How to Read &Write Good Technical Papers? Presented By Dr. Mohammad Mehedi Hassan Assistant Professor Information Systems Department, CCIS King Saud University, Riyadh, KSA Phone :

Outline What is a technical paper? How to read a technical paper? Factors affecting writing a Good Paper? Contents of a Technical Paper Writing Style Strategies in Writing a “Good” Paper Summary 2

What is a technical paper? A brief and to-the-point document which describes a body of technical work There are many types of technical papers – Survey papers – Journal papers – Conference papers – Letters 3

How to read technical papers? Should not read everything Know what’s going on (e.g., scanning proceedings) – title, authors, abstract Papers in your broad research area – introduction, motivation, solution description, summary, conclusions – sometimes reading more details useful, but not always Papers you may want to improve on – read entire paper carefully 4

What to note after reading? Authors and research group – Need to know where to look for a paper on particular topic Theme of the solution – Should be able to go back to the paper if you need more info Approach to performance evaluation Note any shortcomings 5

Papers Communicate Ideas Our goal: to infect the mind of our reader with our idea, like a virus Papers are far more durable than programs 6 Fallacy: The greatest ideas are (literally) worthless if you keep them to yourself

Factors affecting writing a Good Paper? Good Research Results Time Need to be ‘focus’ Careful Planning and Need to be‘Creative’ Organization of the Paper Writing Styles Language 7

Writing Papers Model: 1 8 IdeaDo ResearchWrite Papers

Writing Papers Model: 2 Forces us to be clear, focused Crystallizes what we don’t understand The purpose of our research is: – To convey OUR IDEA 9 IdeaDo ResearchWrite Papers IdeaWrite PapersDo Research

Conveying the Idea Here is a problem It’s an interesting problem It’s an unsolved problem Here is my idea My idea works (details, data) Here’s how my idea compares to other people’s approaches 10

Getting ready to write a paper What type of paper am I writing? – conference, journal etc. What do I wish to state? Have I got all the background work with me? Have I organized the paper? What electronic format will I use? – LaTeX, MS Word, … 11

Contents of a paper Title of the paper Authors, designations, and addresses Abstract (150 to 250 words) Keywords Sections describing the work – Introduction (Background) – Previous Work (Literature Survey) – Proposed Work (Algorithm, Design, Methodology) – Analysis (Complexity Analysis, Quantitative Analysis, Statistical Analysis, …) – Implementation and Results – Conclusions 12

Title Should not be too long – “Short and Sweet” No Abbreviations or Acronyms – (Unless well established terms like PID) Well reflective of your Main Contribution – It should reflect the novel part of your research Try to “coin” an attractive (or catchy) title Should be followed by Names and Affiliations – According to the Journal’s or Conference’s format 13

Abstract Usually 1 paragraph, generally between words Major points to include – Problem statement/Overview of current research situation/Motivation – Proposed technique (the main contribution of your paper) – The solution (you should describe the results briefly) – A brief conclusion Should Not Include: – References – Avoid “general motivation” – The sentences in the abstract should not be repeated later in the paper “word-for-word” – Avoid equations and math 14

Introduction Define the problem – Why is it worth solving? – What did others do? – Why did they not succeed? – Why do I believe I did better? Contribution of the paper – Is there anything new in the paper? – How good are our results? – Summary of our approach/results 15

Stanford InfoLab’s Patented 5-Point Structure for Introductions What is the problem? Why is it interesting and important? Why is it hard? (E.g. why do naive approaches fail?) Why hasn’t it been solved before? (Or what’s wrong with previous proposed solutions? How does mine differ?) What are the key components of my approach and results? Also include any specific limitations 16

State Clearly the Contributions 17

Related works Brief description of the existing body of work Citations to published work – In [2], Rosetti and Longfellow described the meaning of life. Wordsworth presented a different view point in [3]. Bring out the specific advantage of your work w.r.t. published work. – However, the Rosetti-Longfellow formula [2] fails for technologies below 0.2 micron. In this paper, we extend their formula to the deep submicron domain. 18 Fallacy: To make my work look good, I have to make other people’s work look bad Fallacy: To make my work look good, I have to make other people’s work look bad

Related works Point out both advantages and disadvantages of related work – (provides context; defuses objections; be honest) Discuss all references that you cite DO NOT Write a laundry list Bash the references Include irrelevant references Write a paragraph about a very peripheral work 19

Sections and Subsections Organize each section into subsections and (possibly) sub-subsections 1. Introduction 1.1 Problem Description Inductance Extraction Transmission Line Models 20

