Paper Tips Overview Introduction • Writing technical papers is not easy • Types of papers • Students often have little guidance or training in technical writing • Paper organization • The purpose of these slides is to give you some tips on how to • How to conduct a literature search organize and present your papers • Peer review • General tips • Assessment criteria J. McNames Portland State University ECE 4/557 Paper Tips Ver. 1.01 1 J. McNames Portland State University ECE 4/557 Paper Tips Ver. 1.01 2 Types of Papers Types of Papers: What Not to Do Papers in this class are generally fall into one of three categories • You should NOT write a paper that tries to do more than one of these tasks 1. New Methodology : papers that propose a new methodology to solve a specific problem • Such a paper should be divided into separate papers • Development of a new algorithm 2. New Application : papers that apply existing methodology to a new application, typically with the purpose of developing a new application • Prediction • Estimation 3. Scientific Paper : papers that apply the scientific method to create new knowledge • Do people with Parkinson’s disease have associated cognitive impairments? • These papers typically include the application of one or more hypothesis tests J. McNames Portland State University ECE 4/557 Paper Tips Ver. 1.01 3 J. McNames Portland State University ECE 4/557 Paper Tips Ver. 1.01 4
Paper Organization Introduction The introduction should meet the following objectives, usually in this Papers typically consist of the following sections order • Abstract: Should be written last • Define the problem to be solved/question to be answered • Introduction • Explain the practical significance of solving the problem. • Methodology/Design – Who will be affected by the answer? • Results • Summarize the prior, published work of other people who have attempted to solve this problem • Discussion • Distinguish your work from prior work • Conclusion/Summary – Your problem is different, or – Your solution is better (more accurate, or more robust, or requires fewer conditions and assumptions, etc.) • If the paper has objectives other than solving the stated problem, they should be stated here as well • Optionally, describe how the paper is organized J. McNames Portland State University ECE 4/557 Paper Tips Ver. 1.01 5 J. McNames Portland State University ECE 4/557 Paper Tips Ver. 1.01 6 Algorithm Design Methodology: Scientific Papers • This section is only included in papers that propose a new • This section describes how the experiment was conducted to test algorithm the hypothesis • Typically this section completely describes the algorithm • Includes – How the data was collected • If the algorithm is especially complicated, mathematical proofs and other lengthy details are sometimes included in an appendix – How the data was analyzed – What type of hypothesis test was used • The goal of this section is to completely and clearly describe the new algorithm – The level of significance • Do not describe components of your algorithm elsewhere • Essentially, all of the details of what you did to collect and analyze the data belong in this section J. McNames Portland State University ECE 4/557 Paper Tips Ver. 1.01 7 J. McNames Portland State University ECE 4/557 Paper Tips Ver. 1.01 8
Methodology: New Algorithm, Application Results • Typically, this section is also full of detail stating the results of • This section describes how you assessed the performance of your your work algorithm or new application • For this class, results will often be plots, tables, or the results of • Assessment often doesn’t receive sufficient attention hypothesis tests • Must think carefully about how to demonstrate your algorithm works better than one of the following: – Previous techniques published by others – The best current practice • Whenever possible, the assessment should be prospective – Use new data to measure performance – Reduces favorable bias J. McNames Portland State University ECE 4/557 Paper Tips Ver. 1.01 9 J. McNames Portland State University ECE 4/557 Paper Tips Ver. 1.01 10 Discussion Conclusion/Summary • The objectives of this section are • This section should concisely summarize the final results of the – To interpret the results paper – To discuss possible explanations for any anomalies in the results • For scientific paper, typically one or more conclusions can be – To speculate about the impact of the results drawn • In scientific papers, this section is also used to compare the results • For new methodologies, a summary section may be more with those of other studies and suggest possible explanations appropriate that summarizes (hypotheses) for any discrepancies – What was proposed – How well it performed – What other advantages & good features it has J. McNames Portland State University ECE 4/557 Paper Tips Ver. 1.01 11 J. McNames Portland State University ECE 4/557 Paper Tips Ver. 1.01 12
Abstract Organization • The abstract should be a concise summary of the entire paper • Required: Abstract, Introduction, Results, Conclusions, & References (if any) • It is not an introduction • Optional: Acknowledgments and Appendices • Should include a statement of the problem, summary of the methods and key results, and the conclusions that you made • Prohibited: Source code and raw data in printed form • This is usually easy to write once you have written the rest of the paper J. McNames Portland State University ECE 4/557 Paper Tips Ver. 1.01 13 J. McNames Portland State University ECE 4/557 Paper Tips Ver. 1.01 14 Literature Search General Tips • You should conduct a literature search for your project • Readership • Purpose: to determine what other people have written about your – Should be written for someone that understands the key topic concepts and methods covered in this class • Literature only includes PUBLISHED papers – You may assume the reader is a first year graduate student in an engineering program • It does not usually include web pages or textbooks • In general, try to avoid passive sentence construction • You cannot conduct a literature search with Google or any other – If you don’t like using first person pronouns (“I”), you can web search engine often use “this paper” or “this report” as the subject • The PSU library has web access to several literature databases – For example, “This paper describes an analysis of. . . ” that you can use to find papers on your topic – Not “An analysis of . . . is described” or “I describe an analysis • Probably the best ones for this class are of . . . ” – Web of Science (http://isi4.isiknowledge.com) • Try to use simple declarative sentences, “The model achieved an – Compendex via Engineering Village 2 MSE=3.27 (1.75–8.83 with 95% confidence).” (http://www.engineeringvillage2.org) – IEEE Xplore (http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/Xplore) J. McNames Portland State University ECE 4/557 Paper Tips Ver. 1.01 15 J. McNames Portland State University ECE 4/557 Paper Tips Ver. 1.01 16
General Tips Continued • Figures – Label your axes. – Describe the figures in words using a caption below the figure – Be sure to use the IEEE format for the caption. • Tables – Remember to use units – The captions go above the tables • Citations – Include relevant citations – Use review articles to avoid a lengthy literature search – Each reference number should be enclosed in square brackets – Do not begin a sentence with a reference number J. McNames Portland State University ECE 4/557 Paper Tips Ver. 1.01 17
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