Scientific Papers

Announcements Office hour will be changed from next week  Monday and Wednesday 11:30AM – 1:30PM Lab on Friday – Individual Assignment Write lab report using the data we collected from our own personal computers and the analyses you did last week. Lab Reports are similar to what scientists publish in research journals Follow format of scientific papers

Key Parts Title Abstract Introduction Methods Results Discussion/Conclusion Tables and Figures Literature Cited

Title Specific and brief description of contents Or raise a major question addressed in the paper. What makes a good title.  Precision  Catchy, in a scientific way. well…if possible.

Example of Titles Natural Image Statistics and Neural Representation. What does the retina know about natural scene? Emergence of Topography and Complex Cell Properties from Natural Images using Extension of Independent component analysis and Bayesian Probability Models Sex with Support Vector Machine. (NIPS 1999)

Abstract Overviews of facts, results, conclusions. Function – between the Title and the article itself. Very important – read more widely than article. Placed at beginning of article, just below the Title. “I” never used. Passive voice commonly used (active voice in the articles). Should be self-contained. Don’t include footnotes, references (e.g. Lennon and Ono (1998) concluded that… )

Introduction The purpose of Introduction:  Defines problem, scope, and purpose/objective of the study.  Provides theoretical or historical background.  Proposes Hypothesis and predictions  Reveals plan of development of article.

Literature review Part of the introduction. Nothing is totally new, the literature review serves  review scientific literature.  explain choice of materials or methodology.  show rationale for investigation. Paraphrase ---Don’t steal other peoples’ word. Quotation --- Keep it minimum.

Hypothesis Plural is hypotheses A tentative explanation that accounts for a set of facts and can be tested by further investigation;  Dell computer is better than HP’s. (not specifically defined)  people who commit acts of violence are under orders from the Devil (untestable) Tested and supported, not proved! Come up with hypotheses for study of computer hardware and performance

Hypotheses of Computer Performance The startup speed of a computer is determined by processor speed. The startup speed of a computer is determined by the amount of RAM. The stability of a computer is affected by its operating system.

Null Hypothesis The null hypothesis is often the reverse of what the experimenter actually believes; it is put forward to allow the data to contradict it. H 0 : "There will be no difference in readability between 15" and 17" monitors." H 0 : "There will be no relationship between processor speed and startup time, indicated by a line with a slope of 0.“ Don’t put Null Hypothesis in the paper.

Hypothesis Testing Hypothesis testing is using statistical values to determine whether the Null Hypothesis can be rejected. Common Statistical Tests for Hypotheses: t-Test, ANOVA, Regression, X 2 (Chi – Square) Beyond scope of this class

Methods Explain what steps were taken in collecting data and why Use past tense Usually described using passive voice  “The image was digitalized…” Using active voice occasionally is fine.  “we conducted out experiment… ”

Results Present general trends without comment, bias or interpretation Present all relevant results, even those that do not support the hypotheses If statistics are used, report statistical value and probability in parentheses Refer to tables and figures  “Startup speed decreased as processors speed increased (Figure 1).  “Most computer used a version of Windows as shown in Table 1

Discussion/Conclusion Discuss the results and whether they support the hypotheses Discuss relevance to work by others Avoid redundancy with results End with a summary of the significance of your work – a conclusion paragraph

Tables and Figures Each table and figure has a name, e.g. Table 1, Table 2, … and Figure 1, Figure 2, … Tables are data tables Figures are graph, maps, photos, drawings, etc. Can be pasted into MS Word document from Excel Each should have a Caption, e.g. a description of what the table or figure represents

Captions Captions are descriptions of the table or figure, include details necessary to understand the item Tables: Caption above Figures: Caption below

Example Figure 1. Amount of RAM in MB vs. average startup time for 45 computers with Windows XP operating system. Trendline shows a negative relationship.

Literature Cited Called Bibliography or Reference section. Provide details of any citations in paper Format varies from field to field and journal to journal  … observed by Hubel and Wiesel (1962)  …got the similar result (Smith and Johnson, 1990)  …many research work [1][2][3]… Only list resources cited in paper, not general references

A few words Don’t consider these conventions as unbreakable. The function of a scientific paper is communication. Follow format in Guidelines for Writing Scientific Papers used in LBS 158H (will posted on website later.)

Title Page Title of project Your name Course number Date Honesty statement with signature

Putting it all together Title Page Abstract Page Body: Introduction – Methods – Results – Discussion  Tables and figures can be embedded or at end of body Literature Cited starts on new page

Friday Work on formal scientific paper on computer hardware and performance I will provide details on methods, other analyses expected (Posted Friday Morning) Due next Friday (September 26)