The proposed Technique Can be divided into several sub-sections Provide a general description of the technique or method you proposed (use block diagrams where appropriate) In another section, start with the general theory first then followed by your own formulations Write down your algorithms (equations)/strategy and provide explanation on them Figures may be required where necessary 21

Hardware/Software Development Provide a description of how the software is developed – Computer specs, Programming Languages used, Flowcharts, Block diagrams, etc. Provide sufficient description of the hardware setup/ designed – technical specifications, block diagrams, sensor limitations, components used, photos of the hardware, etc. Highlight the uniqueness of your hardware compared to similar products (if any) 22

Application of Proposed Technique Usually new techniques/algorithms are tested using simulations Provide a write-up on how the simulation is carried up – including all assumptions used, how important parameters are chosen/selected, etc. Similarly for hardware application, describe how the experiments have been carried out Only discuss experiments which are relevant to show the effectiveness or superiority of the proposed technique 23

Results and Discussions Results can be tabulated in several forms – use graphical form where applicable Comparison with existing techniques Provide discussions – correct analyses of experimental results show the quality of the paper – Always provide answers to why the experiments went such a way Every figure shown in the paper must be addressed in the text What conclusion can you draw from your experiments? 24

Figures and Tables Number all the figures and tables Graphs are also shown as figures Provide captions for all figures and tables – Fig. 3. Floorplan of the SONAR Chip Refer to each figure and table – In Figure 3, we show the floorplan of the SONAR Chip as obtained using the MASON software 25

Conclusions Highlight the major advantages of the technique/method proposed when compared with other techniques Don’t just repeat the introduction/abstract Re-emphasize the novelty of the research work Write down the limitations of your research work if any such that reviewers cannot ‘attack’ the weaknesses of the technique Write suggestions to improve the problems or limitations of the proposed technique (such as in future work) 26

References References are important in a technical paper With adequate references, they reflect that you have made a – substantial study/survey of the existing or current techniques, – understand their limitations and disadvantages, in short it means you understand the problem statement All references must be cited in the text of your paper 27

Language and Style: Tense Text can be written in either the past or present tense Past tense is OK for describing results of an experiment but use present tense for a general conclusion – “We observed that the expression of Bmp4 WAS increased. This suggests that the gene IS regulated by Shh.” Present tense is more immediate and indicates that a process is ongoing 28 WHATEVER TENSE IS USED, BE CONSISTENT AND DON’T SWITCH BACK AND FORTH IN THE SAME PARAGRAPH !!! WHATEVER TENSE IS USED, BE CONSISTENT AND DON’T SWITCH BACK AND FORTH IN THE SAME PARAGRAPH !!!

Visual Structure Give strong visual structure to your paper using – sections and sub-sections – Bullets – Italics – laid-out code – Find out how to draw pictures, and use them Paragraphs are important to break the text up into readable units The first and last sentence of a paragraph is most important 29

Visual Structure- Example 30

Use the Active Voice The passive voice is “respectable” but it DEADENS your paper. Avoid it at all costs 31

Use Simple, Direct Language 32

Frequent Errors Writing a Paper Avoid excessive use of boring verbs such as “show, observe, occur, exhibit…..” Avoid complex ways of saying a simple thing – “The results showed that dog weight increased” versus “The dogs weighed more”. Use of “suggest that ….” ; “hypothesize that….” “possible that….” – These phrases do not need “may”, “might” – e.g. “Our results suggest that Hoxa3 may be involved in thymus development” (not correct) – “Our results suggest that Hoxa3 is involved in thymus development” (correct) 33

Before Sending to the Journal Have the paper read by several people – Listen to what they say, especially if same criticism comes up several times Check and recheck spelling, figures, references, legends etc – Reviewers can be really annoyed by careless editing and mistakes reflect badly on your science Make sure you have followed all the requirements of the journal about electronic submission etc. 34

Some Strategies in Writing a “Good” Paper Identify the novelty of the research work – Study related works and compare your approach – Identify the current problems and limitations – Find how to overcome the limitations List down the strengths and weaknesses of the proposed technique – Do not allow reviewers to attack your weaknesses Provide a good analysis on the research results – Do not just write down what has been observed from your experiments – Explain why these observations are ‘so and so’ – Provide a summary of results and how results led to the conclusion 35

Summary If you remember nothing else: – Identify your key idea – Make your contributions explicit – Use examples to describe the idea 36

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