Scholarship Skills Tim Sheard and Todd Leen 1 Lecture 2 Scholarship Skills Tim Sheard and Todd Leen 2006 PSU - OHSU All material © 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000 David Maier 2004 Todd Leen Lecture 2: Organizing Background Material and Efficient Reading

Scholarship Skills Tim Sheard and Todd Leen 2 Lecture 2 Organizing Source Materials I find it useful to make a copy of sources I’m using, even if I have the journal or proceedings. You can write on it Its portable easy to group similar papers Make sure you copy citation info when you copy an article— –easy, just copy title page of journal or proceedings “Fair-use” copyright principle says it is okay to make a single copy for personal use.

Scholarship Skills Tim Sheard and Todd Leen 3 Lecture 2 Filing Materials Don’t over-organize your articles –rule of thumb. If you can find it in 3 minutes its ok I tend to file by broad category, and then by author. E.g. –Object oriented databases –Type systems –operating system kernels If you use too fine of gradations, you start agonizing about where to put an article.

Scholarship Skills Tim Sheard and Todd Leen 4 Lecture 2 Prioritizing Sources to Read In a new area, I usually try to find a recent paper with a good related- work section to start with, or an overview article to get notation, (terminology and lay of the land) journal paper, book chapter, magazine article usually better than a conference paper (for this purpose). Exception: invited papers, usually more of a survey, maybe longer than non-invited papers Try to figure out which are the main groups working on an area, read a paper from each get recent papers authors are good at citing their own work (backchain) may need to go to earlier papers for details

Scholarship Skills Tim Sheard and Todd Leen 5 Lecture 2 Prioritizing Sources to Read 2 Next, look for older, highly cited papers. Can also be enlightening to read a critique paper. less common in CS than in social sciences or humanities

Scholarship Skills Tim Sheard and Todd Leen 6 Lecture 2 Why Are You Reading the Paper? To answer a particular question Looking for help solving a problem Educating yourself Learn if your work is novel See how your work fits in What are the papers definitions and assumptions

Scholarship Skills Tim Sheard and Todd Leen 7 Lecture 2 Other Reasons Reviewing or abstracting it Preparing a presentation on it Looking for inspiration waiting for the dentist, got nothing better to do

Scholarship Skills Tim Sheard and Todd Leen 8 Lecture 2 What should I get out of reading a paper? The context of the paper The thesis being investigated The contribution The method of investigation The “power” of the results The influence of the paper The applicability of the results Summary of the technical development Details of any examples Thanks to Jim Hook for this list.

Scholarship Skills Tim Sheard and Todd Leen 9 Lecture 2 How to Read a Paper I usually go after a paper in several passes, sometimes spread over time. Pass 1: Abstract to determine relevance to determine kind of paper Pictures –tables, graphs, and diagrams –concepts and References do I recognize them? might never get into more detail than this

Scholarship Skills Tim Sheard and Todd Leen 10 Lecture 2 Pass 2 Pass 2: Introduction, Section beginnings, Examples, Summary –to determine organization and content –might decide on this basis only to read parts of the paper –figure out if authors are good writers if you have a choice why not read the well written paper –help set priority/payoff`

Scholarship Skills Tim Sheard and Todd Leen 11 Lecture 2 Passes 3 & 4 Pass 3: Full reading –Often take notes during this phase –Try to capture main contributions –What distinguishes it from other work –What it is similar to E.g. "like Knuth-Morris-Prat, but matching from the right of the pattern" –What are assumptions or line of development –Questions on what I don’t understand write these right on the front (for when you read it again) Pass 4: Detailed study Go back over hard or unclear parts

Scholarship Skills Tim Sheard and Todd Leen 12 Lecture 2 Questions About what year was the paper written? Which best describes the paper: –performance evaluation –human factors study –system simulation –system architecture description Is the paper applicable? What component of wearable computers does it deal with? Would the paper be useful if your topic was how wearing computers affects a person’s mobility?

Scholarship Skills Tim Sheard and Todd Leen 13 Lecture 2 Cracking a Tough Paper Have someone who understands it explain it Find an article by same authors to a more general audience Make up (additional) examples. Good way to master definitions, understand algorithms, check out theorems. Working through an example is a good way to explain something quickly. Draw a picture Write code

Scholarship Skills Tim Sheard and Todd Leen 14 Lecture 2 Cracking a Tough Paper 2 Recast portions in alternative notation. E.g. logic, functional program “Guess” what is going on. See if your hypothesis is consistent with the rest of the paper Try to find a counterexample Often, this is the way proofs are first found Send questions to the author Try to be specific— Cast your question so there is a 2-3 line answer Try not to force the author to back an read his original paper

Scholarship Skills Tim Sheard and Todd Leen 15 Lecture 2 Learn to Do Late Binding Useful skill to be able to hold content without understanding it— –Plow ahead if you don't understand Later insights or definitions make it click Think back over papers periodically— –one more reason to write questions on the front of the paper.

Scholarship Skills Tim Sheard and Todd Leen 16 Lecture 2 In class exercise In class read the paper Renaming a Set of Clauses as a Horn Set by Harry Lewis (JACM Vol 25, No. 1, Jan 1978, pp ) 1.What is the context of the paper? 2.What thesis is being investigated? 3.What is the method of investigation? 4.What are the examples used in the text? 5.What is the contribution of the paper? 6.What is the “power” of the results? How important are they? 7.What is the applicability of the results?

Scholarship Skills Tim Sheard and Todd Leen 17 Lecture 2 Today’s Assignment complete description on the assignments page Read the brochure "Efficient Reading of Papers in Science and Technology," available online at: This exercise should giver you practice finding the important content of a paper. Pick a paper of your choosing. You will read it twice. In the first pass, as you read, try and answer the following questions. Jot down answers to these questions as you read. 1.What is the context of the paper? 2.What thesis is being investigated? 3.What is the method of investigation? 4.What are the examples used in the text? After you’re done with your first reading, go back and read it second time. Now try and answer the following questions. Jot down the answers. 1.What is the contribution of the paper? 2.What is the “power” of the results? How important are they? 3.What is the applicability of the results? Using your knowledge of the area, answer the question below. Jot down your answer. 1.What influence did the paper have? Turn in your answers. No answer should be longer than 2-3 sentences. The whole thing should fit on one piece of paper.