HOW TO WRITE A RESEARCH PAPER

DR SORAB SADRI
DEAN (RESEARCH) LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY PHAGWARA - PUNJAB

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Why bother?
Fallacy

we write papers and give talks mainly to impress others, gain recognition, and get promoted

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Polemical Argument
This

is a very forceful medium to convey your thoughts but it is better to try this only after you are reasonably well established as a scholar. It is very high on logic and uses data only as a support not as a base.

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Papers communicate ideas

Your

goal: to infect the mind of your reader with your idea, like a virus Papers are far more durable than programs (think Mozart) The greatest ideas are (literally) worthless if you keep them to yourself
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Models
* Writing papers: model 1 Idea Do research Write paper

* Writing papers: model 2 Idea - Write paper - Do research

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PEN TO PAPER Forces us to be clear, focused Crystallizes what we do not understand Opens the way to dialogue with others: reality check, critique, and collaboration

PUTTING

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Do not be intimidated
Fallacy

You need to have a fantastic idea before you can write a paper or give a talk. (Everyone else seems to.)

Write a paper, and give a talk, about any idea, no matter how weedy and insignificant it may seem to you
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Engage Your Peers

Writing

the paper is how you develop the idea in the first place It usually turns out to be more interesting and challenging than it seemed at first.
It

comes from your heart but is only rationalized by your mind.

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The purpose of your paper is

To

convey your idea

...from

your head to your readers head. Everything serves this single goal

it

is interesting only if it benefits someone or something.

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The purpose of your paper is ...

Not

to describe the social networking system. Your reader probably has a social networking of his/her own. She / he is primarily interested in reusable brain-stuff, not executable artifacts

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Conveying the idea

Here

is a problem It is an interesting problem It is an unsolved problem Here is my idea My idea works (details, data) Here is how my idea compares to other peoples approaches
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Structure
Abstract

(4 sentences) Introduction (1 page) The problem (1 page) My idea (2 pages) The details (5 pages) Related work (1-2 pages) Conclusions and further work (0.5 pages)
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Remember
Not to give the Author(s) name(s) or institutional affiliation as a header or a footer. Page 1 is usually removed when the paper is sent for review and a header/footer will take away the anonymity. Only in Occasional Papers can any kind of headers/footers be given as these papers are meant for circulation and not general publication.

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Do Not Forget
To

give page numbers serially uniformly in the paper. To give a title to every chart using Roman numerals serially. To give a title to every chart/diagram using Roman numerals serially. To quote the source of the data even if it has been generated by you below the table, chart.
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Page 1
This It

is your cover page.

contains the title of the paper. The name of the author(s) appear below it. The institutional affiliation and a very short bio-sketch of author(s) comes at the bottom of the page.
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Embellishment
Give an apt quote under the title of the paper on Page 2 when the actual paper begins. Indent any quote that is more than 2 lines long. Use Italics or quotes or put them in inverted colons. Acknowledge the source briefly alongside for the reader to cross reference. (short citation of name of author and year.

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It Is Wise To
First

send the paper to the top most journal. It could be rejected so fret not. If you are lucky the rejection will come with comments. Implement the comments are send the paper to the next lower tier journal. Assume that a paper will be rejected at least thrice before acceptance.
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Subtleties
Use do not instead of dont. Do not use slang except when it is someones quote. Do not use ampersand (&); opt for using the and instead. Get the hang of the style preferred by the journal targeted and then adapt to it. Read the notes to contributors diligently. Meet deadlines for submission.

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The abstract

The abstract comes before the paper begins either as a separate sheet or just above the title on Page 2. Four sentences are enough. Never exceed 100 words unless it is critical to do so. 1. State the problem 2. Say why it is an interesting problem 3. Say what your solution achieves 4. Say what follows from your solution
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Writing the Abstract

Many

authors usually write the abstract last i.e. after they have completed writing the paper. It is important that it is crisp, clear and communicative as it may be used by program (academic) committee members and general readers to decide which papers to read and/or recommend.
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Fact Of The Matter

1. Many papers are badly written and hard to understand 2. This is a pity, because their good ideas may go unappreciated 3. Following simple guidelines can dramatically improve the quality of your papers 4. Your work will be used more, and the feedback you get from others will in turn improve your research
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Do Not Assume
The

reader will automatically understand what is in your mind. The reader will tolerate your grammatical and spelling errors. Your argument is tenable without a consistent logic and/or verifiable data.

