How to write research papers?

Research Writing

Yogesh Dandawate

What do you expect from me?

Why are you here?

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RESEARCHERS DILEMMA

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Researchers FAQ!

1. What are hot research topics?2. How to identify/ frame a research problem?3. What are the open problems in my area of

research?4. Who are key researchers in my domain?5. How to identify the key papers in my domain?6. How can go about research?

1. What are key milestones in my research?2. Publishing (Why, What, Where, When, how)

What’s hot?

Cloud Computing BigDataSemantic WebWireless Sensor Networks Data mining

Machine learing Information Retrieval

Speech Recognition

Information SecurityNear Field Communication

Digital Signal Processing

BioMetrics

Video Analytics Software EngineeringAlgorithms

Green computing Web Search

Algorithms

Mathematics*Writing Skills*

Presentation Skills

Search Skills

Statistics and Probility*

Conceptual learning Ask the ‘Why’ Question

* MEMBER OF PROFESSIONAL BODY ACM/ IEEE

Analytical Skills

Problem Identification*

Researcher Focus

Research Methodologies*

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Researchers FAQ!

1. What are hot research topics?2. How to identify/ frame a research problem?3. What are the open problems in my area of

research?4. Who are key researchers in my domain?5. How to identify the key papers in my domain?6. How can go about research?

1. What are key milestones in my research?2. Publishing (Why, What, Where, When, how)

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How to identify/ frame a research problem?A Million Dollar Question

Research Interest Research Interest

Defines Problem Find Solution

Guide

Researcher

<<Match>>

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Just for Gags

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Researchers FAQ!

1. What are hot research topics?2. How to identify/ frame a research problem?3. What are the open problems in my area of research?4. Who are key researchers in my domain?5. How to identify the key papers in my domain?6. How can go about research?

1. What are key milestones in my research?2. Publishing (Why, What, Where, When, how)

7. Research Tools

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How can go about research?

Idea Do researchWrite

research paper

IdeaWrite

working paper

Doresearch

Write research

paper

•Clear focus•Crystallizes our understanding•Opens a way of dialogue/ discussion/brainstorming

Preferred approach when conclusions are to be published

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General approach to research

Identify problem/idea: Rationale behind why this problem is important; Is it a open problem? survey of available solutions to the problem?

Support the problem with theory (Literature study)

Study and identify/decide the method to solve the problem.

Develop solution/ alternative solution

Do Experiments, Simulations, collection of Data etc.

Validation of solution

Results and discussion

Conclusion

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Researchers FAQ!

1. What are hot research topics?2. How to identify/ frame a research problem?3. What are the open problems in my area of

research?4. Who are key researchers in my domain?5. How to identify the key papers in my domain?6. How can go about research?

1. What are key milestones in my research?2. Publishing (Why, What, Where, When, How)

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WHAT ARE KEY MILESTONES IN MY RESEARCH?

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Milestones

Problem Identification

Literature Survey

Propose Methodology to solve problem with validation

Research Results with benchmarking

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WHY PUBLISH?

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Why Publish

Greatest ideas are worthless if you keep them to yourself

Goal• To infect the readers mind

with your idea almost like a virusSome Fallacies

• You need a fantastic idea to write a research paper

Knowledge is generated in various forms: • Experience• Capability/Proficiency• Use cases• Problems-Solutions• New ideas/design/thoughts

Knowledge should be shared.

How to share?

Publish

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WHAT CAN I PUBLISH?

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Milestones

Problem Identification

Literature Survey

Propose Methodology to solve problem with validation

Research Results with benchmarking

Concept Paper

Survey Paper

ConferenceResearch

Paper

JournalResearch

Paper

Working Conference

National conference

International conferenceJournal

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What can I publish

Research Papers*

Research Books

Magazine articles

Case studies

Thought paper, Point of view, Perspectives*

White Papers *

Blogs, Wikis

Text Books

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White paper

A white paper is an authoritative report or guide that often addresses issues and how to solve them [1]

White papers are used to educate readers and help people make decisions. Often used in politics, business, and technical subjects.

White papers are often used to generate sales leads, make a business case, or to educate customers

• Business-benefits: Makes a business case for a certain technology or methodology

• Technical: Describes how a certain technology works • Hybrid: Combines high-level business benefits with technical details in a

single document • Policy: Makes a case for a certain political solution to a societal or

economic challenge.

What?

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Thought leadership paper

Futuristic / visionary work

It goes beyond white paper and identifies problems in a domain or technology that the client or prospect or stakeholder might not know- it exists.

It also present trends which may be useful for further research in industry or academics.

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Research paper

A research paper is an expanded essay from identified problems.

Problem may be identified by industry professional or academician.

It is thorough analysis of problems and validated results are presented.

At a glance

Research Papers

• Contribution to body of knowledge/theory

• Useful to academicians as well as business

• Problem, Solution/ Experiments, Results, Validation of solutions

• Published in Journals and conferences

Thought Leadership Papers

• Useful to academicians as well as business

• Innovative ideas, Future trends, Future problems and possible solutions

• Business focus writing

• Published in magazines, wiki, blogs etc.

