Biology and life-science papers: figures, multi-panel plates, and coauthors

Life-science manuscripts are figure-first. The text explains the plate; the plate carries the claim. LaTeX is fine at that job if you treat figures as first-class project files, not afterthoughts pasted at 2am.

Multi-panel figures

Reviewers expect (a)(b)(c) panels with one shared caption. Use subcaption or build the plate externally in Illustrator/Inkscape and include a single PDF. If you build in TeX:

\usepackage{subcaption}
\begin{figure}[htbp]
  \begin{subfigure}{0.48\textwidth}
    \includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{a.pdf}
    \caption{Control}\label{fig:exp-a}
  \end{subfigure}\hfill
  ...
  \caption{Overall experiment.}\label{fig:exp}
\end{figure}

Lesson: panels a, b, c.

Resolution and color

Microscopy needs high-resolution TIFF or PDF as the archive format; for the paper, PDF or PNG at sufficient dpi. Avoid JPEG for line annotations. Check how the journal handles color charges before you design a six-color scheme that only works on screen.

Supplements that still compile

Move giant tables and extra gels to a supplement file with its own \documentclass or an appendix. Cross-reference carefully: labels must be unique across main and supplement if they share a compile, or fully separate if they do not.

Multi-author chaos

Biology papers often have many coauthors who edit at different skill levels. Own files by section (results.tex, methods.tex), merge through Git, and agree that the .bib is maintained by one person or a shared Zotero group export. A local project folder is easier to zip for a collaborator than a cloud project they cannot access after graduation.

Methods and statistics notation

Define statistical macros once (\pvalue, \ci) so p-values do not appear as both $p$ and p= in prose. Keep a short notation list in the methods supplement if the paper is dense.