BFH Shortpaper

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bfhshortpaper.tgz

BFH Short Paper Template

A template for short papers in IMRaD structure (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion) in the BFH corporate design. It is based on the bfhpub class of bfh-ci. The same document body can be typeset in two columns or one column; only one line in the preamble changes.

Installation, compiling with latexmk and the .gitignore setup are described in the general README of the BFH LaTeX templates. This file covers only what is specific to this template.

Files

File	Purpose
`bfhshortpaper.tex`	The paper: preamble, metadata and an example body with placeholder text.
`bfhpaperlayout.sty`	Layout helpers: front matter, abstract, ornamental rule, full-width tables, bibliography layout.
`sample.bib`	Example bibliography database (biblatex format).
`.latexmkrc`	latexmk configuration (see the general README).

Getting started

Fill in the metadata in the preamble of bfhshortpaper.tex: \title, \subtitle, \author, \subject, \institution, \department, \institute, \version. Title and subtitle also appear in the running head (left and right).
Replace the abstract and the \blindtext placeholders with your text.
Replace sample.bib with your own database, or add your entries to it, and adjust \addbibresource{...} if you rename the file.
When you no longer need placeholder text, remove \usepackage{blindtext}.

One or two columns

The layout is chosen at the top of bfhshortpaper.tex:

\providecommand\paperlayout{twocolumn}
%\providecommand\paperlayout{onecolumn}

Front matter, abstract, tables and bibliography adapt automatically, so the body needs no changes.

Because \providecommand is used, the layout can also be set from the command line without editing the file. For example, to build a one-column version next to the regular one:

latexmk -jobname=bfhshortpaper-1col -usepretex='\def\paperlayout{onecolumn}' bfhshortpaper.tex

Front matter and abstract

Put the abstract inside paperfrontmatter:

\begin{paperfrontmatter}
  \begin{abstract}
    ...
  \end{abstract}
\end{paperfrontmatter}

The environment prints the title (\maketitle), its content and an ornamental rule across the full text width, in both layouts. Don’t call \maketitle yourself. The abstract looks the same in one- and two-column mode: a bold paragraph introduced by the orange word Abstract, which is translated by babel. The content may also contain more than the abstract, e.g. keywords.

Tables

The BFH table environment bfhTblr (tabularray) is available through \LoadBFHModule{tabular}. Choose the surrounding environment by the width the table needs:

Environment	Two-column layout	One-column layout
`table`	one column wide, floating	text width, floating
`widetable` (default `[tb]`)	full width, floats to the top or bottom of a page	ordinary floating table
`widetable[h]`	full width, exactly here in the text	table placed `[!htbp]`

\caption and \label work in all variants. Inside the table, use width=\linewidth so it fills the available width.

Notes on widetable[h]:

It can’t break across pages. Use it for tables that are clearly shorter than a page.
It interrupts both columns at the current position. Text before it is balanced above, text after it continues below.

The default placement of widetable can be changed: \renewcommand{\widetabledefaultplacement}{t}.

Figures

There is no widefigure environment. Use figure for column-wide figures and figure* for full-width figures in two-column mode. stfloats is loaded, so figure* also accepts [b] (bottom of the page). In one-column mode, figure* behaves like figure.

Citations and bibliography

The template uses biblatex with the IEEE style (style=ieee, sorting=none): references are numbered in the order of citation. The bibliography is processed by biber. latexmk runs it automatically; in an editor, set the bibliography tool to biber, not BibTeX.

Print the bibliography inside paperbibliography and choose its layout in the two-column mode:

\begin{paperbibliography}[columns]
  \printbibliography
\end{paperbibliography}

Mode	Two-column layout
`columns` (default)	stays in the two columns
`wide`	full width on a new page, may run over several pages
`widehere`	full width right below the text; only for short lists, can’t break across pages

In one-column mode, the mode has no effect.

Languages

The document language is English (main=english); ngerman and french are loaded as additional languages. Use \foreignlanguage{ngerman}{...} or the otherlanguage environment for passages in another language. To write the whole paper in German, change the babel options to \usepackage[french,english,main=ngerman]{babel}. Quotation marks follow the language when you use \enquote{...} (csquotes).

Paragraphs are marked by indentation, as usual in papers.

Helpers in the template

Command	Use
`\code{...}`	Inline code or commands in typewriter font, in quotation marks. Escape `#`, `_`, `%`, `&` as `\#`, `\_`, …
`bfhNoteBox`	BFH note box (from `\LoadBFHModule{boxes}`).
`\ornamentrule`	The ornamental separator, usable anywhere in the text.

Section headings are unnumbered and set with compact spacing. Change this in the block Page style & headings, e.g. remove the \renewcommand*{\sectionformat}{} lines to get numbered sections.

Customising the layout helpers

All settings go into the preamble, after \usepackage{bfhpaperlayout}.

Setting	Effect
`\setkomafont{paperabstract}{...}`	Font of the abstract text
`\setkomafont{paperabstracttitle}{...}`	Font and colour of the word Abstract
`\setlength{\paperabstractindent}{...}`	Left/right indent of the abstract (default 0pt)
`\setlength{\paperfrontmatterskip}{...}`	Space after the front matter
`\renewcommand{\ornamentrulewidthfactor}{.85}`	Rule width as fraction of the line width
`\setlength{\ornamentrulewidth}{...}`	Fixed rule width (overrides the factor)
`\setlength{\ornamentruleskip}{...}`	Space above and below the rule
`\colorlet{ornamentrule}{...}`	Rule colour (default BFH orange)
`\renewcommand{\ornamentruledesign}{...}`	The rule drawing itself (TikZ)
`\renewcommand{\widetabledefaultplacement}{tb}`	Default placement of `widetable`
`\renewcommand{\paperbibliographydefault}{columns}`	Default mode of `paperbibliography`

bfhpaperlayout.sty requires a KOMA-Script based class such as bfhpub. It also corrects a bug in cuted v2.0 that breaks full-width strips when a column float is pending. The correction is only applied to that exact version; the log then shows Applied fix for cuted’s \check@floats.

Feedback

Report problems and suggestions for this template via the bfh-ci issue tracker: https://gitlab.ti.bfh.ch/bfh-latex/bfh-ci/-/issues