White Papers

• Useful to business• Abstract

presentation of business problem and solution

• Business focus writing

• Published in magazines, wiki, blogs etc.

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• Contains two works of the same nature• Discuss about the PROS and CONS of the two works• Always based on Literature and Balanced comparison essential

Compare and contrast papers

• Contain arguments and personal points of view and solution by the writer• Contains the two sides of a controversial issue• Author needs to be unbiased and neutral

Argumentative papers

• Contains multiple points of views• Author analyzes all the points and draws a conclusion

Analytical papers

• Talk about the probable reason (cause) and the expected outcome or result (effect).

• Useful in the field of business and education

Cause and effect papers

• Contain data about multiple professional fields• These are professional type of research papers• Frequency based Annual, quarterly, monthly etc.

Reports

• Papers based on a particular subject• Mostly written by students as assignments

Subject-based papers

Different types of papers 1

Source: http://valwriting.com/blog/research-papers/the-different-types-of-research-paper%E2%80%A6

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General structure of research paper• 4-10 Lines Abstract

• Background of problem• Problem definition • Related work

Introduction and Related work

• Detailed Problem• Methodology to solve the problem• Solution Details• Validation of solution

Body

• Discussion• Conclusion

Discussion & Conclusion

• List all the references used during the research, provide appropriate creditsReferences/Citations

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What is abstract?

• Abstracts are used by program committee members to decide which papers to read. This abstract should be two hundred words or less.

• The abstract is a summary of the entire paper and hence should be written at the end.

• Abstract contains the purpose of the study - hypothesis, overall question, research objective , brief of the experiment, Important conclusions and future work

What should abstract contain?

• Kent Beck suggest the abstracts to address 4 questions 1

• State the problem• Explain why the problem is

interesting• Explain how your solution solved

the problem• Explain what follows your

solution.

Abstract

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What is introduction?

• Your introductions should not exceed one page(double spaced, typed).

• The purpose of an introduction is to acquaint the reader with the rationale behind the work, with the intention of defending it. It places your work in a theoretical context, and enables the reader to understand and appreciate your objectives.

What should introduction contain?

• Describe the problem • State your contribution (all

contributions of your research)• This section should create an

entice the reader to read it fully

Introduction

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What is body?• The body constitutes of • The problem• The idea/solution• Idea/Solution details• Related Work

• There is no specific page limit, but a key concept is to keep this section as concise as you possibly can. People will want to read this material selectively. The reader may only be interested in one formula or part of a procedure

What should body contain?

• Describe the problem and why is it interesting

• Describe the idea/solution• Provide data and supporting

evidences support each claim made by you in the introduction

• Evidence can be: analysis and comparison, theorems, measurements, case studies

• Provide references to related work and prior work as and when required. It can be at the start or after your complete work is explained.

Body

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What is conclusion?

• Conclusion is summary of your findings• The page length of this section is set by

the amount and types of data to be reported. Continue to be concise, using figures and tables, if appropriate, to present results most effectively

• The purpose of a results section is to present and illustrate your findings. Make this section a completely objective report of the results, and save all interpretation for the discussion.

What should conclusion contain?

• Summarize your findings in text• In text, describe each of your results,

pointing the reader to observations that are most relevant

• Provide a context, such as by describing the question that was addressed by making a particular observation

• Describe results of control experiments and include observations that are not presented in a formal figure or table, if appropriate

• Analyze your data, then prepare the analyzed (converted) data in the form of a figure(graph), table, or in text form.

Conclusion

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What is reference?

• References is the list of all the literature that you have used for the paper

• Note: • Giving credit to others does not

diminish the credit you get from your paper

• Failing to give credit to others can kill your paper

• Warmly acknowledge people who have helped you

What should reference contain?

• List all literature cited in your paper, in alphabetical order, by first author.

• In a proper research paper, only primary literature is used (original research articles authored by the original investigators).

• Be cautious about using web sites as references - anyone can put just about anything on a web site, and you have no sure way of knowing if it is truth or fiction.

• If you are citing an on line journal, use the journal citation (name, volume, year, page numbers). Some of your papers may not require references, and if that is the case simply state that "no references were consulted."

References/Citations

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Referencing Styles

There are many different citation styles …

Visit: http://libguides.lmu.edu/citations

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RECAP

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Introduction Section

Introduction

Problem Details (Blow up the problem by using Statistical data by Analysts like Gartner/ Forrester/ IDC.....)

Background of the problem What is the problem that exist today? Is this a valid problem? What is the problem you are trying to solve

Relevance of the Problem

Why is this problem relevant to theme (eg. Big Data)? Explain in detail

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Body of PaperBody Existing Solutions and

their drawbacks Are there any solutions available in market that

address your problem. What are their drawbacks. Create a table making it self-explanatory(preferably)

Summarize: Why current technologies will fail to address the issue

Proposed Solution What aspects of the problem are you attempting to solve?

a. List your assumptions here Model the system

a. Inputs to systems i. How are planning to get the input data

b. System modelc. Output of the system (Expected)

Technologies that you are planning to use for the solution and why, Give rationale for techlogy selection

Experimentation Setup of experiment Validation of experiment Observations and Results of experiment

Conclusion, future work and References

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Conclusion Summarize your result in natural language

List your findings during this entire excercise

Future work/discussion

Future work Drawbacks of your solution How can your solution be improved

Reference NOTE: Every journal has a reference style. There are several reference styles if you are not aware of the citation styles please see this.

