bppaper.cls: A LaTex template for academic papers

This template is based on the article class. I redefine the title page, the page layout and few other aspects. I also include some new options, listed below. They work as any other option:

\documentclass[sans,color,narrow]{bppaper}

You can find an example here: .tex file and .pdf file.

Note: The user can still use any option compatible with the article class such as font size, etc.

This code is distributed under the MIT License

Options

Font typefaces:

• Helvetica (option: helvetica)
• Sans-serif (option: sans)
• Palatino (option: palatino)
• Serif Pro (option: serif).

Colors (by default, headings appear in black and links in blue):

• blue: headings and captions appear in blue and links/references in green.
• red: headings and captions appear in red and links/references in green.
• green: headings and captions appear in green and links/references in blue.

The user can define his/her own set of colors by including in the preambule:

\definecolor{main}{RGB}{000,100,000}      % headings
\definecolor{colorref}{RGB}{000,000,200}  % links

Other options

• Option tikz: the document loads the packages required to use the tikz environments. It automatically loads the libraries arrows, positioning, patterns, decorations.pathreplacing and decorations.pathmorphing.

• Option narrow: it increases the margin size from 2cm (default) to 3cm.

Title page

This template includes few new aspects to the default title page. In particular:

• Abstract: the user can include an abstract using \abstract{ ... } in the preamble.
• JEL codes: the user can specify the JEL codes of the paper using \jel{ ... } in the preamble. This will show up below the abstract.
• Keywords: the user can include some keywords to the title page using \keywords{ ... } in the preamble. This will show up below the abstract and the JEL codes (if defined).
• Acknowledgements: the user can include a footnote in the title page with acknowledgements and other comments using \thanks{ ... } in the preamble.

A "complete" preamble would be:

\title{Title of the project}
\author{Author's name 1\\Institution 1 \and Author's name 2\\Institution 2}
\date{\today}
\abstract{A summary of the paper}
\jel{jel1, jel2, jel3}
\keywords{keyword1, keyword2, keyword3}
\thanks{I would like to thank....}

New commands

• \hs: equivalent to \hspace{0.1cm} (it can also be called as \hs{a} where a is the cm to be included in the \hspace{ } command)

• \vs: equivalent to \vspace{0.1cm} (it can also be called as \vs{a} where a is the cm to be included in the \vspace{ } command)

• \so: equivalent to \hspace{0.5cm}\to\hspace{0.5cm}

• \llave{a}{b}: it draws a brace under a and displays b in math environment. Example

  \begin{equation}
      \llave{ x = \dfrac{-b \pm \sqrt{b^2 - 4ac}}{2a} }{ Solution }
  \end{equation}

• \uline{...}: underline some text using the ulem package.

Default packages

• inputenc: text encoding (loads option utf8)
• geometry: redefine the size of document.
• enumitem: formatting itemize and enumerate environments.
• hyperref: links and within-doc citations.
• color: define new colors (loads options usenames and dvipsnames).
• titlesec: customize section titles
• scrextend: redefine the layout of footnotes.
• caption: customize figure/table captions.
• footmisc: force footnotes to be located at the bottom (loads option bottom).
• amssymb, amsmath, amsthm: math expressions, symbols and theorems.
• booktabs: nice separation lines for tables.
• setspace: change the line spacing within the document.
• ulem: nicer underline environment.
• stackengine: stack objects vertically (used for the \llave command).
• natbib: to manage .bib references (loads option authoryear).
• multirow: merge multiple rows/columns in tables.
• graphicx: include figures.
• subcaption: include subfigures.