Streamline Your Workflow when Starting a New Research Paper | by Rodrigo M Carrillo Larco, MD, PhD | Dec, 2024

Python code to create folders and Word documents for research papers in biomedical sciences — all in one go with only two inputs

I am a researcher with over seven years of experience working in public health and epidemiological research. Every time I am about to start a new research paper, I create a folder for this project, inside multiple folders for each section of my work, and Word documents for the manuscript with specific headings. Having published over 170 peer-review papers, I must have done this process over 200 times. I think it is about time to automatize this process, and I will share with you how to do so!

At the end of the post, you will find the full code. You only need to copy and paste it onto your favorite Python environment and hit run. The code will generate the function create_project_structure. This function will create a folder structure and Word documents ready for you to go straight to work on your research paper.

What does this function do?

This function will generate a folder in a specified path (base_path), and this folder will be named as you wish (project_name). This function will also create two Word documents, one for the supplementary materials and…