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WHERE CAN I PUBLISH?

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Books and Journal Content Aggregators

• http://www.scirus.com/• http://www.emeraldinsight.com/• http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/search.asp• http://www.jstor.org/• http://www.inderscience.com/• http://online.sagepub.com/• http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/Section/index.html• http://www.taylorandfrancis.com/ • www.springerlink.com • http://www.routledge.com/ • http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/search/basic?sid=3ceda19e-aca9-4f63-

8287-340e59cc5e8d%40sessionmgr10&vid=2&hid=10• http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/homepage.cws_home

– http://www.ei.org/releases

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WHEN CAN I PUBLISH

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Call for Paper Calendars

Conference Related Information Gathering1. http://academic.research.microsoft.com/CFP#latest=180 2. www.cfpwiki.com3. www.conferencealerts.com

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HOW CAN I PUBLISH?

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Publication process

Content Acquisition

Pre-Production

Process

Production Process Distribution

Call For Papers (CFP)

Abstract

Abstract Review

Selection

Full PaperFull Paper

Review and Selection

Workshop / Conference

Short listing of Papers

Author Rewrites Copy Editing

Layout and content proofing

IP Check

Author Signoff Printing

Distribution

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SOME DO’S AND DONT’S

• Who is my audience?• How much do they know about the subject?• Why do they need to know about the subject?• Is the content in this document appropriate?• Is the tone appropriate for the audience?• Is the language appropriate for this audience?

Audience Analysis

• Be gender neutral• Avoid unnecessary capitalization• Use bulleted/unnumbered lists when sequence is not

important• Use an introductory phrase for lists

Writing Style

Tone

Be

• Assertive• Polite• Informative• Engaging

Avoid• Humor• Colloquialisms• Personal Opinions

• Very, very long sentences • Variation in the tense used• Improper flow of thought• Incorrect numbering of tables or figures• Inconsistent Styles applied• Extensive use of “The”

Common Errors!

Writing Right

avoid better

consensus of opinion consensus

fewer in number fewer

exact duplicate duplicate

estimated at about estimated

sum total sum

whether or not whether

in order to to

elongated in shape elongated

both of them both

Writing Rightavoid better

nowadays presently, currentlyfor instance for exampledespite the fact that althoughgoes under the name of is calledon the contrary in contrastfirstly initiallyto begin with initiallybe that as it may howeverat last finallyin as much as because

'til now (until now) to date*

it's it isweren't were notdidn't did nothaven't have notcan't cannot

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Copyright violation

• Copyright is the exclusive right granted to the author or creator of an original work, including the right to copy, distribute and adapt the work.

• Original works of authorship includes literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works.

Plagiarism

• Using someone else's ideas or phrasing and representing those ideas or phrasing as our own, either on purpose or through carelessness, is a serious offense known as plagiarism.

• written or spoken material from whole papers and paragraphs to sentences

• phrases — but it also includes statistics, lab results, art work, etc.

Things to Avoid

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MISCELLANOUS

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Remaining Questions• Identifying trend of a particular topic (Try doing for your topic)

– http://academic.research.microsoft.com/DomainTrend?TopDomainId=2

• Top Journals in Computer Science(Try doing for your Domain)– http://academic.research.microsoft.com/RankList?entitytype=4&topdomainid=2&su

bdomainid=0&last=0

• Top Conference’s in Computer Science(Try doing for your Domain)– http://academic.research.microsoft.com/RankList?entitytype=3&topDomainID=2&su

bDomainID=0&last=0&start=1&end=100

• Conference Ranking (By Tier)

– http://webdocs.cs.ualberta.ca/~zaiane/htmldocs/ConfRanking.html • Top Authors in Computer Science (Try doing for your topic)

– http://academic.research.microsoft.com/RankList?entitytype=2&topDomainID=2&subDomainID=0&last=0&start=1&end=100

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• Good Bookmarking Sites– http://www.delicious.com/– http://www.stumbleupon.com/– https://www.google.com/bookm

arks/– http://Citeulike.com – www.Zotero.com

• PDF readers– www.NitroPDF.com – www.foxitreader.com– Acrobat Professional (*)

• Researchers Browsers

– Firefox– Crome

• Excellent Ebook Management tool– Caliber e-book management:

http://calibre-ebook.com/

• Excellent Paper Management tool(Reference management softwares)– Mendeley Desktop:

www.mendeley.com (The Best)– www.Dropbox.com – http://sourceforge.net/projects/conti

neo/files/

– JabRef– Zotero– Scholar's Aid– http://www.evernote.com/ – www.Sites.google.com

Researcher Toolset

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FINAL WORD

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Remember

Writing is a acquired skill, the more you write the more you will benefit

So Keep Writing!

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THANK YOU

Yogesh Dandawate• Research Scientist• Infosys Labs, Pune• [email protected]• [email protected]

© 2012