Using LaTeX templates with R Markdown in RStudio

[dkane]

I use R Markdown with RStudio to make all my PDFs. Yeah! But I am planning to submit an abstract to SDSS 2020. They require the use of a LaTeX template:

https://ww2.amstat.org/meetings/sdss/2020/submitanabstract.cfm

What is the best way to use this template while, at the same time, maintaining as much of my current Rmd workflow? That is, how do I create an Rmd which, when knitted, will produce a PDF consistent with that LaTeX template?

[technocrat]

If the event organizers had their collective act together, they would have taken the slight amount of trouble to upload this to CTAN, where it could be installed into your \LaTeX environment and invoked with

header-includes:
  - \usepackage{SDSS2020}

and all would be well. Or if they kept the template constant from year-to-year and just set a date argument. If that were the case, some kind soul would contribute it to @yihui's rticles package and it could be a dropdown choice.

But alas, you have two choices.

1. Compile to the standard template, specify save tex and edit the result by hand (not a lot of time left to go down that road).
2. Try your luck at installing the package, as outlined in this post by siulkilulki

[mattwarkentin]

I gave a shot a trying to adapt the SDSS template for use with R Markdown. Chalk it up to being bored on a Sunday morning.

If you download the zipped folder they provided for you and drop in the two files I hosted at this link (sdss-abstract.Rmd, sdss2020-template.tex), you should be able to just modify the Rmd file and get it to render to the proper SDSS format.

I think my relatively quick adaptation is about 95+% of the way there.

[technocrat]

@mattwarkentin, he's fearless!