book-creation

Skill: Book Creation in PaperLab

When to Use

USE WHEN: creating a new scientific book project, writing chapter content, running book notebooks, building/rendering a book, or troubleshooting the book pipeline. This skill covers the complete lifecycle from book-new to final rendered outputs in HTML/Word/PDF/ODF.

DO NOT USE for: paper writing workflows (use write-methods-section, journal-formatting, etc. instead).

1. Book Project Structure

Every book lives under neqsim-paperlab/books/<slug>_<year>/. The critical file is book.yaml — it defines metadata, chapter ordering, parts, and rendering settings.

books/<book_slug>/
├── book.yaml                  # Master manifest — defines EVERYTHING
├── refs.bib                   # Master bibliography
├── nomenclature.yaml          # Symbol definitions
├── frontmatter/
│   ├── title_page.md
│   ├── copyright.md
│   ├── dedication.md
│   └── preface.md
├── chapters/
│   ├── ch01_introduction/
│   │   ├── chapter.md         # Chapter text (markdown with LaTeX math)
│   │   ├── figures/           # Generated figures (PNG)
│   │   └── notebooks/         # Jupyter notebooks that generate figures
│   ├── ch02_topic_name/
│   │   ├── chapter.md
│   │   ├── figures/
│   │   └── notebooks/
│   └── ...
├── backmatter/
│   ├── glossary.md
│   └── author_bio.md
└── submission/                # Rendered outputs
    ├── book.html
    ├── book.docx
    ├── book.pdf
   ├── book.odt
    └── figures_chNN/          # PDF renderer copies figures here for Typst

book.yaml Structure

title: "Book Title"
subtitle: "Subtitle"
authors:
  - name: "Author Name"
    affiliation: "Institution"
    email: "[email protected]"
edition: "1st"
year: 2026
publisher: "springer"        # springer | wiley | crc | self
language: "en"

settings:
  book_type: "textbook"      # simple | technical | textbook (see §1.1)
  page_size: "b5"            # b5 | a4
  font_size: 10
  line_spacing: 1.2
  two_sided: true
  chapter_numbering: true
  equation_numbering: "chapter"  # chapter-scoped: Eq. 3.1, 3.2, ...
  # Optional content toggles (override the book_type profile, see §1.1):
  # include_copyright: true
  # include_learning_objectives: true
  # include_exercises: true
  # exclude_sections: ["Review Questions", "Problems"]

frontmatter:
  - title_page
  - copyright
  - dedication
  - preface

parts:
  - title: "Part I: Foundations"
    chapters:
      - dir: "ch01_introduction"           # MUST match exact dir name
        title: "Introduction and Context"
      - dir: "ch02_topic_name"
        title: "Topic Name"
  - title: "Part II: Advanced"
    chapters:
      - dir: "ch03_another_topic"
        title: "Another Topic"

backmatter:
  - glossary
  - author_bio

nomenclature:
  file: "nomenclature.yaml"
  position: "after_toc"

bibliography:
  style: "numeric"
  file: "refs.bib"