How to write a scientific paper

1
How to write a scientific paper

• Fausto Giunchiglia

Literature Jeffrey A. Lee, The scientific
endeavor, 2000 Bruno Buchberger, Thinking
Speaking Writing
By Fausto Giunchiglia and Alessandro Tomasi
2
Index

• Role of Papers
• Analysis of audience
• Analysis of kind of paper
• Defining Goals
• Structuring Papers
• Cores Grain Structure
• The Process
• Style

3
5. Structuring Papers (part two)
4
5. Structuring Papers
A

1. Title
2. Abstract
3. Introduction
4. Work out of main idea
5. Details of main idea
6. Conclusions
7. Appendixes

B
C
D
E
F
5
5. Structuring Papers
D

1. Work out of main idea
2. Details of main idea

• The description of
• the state of the art
• how to improve it
• Goal develop message

10 pages
6
5. Structuring Papers
E

1. Conclusions

• The description of
• Related Work Optional, can also go at beginning
  of paper after introduction
• Conclusion
• Future Work Optional
• Goal argue that you have done what you wrote in
  abstract, title,

1 page
7
5. Structuring Papers

• Related work
• For each system
• 3 lines to describe what it does
• 3-10 lines to argue why how you do better

8
5. Structuring Papers

1. Appendixes and Footnotes

F

• Material not necessary in order to understand
• the paper but useful
• references
• proof
• code

9
5. Structuring Papers

1. Appendixes and Footnotes

F

• References evolves and should be written
• in parallel with the other sections of the
  Paper
• Other appendixes should be written last when
  Paper
• (Almost) finished
• Goal show you know state of the art. Define your
  state of the art.

10
5. Structuring Papers

• Homomorphic Property
• describe the same idea
• at different levels of abstraction

11
5. Structuring Papers
Different parts of the paper have different
audience Title, Abstract, Introduction for
people who have to decide whether they want to
read the paper

• Work out of main idea, Details of main idea
• for people who want to use results
• for people who want to extend/improve results

12
6. Cores Grain Structure of papers
13
6. Cores Grain Structure of papers

1. write one section at the time
2. paragraphs are the structure of the section
3. lengths must be appropriate (3-6 paragraphs for
   page)
4. in one section paragraphs must be homogenous
5. sentences are the structure of the paragraph

14
6. Cores Grain Structure of papers
Example Introduction P1 Context P2 Problem P3
Solution P4 Why new P5 structure of paper
15
6. Cores Grain Structure of papers
Homomorphic Property New line if and only if is
needed
16
7. The Process
17
7. The Process
Paper Publishing
Orange Arrows something is wrong
2.2 Analysis of Readers
Feedback from Peer Review
2.3 Defining Goals
2.4.1 Structuring Papers Coarse Grained
Feedback from Friends
2.4.2 Structuring Papers Fine Grained
Paper Finished
18
8. The Style
19
8. The Style

• same type of font
• high quality of English (do you know native
  speakers)
• simplified drawings
• good references
• good notation
• use either I/we or neutral form

20
8. The Style

• references Author/date style
• In text (Graburn 1989) or (Dann and Cohen 1991
  Smith 1987).
• Reference list in alphabetical order.
• Chandrasekaran B. Models versus Rules, Deep
  versus Compiled, Content versus Form, Some
  Distinctions in Knowledge Systems Research. IEEE
  Expert 6 (2), pp. 75-79, 1991.
• Guariso G. and Werthner H. Environmental
  Decision Support Systems. Ellis Horwood,
  Chichester, 1989.
• Rozenblit J.W. and Zeigler B.P. Entity-based
  Structures for Modeling and Experimental Frame
  Construction. In Elzas M.S., Ören T.I., and
  Zeigler B.P. (eds.) Modeling and Simulation
  Methodology in the Artificial Intelligence Era.
  North-Holland, Amsterdam, pp. 195-210, 1986.