Writing technical content in Academic

Image credit: John Moeses Bauan

Academic is designed to give technical content creators a seamless experience. You can focus on the content and Academic handles the rest.

Highlight your code snippets, take notes on math classes, and draw diagrams from textual representation.

On this page, you'll find some examples of the types of technical content that can be rendered with Academic.

Examples

Code

Academic supports a Markdown extension for highlighting code syntax. You can enable this feature by toggling the highlight option in your config/_default/params.toml file.

```python
import pandas as pd
data = pd.read_csv("data.csv")
data.head()
```

renders as

import pandas as pd
data = pd.read_csv("data.csv")
data.head()

Math

Academic supports a Markdown extension for $\LaTeX$ math. You can enable this feature by toggling the math option in your config/_default/params.toml file and adding markup: mmark to your page front matter.

To render inline or block math, wrap your LaTeX math with $$...$$.

Example math block:

$$\gamma_{n} = \frac{ 
\left | \left (\mathbf x_{n} - \mathbf x_{n-1} \right )^T 
\left [\nabla F (\mathbf x_{n}) - \nabla F (\mathbf x_{n-1}) \right ] \right |}
{\left \|\nabla F(\mathbf{x}_{n}) - \nabla F(\mathbf{x}_{n-1}) \right \|^2}$$

renders as

\[\gamma_{n} = \frac{ \left | \left (\mathbf x_{n} - \mathbf x_{n-1} \right )^T \left [\nabla F (\mathbf x_{n}) - \nabla F (\mathbf x_{n-1}) \right ] \right |}{\left \|\nabla F(\mathbf{x}_{n}) - \nabla F(\mathbf{x}_{n-1}) \right \|^2}\]

Example inline math $$\left \|\nabla F(\mathbf{x}_{n}) - \nabla F(\mathbf{x}_{n-1}) \right \|^2$$ renders as \(\left \|\nabla F(\mathbf{x}_{n}) - \nabla F(\mathbf{x}_{n-1}) \right \|^2\) .

Example multi-line math using the \\ math linebreak:

$$f(k;p_0^*) = \begin{cases} p_0^* & \text{if }k=1, \\
1-p_0^* & \text {if }k=0.\end{cases}$$

renders as

\[f(k;p_0^*) = \begin{cases} p_0^* & \text{if }k=1, \\ 1-p_0^* & \text {if }k=0.\end{cases}\]

Diagrams

Academic supports a Markdown extension for diagrams. You can enable this feature by toggling the diagram option in your config/_default/params.toml file or by adding diagram: true to your page front matter.

An example flowchart:

```mermaid
graph TD;
  A-->B;
  A-->C;
  B-->D;
  C-->D;
```

renders as

graph TD;
  A-->B;
  A-->C;
  B-->D;
  C-->D;

An example sequence diagram:

```mermaid
sequenceDiagram
  participant Alice
  participant Bob
  Alice->John: Hello John, how are you?
  loop Healthcheck
      John->John: Fight against hypochondria
  end
  Note right of John: Rational thoughts 
prevail... John-->Alice: Great! John->Bob: How about you? Bob-->John: Jolly good! ```

renders as

sequenceDiagram
  participant Alice
  participant Bob
  Alice->John: Hello John, how are you?
  loop Healthcheck
      John->John: Fight against hypochondria
  end
  Note right of John: Rational thoughts 
prevail... John-->Alice: Great! John->Bob: How about you? Bob-->John: Jolly good!

An example Gantt diagram:

```mermaid
gantt
  dateFormat  YYYY-MM-DD
  section Section
  A task           :a1, 2014-01-01, 30d
  Another task     :after a1  , 20d
  section Another
  Task in sec      :2014-01-12  , 12d
  another task      : 24d
```

renders as

gantt
  dateFormat  YYYY-MM-DD
  section Section
  A task           :a1, 2014-01-01, 30d
  Another task     :after a1  , 20d
  section Another
  Task in sec      :2014-01-12  , 12d
  another task      : 24d

Todo lists

You can even write your todo lists in Academic too:

- [x] Write math example
- [x] Write diagram example
- [ ] Do something else

renders as

  • Write math example
  • Write diagram example
  • Do something else

Tables

Represent your data in tables:

| First Header  | Second Header |
| ------------- | ------------- |
| Content Cell  | Content Cell  |
| Content Cell  | Content Cell  |

renders as

First Header Second Header
Content Cell Content Cell
Content Cell Content Cell

Asides

Academic supports a Markdown extension for asides, also referred to as notices or hints. By prefixing a paragraph with A>, it will render as an aside. You can enable this feature by adding markup: mmark to your page front matter, or alternatively using the Alert shortcode.

A> A Markdown aside is useful for displaying notices, hints, or definitions to your readers.

renders as

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Brenton M. Wiernik
Assistant Professor of I–O Psychology

My research interests include personality, psychometrics, and meta-analysis.