Various LaTeX samples I've put together over the years that I refer to now and again (or use as a startup template).
The Python-based scons build system is used for building PDF's from the various files so that I don't have to remember when to bibtex or which verison of which program I should run or when to run the same program 3 times...
On the scons note, the best use case is probably the metauml example. MetaUML uses LaTeX and MetaPost. AS a result, the SConstruct file includes a custom MetaPost builder to fit everything together.
See the two-col example for a cited research paper with figures using the default LaTeX two-column format and BibLatex for citation management.
See the IEEE sample for a version of the two-col example using the IEEE Computer Society Journal styles. Note that this means using bibtex instead of BibLaTex as in the two-col example.
For an example of where the IEEE style (although note the use of LaTexdescription instead of IEEEdescription near the end of the article) might be helpful outside the IEEE, please compare and contrast buscase and buscase- ieee in the buscase folder.