I'd like to enforce the following conventions in writing research papers for better exchange purposes.  For instance, this way if we exchange a bib file, we do not need to modify it.

- Use Latex to write text, use xfig to draw figures, and use OpenOffice to draw experimental graphs.

- Each paper occupies a directory.  In it, there are *.tex files, *.bib files, and some directories. 

- In particular, all figures (*.fig + *.eps) are in a sub-directory, e.g. called "./fig"

- There should have a directory called "forjournal" which stores the extension materials.

- Figure convention.
In the main file (typically main.tex or 716.tex), define:
	\newcommand{\fig}[1]{Figure~\ref{#1}}
Then in the body text, to cite a figure, use something like:
	\fig{fig:intro}.
The reason why we do not use Figure~\ref{fig:intro} is that if some conference generates figure labels like "Fig. 3", we only need to replace the \fig definition.

- Some conventions about entries in the bib file:

* Naming convention: 
[one author] Use lastname + year.  If lastname is too long, use first three characters.
	e.g. author={D. Zhang}, year=1996 ----> Zhang96
[2-4 authors] Use lastname initials + year.  
	e.g. author={E. Kanoulas and Y. Du and T. Xia and D. Zhang} --> KDXZ06
[5+ authors] Use first three initial and a plus + year
	e.g. author = {Y. Du and T. Xia and Y. Tao and D. Zhang and F. Zhu} --> DXT+06
[duplicate entries] Let there be three XZ06, replace them with
	XZ06a, XZ06b, XZ06c

* title convention:
Should be enclosed in double brackets, and should have capitalized first letters. E.g.
title = {{Computing Partial Sums in Multidimensional Arrays}}

* booktitle convention:
Should use abbreviations for well-known conferences and journals. E.g.
	booktitle = sigmod
Here in the bib file you should have defined sigmod as:
	@string{sigmod="SIGMOD"}
The reason why we do not write booktitle={"SIGMOD"} is that in case you need to have the full name of SIGMOD conference, you simply replace the above defined string, instead of replacing 50 places.