Draft abstracts and research papers using your own document as a style reference

The Document tool can produce abstracts, research papers, white papers, and professional reports. By default it follows standard templates (IEEE, APA, ACM, plain, modern). But if you have a real document you want to imitate — your lab's last paper, a published abstract you admire, your firm's white-paper format — you can use it as a style reference and the new draft will match.

Why this matters

Journals, conferences, and clients each have unwritten conventions: how the abstract is structured, how long the introduction runs, how citations are formatted, whether figures come before or after their discussion. A reference document captures all of that implicitly — you don't have to spell it out.

The workflow

1. Upload the reference document to your sources (.pdf, .docx, or paste the text). Examples that work well:
   • A previous paper from your group.
   • A published abstract in the target journal.
   • Your company's last white paper.
   • A grant proposal with the structure you need.
2. Include it as a source and label it as "style/format reference".
3. Add the content sources — the new research, dataset, or topic the document is actually about.
4. Open the Document tool and choose:
   • Style: research-paper, abstract, professional-report, or white-paper
   • Template: IEEE, APA, ACM, plain, or modern
   • Length: abstract, short, standard, or deep
5. In the Custom prompt field, add: "Match the structure, section order, tone, and citation style of the reference document."
6. Generate. The new draft will inherit the reference's voice and shape while staying grounded in your new sources.

What gets carried over

• Section ordering (e.g. Introduction → Background → Methods → Results → Discussion).
• Citation style (numeric [1], author-date (Smith, 2020), or a custom format like BIS/IFC).
• Sentence rhythm — formal academic vs accessible professional.
• Average section length and the balance between sections.
• Keyword and abstract conventions specific to your field.

What does NOT get copied

• Specific results, data, or claims from the reference paper.
• Author names or affiliations (unless you set them in the form).
• Citations that are not in your new source set.

Power-user tips

• Use the Additional reference samples field to paste 1–2 example reference entries — the AI will format your References section the same way (great for non-standard formats like BIS, IFC, or in-house styles).
• After generation, use Edit with AI (incremental) on a single section to refine wording without re-writing the whole paper.
• Use Version History to compare drafts and roll back.
• Use the Source citations panel to confirm every claim traces back to your actual sources, not the reference document.

Reports vs Document — which to use?

• Reports = executive findings, key insights, and charts for stakeholders. Shorter, scannable.
• Document = long-form prose with abstract, sections, and a formal reference list. Use this when you need something publication-shaped.

Combine reference templates with Neurixco's incremental editing and version history, and you get drafts that feel like your lab or your firm wrote them — on the first generation.