Research Tips for Students by Alcides Fonseca

Create a git repo for each paper/project. Usually I create a repo just for the paper, and the code lives on a different repo, as it can be reused for different papers.
Use LaTeX for the paper. Yes it’s ugly, but at least I don’t have to worry (much) about formatting.
Use bibtex to manage bibliographies. By order of preference, use DBLP, ACM, IEEE and only Google Scholar as a last resource to get the Bibtex key.
Use cleveref and \Cref or \cref instead of \ref to manage references to figures and sections. Use label prefixes: cha:, sec:, subsec:, fig:, lst:, tab:
Use Software~\cite{source_key} to connect the citation with the previous work. Use \citet and \citep accordingly.
Use short and direct sentences. Use (well) connectors between sentences to give a conducting line to the paragraph.
Always give an overview before you go in detail.
Have a running example in all your papers.
Read a couple of similar papers in top venues. Learn the common structure and use it.
Do NOT use minted. It is a PITA.