Guide: Building your Academic Website with Quarto + GitHub Pages

For: René Gempp — gempp.cl

Based on Dr. Gang He’s template

Site Architecture

Navbar:  Home | Research ▼ | Teaching ▼ | Tests & Scales | Software & Code | Professional
                 │                │
                 ├─ Publications   ├─ Courses
                 └─ Grants         ├─ Workshops
                                   └─ Tutorials

Files included in this package

File Purpose
_quarto.yml Main site configuration (navbar, theme, footer)
index.qmd Homepage with bio, photo, and links
publications.qmd Auto-generated publication list from BibTeX
grants.qmd Funded research projects (current and past)
teaching-courses.qmd University courses (OB, Organizational Diagnosis)
teaching-workshops.qmd Workshops and short courses
teaching-tutorials.qmd Quarto tutorials with executable R code (listing page)
tests-scales.qmd Psychometric instruments developed or adapted
software.qmd Code, scripts, and tools (R, Mplus, Stata)
professional.qmd Consulting, peer review, memberships, conferences
contact.qmd Contact information

Part 1: Prerequisites (one-time setup)

1.1 Install Quarto

Download the Windows installer from: https://quarto.org/docs/get-started/

Run the .msi installer. Verify in Git Bash:

quarto --version

1.2 Verify Git

You already have Git configured (from Claude Code). Verify:

git --version

Part 2: Create the Repository (10 minutes)

2.1 Fork the template

  1. Go to: https://github.com/drganghe/quarto-academic-website-template
  2. Click “Use this template” → “Create a new repository”
  3. Configure:
    • Repository name: tu-username.github.io (publishes at https://tu-username.github.io)
    • Visibility: Public (required for free GitHub Pages)
  4. Click “Create repository”

2.2 Clone to your PC

cd ~/Dropbox/ANALYTICA/
git clone https://github.com/TU-USERNAME/TU-USERNAME.github.io.git
cd TU-USERNAME.github.io

2.3 Test locally

quarto preview

Should open the template site in your browser. Ctrl+C to stop.

Part 3: Replace Files

3.1 Delete template files you won’t need

rm people.qmd projects.qmd projects.yml posts.qmd
rm -rf people/ posts/

3.2 Copy the personalized files

Replace _quarto.yml, index.qmd, publications.qmd, and contact.qmd with the versions from this package. Add the new files: grants.qmd, teaching-courses.qmd, teaching-workshops.qmd, teaching-tutorials.qmd, tests-scales.qmd, software.qmd, professional.qmd.

3.3 Add your profile photo

Place your photo at files/profiles/profile.jpg.

3.4 Create your BibTeX file

  1. Go to your Google Scholar profile
  2. Select all publications → Export → BibTeX
  3. Save as references.bib in the project root

Alternative: Export from Zotero as BibTeX for cleaner entries.

3.5 Create the tutorials folder structure

mkdir -p teaching/tutorials

When you create your first tutorial, add a subfolder:

teaching/tutorials/intro-irt/
└── index.qmd

3.6 Replace placeholders

Search all .qmd files for these strings and replace them:

  • TU-USERNAME → your GitHub username
  • TU-ID → your Google Scholar user ID
  • TU-ORCID → your ORCID (uncomment lines when ready)

Part 4: Render and Publish

4.1 Render locally

quarto render

4.2 Preview

quarto preview

4.3 Push to GitHub

git add .
git commit -m "Initial personalized site"
git push

4.4 Configure GitHub Pages

  1. Go to your repository on GitHub
  2. Settings → Pages
  3. Source: “Deploy from a branch”
  4. Branch: main, folder /docs
  5. Click Save

Wait 2-5 minutes. Your site will be live.

Part 5: Connect gempp.cl

5.1 In GitHub

Settings → Pages → Custom domain → type gempp.cl → Save

5.2 At your domain registrar

Add these DNS records:

For gempp.cl (apex domain):

Type Host Value
A @ 185.199.108.153
A @ 185.199.109.153
A @ 185.199.110.153
A @ 185.199.111.153

For www.gempp.cl:

Type Host Value
CNAME www tu-username.github.io

5.3 Enable HTTPS

Once DNS propagates (up to 48h), go to Settings → Pages → check “Enforce HTTPS”.

Part 6: Adding Content Over Time

Adding a new tutorial (with R code)

  1. Create teaching/tutorials/my-tutorial/index.qmd
  2. Write your tutorial with executable R chunks
  3. quarto render and push

Example index.qmd header:

---
title: "Introduction to IRT with mirt"
description: "A practical walkthrough of Rasch and GRM models in R"
date: 2026-04-01
categories: [IRT, R, psychometrics]
execute:
  echo: true
---

Adding a dedicated course page

Create a subfolder like teaching/ob-2026/ with its own index.qmd. Link to it from teaching-courses.qmd. The course page can include syllabus, slides (Reveal.js), assignments, and R-based materials.

Adding a psychometric report for a test

Create a subfolder like tests/bmslss/index.qmd with the full psychometric documentation. Link to it from tests-scales.qmd.

Part 7: Regular Workflow

Once the site is running:

  1. Edit .qmd files in your editor (RStudio, VS Code)
  2. quarto preview to check changes
  3. quarto render to build the final site
  4. git add . && git commit -m "description" && git push
  5. GitHub Pages updates automatically (1-2 minutes)

Useful Resources