HowTo Research and MakePaper

How to Communicate Effectively Results of a

Research ESPE 2015

Diseado por: Efran R. Fonseca C.

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Outline 1. Tips on how to write a research paper 2. Paper Structure 3. Tools to support publications

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Diseado por: Efran R. Fonseca C. 3

Roles in a research team n Manager: provides basic facilities, funding etc. n Idea generator: provides starting points n Idea refiner: provides idea elaboration skills n Technology expert: provides technical knowledge n Architect: provides general system/tool principles n Implementor: provides design & programming

skills n Writer: provides paper writing skills n Reviewer: provides critical viewpoints (internally) n Presenter: provides convincing demos &

presentations


Tips Why Brother?

n Fallacy We write papers and give talks mainly to impress others, gain recognition, and get promoted

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Papers communicate ideas

n Your goal: to infect the mind of your reader with your idea, like a virus

n Papers are far more durable than programs (think in Mozarts music)

n The greatest ideas are (literally) worthless if you keep them to yourself

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Writing papers: Model 1

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Writing papers: Model 2

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Writing papers: Benefits of Model 2

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n Forces us to be clear, focused n Crystallises what we dont understand n Opens the way to dialogue with others: reality

check, critique, and collaboration


Do not be intimidated

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n Fallacy You need to have a fantastic idea before you can write a paper or give a talk. (Everyone else seems to.) n Ideas demonstrate their interest and strength after

publication: Write a paper Writing the paper is how you develop the idea in the

first place It usually turns out to be more interesting and

challenging that it seemed at first


The purpose of your paper

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n The purpose of your paper is... To convey your idea

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


The purpose of your paper

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n The purpose of your paper is not... To describe the ACME system

n Your reader does not have an ACME n They are primarily interested in reusable

brain-stuff, not executable artefacts


Conveying the idea

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Here is a problem Its an interesting problem Its an unsolved problem

Reviewer: I Wish I knew how to solve that!

Here is my idea

My idea works (details, data) Heres how my idea compares to

other peoples approaches

Reviewer: I see how that works Ingenious!


APA editorial style: Research Report Should include:

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n A concise description of: Your logic Relevant previous research Your procedures and results Your interpretation of the findings

n Everything needed to evaluate your thinking and your study


Contributions of a paper n Concept (e.g. a new kind of architectural modeling

concept) n Solution (e.g. general architectural solution, algorithm) n Method, technique (e.g. a method to derive architecture) n Tool (e.g. a tool concept & implementation to support a

method) n Evaluation of an approach (often case study) n Finding & interpreting empirical data n Combination of existing ideas n and any combination of these


Paper style n Empirical science style

- contribution: empirical data & its interpretation, empirical study of known engineering practices etc., validation of results

n Engineering style - contribution: solution to a practical engineering problem & its evaluation

n Mathematics style - contribution: algorithm, formal language, correctness, complexity, coverage etc., some path to reality

n or any combination of these


Antipatterns n Empirical data as contribution

Present the empirical data (e.g. queries, interviews etc.) you have collected in a summarizing form Correction: Decide what is your message, interpret the data, show that your data supports the message

n Tool as contribution

Present your existing tool and show how it can be used to solve a problem Correction: Present the problem and solution on an abstract level, and use your tool only in the implementation part, as part of the evaluation

n Formalism as contribution

Show how a certain aspect of software engineering can be formalized Correction: Present the formalism as a tool to achieve some advantages or solve some problem in software engineering


Structure


Overall structure Template (engineering style): Introduction - context and problem statement, approach Background - needed prerequisites, existing concepts used etc Idea - beef of the paper, solution on an abstract level Implementation - how to realize the idea (e.g. as a tool) Evaluation - demonstrate that the idea works, typically a case study Related work - comparison with other existing work, highlights contributions Conclusions - work seen from bigger perspective, future directions etc. Acknowledgements - funding organizaton, comment providers, programmers etc. References

Motivating example - concretizing the problem with an example

Sometimes related work can replace background (esp. when work is difficult to compare)


APA editorial style: Major Sections of the Report n Title Page n Abstract n Introduction n Method

Participants Apparatus Procedures Results/Findings Conclusions Recommendations

n Discussion n References n Reference to necessary appendices Tables if relevant n Figures if relevant


APA editorial style: Levels of Headings n Use headings to provide clarity and give

structure these should be sequentially numbered

n Use sub headings correctly numbered i.ee. 2, 2.1, 2.1.1, etc.


