Latex Tip -- How to incoroporate figures and references

Besides basic latex commands, to write a technical papers, the following two tips can save your time.
1) use google scholar or IEEE xplore to download citations in bib format. Note, after that, it is also needed to adjust journal titles. For example, IEEE xplore gives this kind of title: Power Systems, IEEE transactions. However, in IEEE journal format, it should be IEEE trans. Power Sys. What do we do? change title = IEEE_J_PWRS. The assumption is that the IEEE acronym bib file should be there. IEEEarv.bib defines the short names of each journal. For us, we need to remember the following one:
IEEE trans. Power Delivery == IEEE_J_PWRD
IEEE trans. Power Electronics = IEEE_J_PWRE
IEEE trans. Energy Conversion = IEEE_J_EC
IEEE PES magazine = IEEE_M_PES
IEEE trans. Power and Apparatus Systems = IEEE_J_PWRAS

For these three journals, the sequence is 
Power Delivery, no. 1, January
Power Systems, no. 1, February
Energy Conversion, no. 1, March
Power Delivery, no. 2, April
Power Systems, no. 2, May
Energy Conversion, no. 2, June
Power Delivery, no. 3, July
Power Systems, no. 3, August
Energy Conversion, no. 3, September
Power Delivery, no. 4, October
Power Systems, no. 4, November
Energy Conversion, no. 4, December

Also note that both google scholar or IEEE xplore do not give month information. This information has to be typed in. Again, remembering the predefined months will save time.
For example ( month = jan)  -- note there are no embraces or quotes.
feb, mar, apr, may, jun, jul, aug, sep, oct, nov, dec.
 
2) generate eps figures or pdf figures to be incorporated into latex main file. If you use eps file, compile the latex by Latex, dvi2ps, ps2pdf to get a pdf file. On the other hand, if you use pdf files for figures, just do pdflatex to get a pdf file. For eps file, we can also add a line to use package \package{epstopdf}. This way, pdflatex will work even there are eps figures.

Matlab figures can be directly saved as eps files. Just click "file" in the menu and "save as" --- eps file. Or they can be saved as pdf files. Eps files can be directly used in Latex. Pdf files, you need Adobe professional to open up the pdf file and do cropping to remove the white margins.

3) Full author name shown in reference
We'd like to have this reference such as IEEE SSR Working Group, “Second benchmark model for computer simulation of subsynchronous resonance,” vol. 104, no. 5, pp. 1057–1066, 1985.

In bib file, if we type author={IEEE SSR Working Group}, we get I. S. W. Group as the author. Instead, put an additional embraces will get us the full author name.
author = {{IEEE SSR Working Group}}

Similarly, when we want to have capitalized letters in title, putting additional embraces will tell Latex to comply the format.

PDF for IEEE compliance -- Font solution

Translated by Yan Ma.

Write as you move

Writing is a key component of research. Asked by Time Magazine why he kept a journal, Mr. Obama answered: writing keeps his mind clear. So does writing for a researcher. When we write, we think in more details with logic. It is the first step: literature survey and the final outcome: publications.


Take the example of literature review: this is an important skill for a researcher. Review has to be adequate and thorough. In this first example, a student is is working on developing an impedance model for a device. He needs to write an introduction in his paper to say what has been done for this kind of research problems. People may have not exactly use the word "impedance model". However, the related research counts. The related research includes: developing analytical model of this type of device, developing small signal model and etc. These papers should be read along with the research and it is expected that you keep a document of paper review. I prefer Latex for documenting since citations can be directly downloaded from Xplore or google scholar and embedded in your document. Save you time when you start to write a journal paper.

Take another example: a student is working on model predictive control for battery. Just searching MPC+ battery is not enough. We need to understand the similar research people have conducted in the field. For example, key words such as dynamic programming + energy  storage, MPC+ smart grid should be searched to have an overview of the application in smart grid area. If we find an in-depth paper, we go down to the math and understand the problem formulation.

When you write the paper review, write as you are explaining to an audience and expect questions such as: what is the essence of the paper? what is the problem formulation? what are the key conclusions? if some figures are very important, copy and paste in your latex. You can of course write a review after you read a couple of papers with similar topic. It will be nice to do a comparison and make analogy.

Your document will save you time when you start to write a paper. In the introduction, you are expected to tell the readers a decent story about your research and the evolution of this research problem. Once you build a strong argument, the rest of the project is to work out the details of your argument.

Latex

Latex is great for technical writing. Several things to keep in mind:

1. you can batch download bibtex citations from IEEE Xplore.
2. you can download bibtex citations from Google scholar.
3. you can change the format by changing one single command in your Latex by using a different style file.
4. use eps file to generate figures. Manuscript centre requires eps for final uploading. Keep you raw figure files. 
5. use Latex for thesis and dissertation.