1. Writing a High Quality Research Paper
Jules White
Bradley Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Virginia Tech

2. How to Critique a Research Paper
You should ask yourself these questions about every paper:
What is the story that the paper is telling
Is the story substantiated by evidence
Does the story clearly explain why existing work hasn’t solved the problem and why it isn’t a trivial problem
You should ask yourself these questions about every paragraph:
What is the 1 important point that the paragraph is making
Is that point crucial to the solution described in the paper
You should ask yourself these questions about every sentence:
Is there a way to reword it or provide examples to make it more specific – could someone misinterpret it
Does it contain any terms that have not been defined
Does it make any claims that are not backed up by either a citation or references to data in the paper
Is the sentence long enough that I could split it in two

3. Attributes of Top Research Papers (1)
A really good research paper tells the reader:
What the problem was that you solved
Why that problem is worth solving
What challenges you faced when solving it
What proof you have that your solution is
Better than existing approaches in one or more scenarios
Works correctly
Overcomes the challenges that you spelled out

4. Attributes of Top Research Papers (2)
A high quality research paper is:
Specific, vague and general language is always supplemented with examples
Structured, there should be a logical ordering and breakdown – this also makes it easier for lazy reviewers to skim your paper
Self-contained, if you use terminology that isn’t generally understood in the field, you define it