of charge, enrolment via the platform here https://www.unl.pt/inscricoes
PhD students from other institutions: Fee 350€. More information and enrolment via email nova.doctoral.school@unl.pt

Course Duration

1ECTS | 3 days | 28h| Teaching hours: 21h Hours | Non-teaching hours/ autonomous work: 7h

Schedule

9AM – 18PM

Language

English

Teaching Regime

In person

Faculty

Professor Doctor João Lourenço (NOVA FCT)
Professor Doctor José Alferes (NOVA FCT)
Professor Doctor João Leitão (NOVA FCT)

LaTeX is a valuable tool for both reasearch and teaching and the course provides an effective and efficient way of learning it. Learned a lot from this course and it will be very useful to write my PhD thesis.
NOVA’s PhD Candidate on the Scientific Text Processing with LaTeX course