Title n Is important for selling the paper n Should attract right kind of readers n Can have a catch (e.g. playing with words: REST

assured) n Should not assume special subarea (e.g. software

architecture rather than architecture) n Technique to find a title:

Collect all the keywords Find all possible sensible combinations of them Connect with auxiliary prepositions, verbs etc. (Method for,

Technique for, Using X for , -Driven, -Based, etc.) Antipattern: Long Title


APA editorial style: Title Page n Title page includes:

A concise title describing the study The name of the author The name of the paper/module for which the study is being

completed for. Nothing else goes on the title page


The abstract n Althought the abstract is first, it is usually written last, after

the paper is finished n Used by program committee members to decide which

papers to read


The abstract n Four sentences [Kent Beck]

1. State the problem, e.g.: Many papers are badly written and hard to understand 2. Say why its an interesting problem, e.g.: This is a shame, because their good ideas may go unappreciated 3. Say what your solution achieves, e.g.: Following simple guidelines can dramatically improve the quality of your papers 4. Say what follows from your solution, e.g.: Your work will be used more, and the feedback you get from others will in turn improve your research


APA editorial style: Abstract n A concise summary (maximum 250 words, describing the research

project) n Abstract goes on a separate page n Although the abstract is first, it is usually written last, after the paper is

finished


Introduction n Remember audience: do not use too much text for painting

the scenery n Introduction is very important for acceptance: connect the

reader (but do not promise too much) n Template (6 paragraphs):

basic context problem description deficiencies with previous approaches

basic idea/approach of the paper contributions of the paper textual contents description

Antipattern: Promise the sky


Introduction - Describe the problem

Use an example to introduce the problem


Introduction - State your contributions n Write the list of contributions first n The list of contributions drives the entire paper: the paper

justify the afirmations you have made n Reader thinks gosh, if they can really deliver this, thats be

exciting; Id better read on

n Do not leave the reader to guess what your contributions are!

n Bulleted list of contributions


Introduction - No rest of this paper is... n Not:

The rest of this paper is structured as follows. Section 2 introduces the problem. Section 3 ... Finally, Section 8 concludes

n Instead: Use forward references from the narrative in the introduction

n The introduction (including the contributions) should review the whole paper, and therefore forward reference every important part.


APA editorial style: Introduction n Outlines for the reader the logic of the study and how the

study relates to previous research n Usually ends with the specific hypothesis/es tested in your

research study n Well written IF the hypothesis/es seem to follow clearly from

the material presented in the introduction


Background n Take into account the audience n The paper should be self-sufficient (with respect to

expected audience) n Try to be as concise and to the point as possible n Can be given as related work, if that work is more

like starting points for this work Antipattern: Tutorial


Idea n Dont overestimate the understanding and

guessing capability of the reader n Use figures to illustrate the main ideas n Use examples to concretize the concepts n Use subsections to structure the presentation n Avoid your own new terms as much as possible n Dont create your own world, but a delta for

existing world Antipattern: Explain for your Team


Transmit the idea n Explain it as if you were speaking to someone

using a whiteboard n Transmit the intuition is primary, not secondary n Once your reader has the intuition, she/he can

follow the details (but not vice versa) n Even if she skips the details, she/he still takes

away something valuable


Implementation n Often necessary to show that the idea has been

implemented, part of evaluation n Architecture-level system descriptions n Generally interesting technical implementation

solutions n Information about the technical environment n Use screenshots, whenever appropriate n Can be rather short

Antipattern: Detailed design


Evaluation n Often in the form of a realistic (industrial) case study n Example is not a case study n Make clear what is the thing in the case study you are

interested in n Remember that a case study never proves anything n May provide circumstantial evidence for evaluation n If possible/sensible, characterize results by quantitative

measures (e.g. performance, lines of code, working time etc.)

Antipattern: Toy Example


Related work n Comparison of the contribution with existing

literature (e.g. one mentioned in Background) n Template: one paragraph per each existing

research direction, with 1-2 statements at the end discussing the differences

n Be careful when discussing about weaknesses of other approaches, be diplomatic

n Perform systematic literature look-up to find relevant references (potential conferences & journals, references in other papers, google)

Antipattern: Crucify Everybody Else


Conclusions n Idea: provide a high-level perspective on the work

(abstract: outside-in, conclusions: inside-out) n Template:

Rephrasing the main contribution (paragraph) Significance of the work from larger perspective (paragraph)

n Shortcomings (needs) n Future directions of the work (paragraph) n New viewpoints but no new results or detailed discussions n Usually no references

Antipattern: Cut-and-Paste


Focus, focus, focus n You do not get extra points for extra contents n You should be able to give the main message of

your paper in one or two sentences n If you are not sure whether a particular additional

issue should be discussed or not, probably it should not be discussed

n Make the paper a story, with highlights in the middle

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HowTo Research and MakePaper