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Library Work
Spend

enough time to see whether what you are attempting has been done before. Scan the Net as well. If not, Someone may reject your hard work out of hand (best case). Accuse you of plagiarism (worst case).
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The Title
This

is to clearly say what you are writing about and why someone should read it. it crisp but give the boundaries [time, geographical domain, social class etc.] within which your argument rests. Concretize you thoughts.
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Make

The introduction (1 page)

1. Describe the problem 2. State your contributions ...and that is all. 3. Do not fear to toot your trumpet without being ostentatious.

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Humility
To

be humble is a good thing. But remember you are not so great that you need to be humble. Never apologize. Nor are you so brilliant that you can afford to be arrogant.
BE

POLITE BUT NOT SUBSERVIENT

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NEVER
Use

the epithet the learned professor or Dr before citing a source within the text. Just give the name of the writer and the date of the publication. If you are citing someone and wish to be critical only then this may be permitted but it is better to avoid it.
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Describe the problem

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State your contributions

Write the list of contributions first to lay down the literature reviewed. The list of contributions drives the entire paper: the paper substantiates the claims you have made Reader thinks gosh, if they can really deliver this, it is exciting; I had better read on

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State your contributions

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Contributions should be refutable

We describe the social system. It is really cool.
We give the syntax and semantics of a language that supports concurrent processes (Section 3). Its innovative features are...

We study its properties

We have used this in practice

We prove that the type system is sound, and that type checking is decidable (Section 4) We have built a GUI toolkit and used it to implement a text editor (Section 5). The result is half the length of the Java version.
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No rest of this paper is...

Do not say: The rest of this paper is structured as follows. Section 2 introduces the problem. Section 3 ... Finally, Section 8 concludes unless you wish to publish in Europe.

Instead, use forward references from the narrative in the introduction. The introduction (including the contributions) should survey the whole paper, and therefore forward reference plays a very important part.

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Avoid Johnsonese
Do

not say we present for your edification and salubrious astonishment a phantasmagoria of colossal buffoonery interspiced with legerdemain and death defying calisthenics. say welcome to the circus.
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Just

Why cite others?

To

demonstrate that you have done your homework and thus can be taken seriously. To show variations in the theme and thus bring out a golden mean. Create room for what you wish to say in the paper that is either novel or different.
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Comparative Review
Always

summarize various related works on the subject first. compare their strengths and weaknesses.

Then

The

discussion must be clear, crisp and communicative.

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NEVER
ASSUME THAT YOUR WORK IS PATH BREAKING AND NOVEL. LEAVE IT TO THE READERS AND REVIEWERS TO SAY SO. NEVER CLAIM THAT YOURS IS THE ONLY WORK DONE.. MOST PROBABLY IT IS NOT SO AND YOUR CLAIM MAY SOUND ARROGANT PUTTING OFF THE READER. IF IN FACT YOURS IS THE ONLY WORK DONE A KNOWLEDGEABLE READER WILL KNOW IT ANYWAY.

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Claiming that there is no related work yet

Problem

1: describing alternative approaches gets between the reader and your idea. 2: the reader knows nothing about the problem yet; so your (carefully trimmed) description of various technical tradeoffs is absolutely incomprehensible
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Problem

Instead...
Concentrate single-mindedly on a narrative that Describes the problem, and why it is interesting Describes your idea Defends your idea, showing how it solves the problem, and filling out the details . Along the way, cite relevant work in passing, but defer discussion to the end
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The payload of your paper

Consider a bifurcated semi-lattice D, over a hyper modulated signature S. Suppose pi is an element of D. Then we know for every such pi there is an epi-modulus j, such that pj < pi.

Sounds impressive...but sends readers to sleep In a paper you MUST provide the details, but FIRST convey the idea

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The payload of your paper

Introduce the problem, and your idea, using EXAMPLES and only then present the general case

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Using examples

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Conveying the idea

Explain it as if you were speaking to someone using a whiteboard Conveying the intuition is primary, not secondary Once your reader has the intuition, he/she can follow the details (but not vice versa) Even if she he/ skips the details, the reader still takes away something valuable

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Evidence
Your

introduction makes claims The body of the paper provides evidence to support each claim Check each claim in the introduction, identify the evidence, and forward reference it from the claim Evidence can be: analysis and comparison, theorems, measurements, case studies
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Related work
Fallacy

: To make my work look good, I have to make other peoples work look bad. Nobody likes a fierce critic except perhaps at a political rally where the crowd is just there to lap it up.

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The truth: credit is not like money

Giving credit to others does not diminish the credit you get from your paper Warmly acknowledge people who have helped you Be generous to the competition. In his inspiring paper [Foo 1998] Ray and Foogle show.... We develop his foundation in the following ways... Acknowledge weaknesses in your approach
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Credit is not like money

Failing to give credit to others can kill your paper
If you imply that an idea is yours, and the referee knows it is not, then either You dont know that its an old idea (bad) You do know, but are pretending its yours (very bad)
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Making sure related work is accurate

A

good plan: when you think you are done, send the draft to the peer or competition saying could you help me ensure that I describe your work fairly?. Often they will respond with helpful critique They are likely to be your referees anyway, so getting their comments up front is a good idea.
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The process
Start

early. Very early.

Hastily-written papers get rejected. Papers are like wine: they need time to mature
Collaborate

with positive minds Float the idea around through a Working Paper Use CVS(concurrent version system) to support collaboration
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Getting help
Get your paper read by as many friendly guinea pigs as possible Experts are good Non-experts are also very good Each reader can only read your paper for the first time once! So use them carefully Explain carefully what you want (I got lost here is much more important than wibble is mis-spelt.)
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Listening to your reviewers

Every review is gold dust Be (truly) grateful for criticism as well as praise This is really, really, really hard But its really, really, really, really, really, really important YOUR EGO IS YOUR WORST ENEMY
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Listening to your reviewers

Read

every criticism as a positive suggestion for something you could explain more clearly DO NOT respond you stupid person, I meant X. Fix the paper so that X is apparent even to the stupidest reader. Thank them warmly. They have given up their time for you.
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Basic stuff
Submit

by the deadline Keep to the length restrictions

Do not narrow the margins Do not use 6pt font On occasion, supply supporting evidence (e.g. experimental data, or a written-out proof) in an appendix
Always

use a grammar spell checker

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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

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 The

argument must flow such that one syllogism cascades into another seamlessly. The clarity must be such that the paper should speak for itself. Avoid the word I and instead say the paper argues or the author posits.
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Visual structure

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Use the active voice

The passive voice is respectable but it DEADENS your paper. Avoid it. No Yes
We can see that We ran 34 tests We wanted to retain these properties You might think this would be a type error
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It can be seen that... 34 tests were run These properties were thought desirable It might be thought that this would be a type error

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Use simple, direct language

No
The object under study was displaced horizontally On an annual basis Endeavour to ascertain
It could be considered that the speed of storage reclamation left something to be desired

Yes
The ball moved sideways

Yearly Find out

The garbage collector was really slow
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CONCLUSION
This

is must be crisp and flow out of the argument. You may need to repeat some sentences from the introduction itself albeit with some variations. conclude and then summarize whereas others do it the other way around.
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Some

APPENDICES

Any table, chart, map, drawing or additional data including formulae and calculations that is important but which disturbs the flow of the papers argument should be given serially as Appendices and numbered either as A B C or i, ii, iii. Proper citation referring to these appendices MUST be made appropriately in the text of the paper.

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END NOTES
If

the author has given numbers (SERIALLY) against quotes then it is wise to give endnotes so that a small comment can be added in each case. journals do not prefer footnotes as this causes problems during type-setting.
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Many

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Always

have a bibliography. The norm in Management and Social Sciences is to have at least 2-3 citations per A/4 page. Hence a paper of 15 pages should have anything between 30 and 45 references given alphabetically either according to the Chicago Manual of Style or as per the Oxbridge Citation
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Summary
If

you remember nothing else:

Identify your key idea Make your contributions explicit Use examples
DO NOT SEEK Advice on Research and Writing JUST GET ON WITH THE DAMN THING
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