This repository contains resources that will help you make your research more reproducible. This will save you a substantial amount of time, significantly reduce the risk for human errors when exporting results to your papers, and make your research more transparent. We have prepared exercises that will make it easy for you to start using these resources.
All code is MIT licensed, and the text content is CC-BY. Please feel free to send edits and updates via Pull Requests.
How to get started
Step 1. Download the material
Click the green Clone or Download button on this page, then click Download ZIP, and save all the content of this repository to your computer.
Step 2. Set up a LaTeX environemnt
If you already have a LaTeX editor on your computer and you know that is working, skip this step. Otherwise, open the How to set up TeXstudio.pdf file in the Set up LaTeX on your computer folder in the material you downloaded in Step 1. When you have followed those instructions and tested that your set up works correctly, then go the Step 3.
Step 3. Do Exercises
In the Exercises folder, there are subfolders for each exercise. In each folder you will find a handout file. That file explains how to get started. We recommend that you start with Exercise 1-3 and do the other exercises as needed. See a list of all exercises below.
Step 4. Use the templates in your own reserch
Feel free to use any of the LaTeX templates in the DIME Templates folder you downloaded in Step 1 for any purpose of your own choice. Please feel free to submit any feedback you might have on how these templates can be improved.
List of Exercises
Exercise 1 - Basic Appendix. This exercise covers the basics of LaTeX and show you how to create a simple appendix of tables and graphs that automatically updates each time you re-run your code in, for example, Stata and R. At DIME, the Research Assistant create these appendices when producing output for the Economists. When writing the paper or report, these tables and graphs can be kept in the appendix or be moved into the text.
Exercise 2 - Advanced Appendix. This exercise introduces some more advanced techniques to create the appendix, and it also discuss how you can format your tables after they have been exported by a command in, for example, Stata or R.
Exercise 3 - Full Document (Not created yet). This exercise introduces the topics you need to know to write a full paper or report in LaTeX that dynamically updates when you re-run your code in, for example, Stata and R.
Exercise Stata - How to export tables and graph from Stata to LaTeX. This exercise covers how you can use Stata to export tables and graphs that can be read by LaTeX.
Exercise R - How to export tables and graph from Stata to LaTeX (Not created yet). This exercise covers how you can use R to export tables and graphs that can be read by LaTeX.
Other resources
The ambition of these resources are to be an easy getting started guide with the most basic concepts of LaTeX used in our field. It is not meant to be a comprehensive resource. They already exist but can be a bit intimidating to someone completely new to LaTeX. Examples of comprehensive resources are: