Transcript Template for Producing IT Research and Publication

A Template for
Producing IT Research
and Publication
Hsinchun Chen
Agenda
• Choosing Publishable Research
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Abstract
Introduction
Literature Review
Research Questions
System and Research Design
Research Testbed
System/Research Experiment
Findings and Discussions
Conclusions and Future Directions
References
Acknowledgement
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Choosing Publishable Research
A publishable paper needs:
• an interesting research topic,
• good lit review,
• new algorithm/technique,
• relevant testbed,
• systematic evaluation (comparing with
existing approaches and with statistical tests)
• Writing needs to be precise, concise,
professional and entirely error-free
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Choosing Publishable Research
• Research topic needs to be new and
interesting.
• Avoid old and well-studied topic.
• Research could be technique/algorithm
driven or application driven.
• Read a lot. Understand the current trends
and directions. Need comprehensive lit
review.
• Use well grounded methodologies.
• Compare with existing
techniques/approaches with data sets.
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Title
• 8 words or less.
• Develop a title after finishing the paper.
• Title needs to reflect the essence of the
research.
• Don’t use cute title, e.g., “To aggregate
or not to aggregate”
• Use project/system acronym with clear
relevant meaning, e.g., COPLINK,
BioPortal; not ALOHA.
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Abstract
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Most important part of a paper – the first impression!
Abstract should reflect the entire paper.
200-300 words in one paragraph.
2-3 sentences to summarize problem motivation.
2-3 sentences to describe proposed method or
algorithm.
• 2-3 sentences to summarize evaluation method.
• 3-4 sentences to summarize key findings.
• Write abstract after finishing the entire paper. Select
key sentences from paper.
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Introduction
• Motivate the research topic.
• 4-6 paragraphs. Less than 2 pages.
• Describe the importance of the
research topic, current approaches,
proposed methods, and structure of the
paper.
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Literature Review
• A major part of the paper. Need to show that
you know the field.
• Read and digest many papers before writing.
• Need to review seminal works and critical
new works (past 3-4 years in major journals
and cnferences).
• 3-6 pages. 3-4 major subsections.
• Never do a laundry list review. Never do too
much tutorial.
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Literature Review
• Select only closely relevant works to review.
• Best to present as a taxonomy with 2-3
critical fields to classify works.
• User a detailed table to summarize and
compare past works.
• Sometimes a good comprehensive review
paper can stand on its own.
• Need to critique past works (critique not
criticize!).
• Need to summarize research gaps that would
lead into your proposed research questions.
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Research Questions
• Summarize research gaps in the lit
review section.
• Need 3-5 research questions that show
the focus of research.
• Half a page.
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Research Testbed
• Use research testbed to validate designs and
approaches.
• What data sets will be used in the experiment
or evaluation?
• Testbed should be interesting, relevant, and
significant.
• For new emerging critical applications,
research testbed could become the focus of
research.
• 2-4 pages, in detail.
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System Design
• Describe how the overall system/design
works and its key components.
• Use an overall diagram with boxes and
arrows.
• Explain the rationale of each component.
• 3-6 pages.
• Need to describe key technical innovation
and technical details (algorithms,
mathematical notations).
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System Evaluation/Experiment
• A paper won’t get accepted by a top-tier journal without
a detailed, systematic evaluation.
• Present research hypotheses: focused and measurable.
• Focus on the experiment and evaluation.
• Summarize evaluation methodologies adopted in past
research.
• Compare with existing benchmark techniques.
• Describe experimental procedure, conditions, tasks,
subjects.
• 3-4 pages, in detail.
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• Need statistical tests (t-test, F-test).
Research Findings and Discussions
• Summarize key findings in a clear and
understandable format.
• You may group your findings in chunks, each
of which starts with a bold summarizing
sentence.
• Present examples and discussions right after
each finding to bring insight and better
understanding.
• User screen shots to illustrate.
• 4-8 pages, in detail.
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Research Findings and Discussions
• Tables and figures are critical.
– Need to be consistent and neat.
– Highlight interesting numbers.
– In caption, you may use 3-4 sentences to
describe more details about a figure or a
table.
– Use a small paragraph in text to explain
the essence about a figure or a table.
• Need statistical tests (T-test, F-test). P value
(significance level) at 5%.
• Reject or accept hypotheses postulated.
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Conclusions and Future Directions
• Can have some duplication with the
abstract.
• Summarize key findings.
• State the contribution, but don’t
overstate it.
• State research caveats.
• Don’t mention trivial future directions.
• Point to several promising directions.
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References
• Where has similar work been published?
• What kind of articles are accepted by the
target journal? Reference related papers that
were published in the target journal.
• Must have 5-10 key journals, key conferences,
and key authors in the field.
• Number the references in a consistent format.
• Include a few of your own works. Avoid having
too many self-citations.
• 15-50 citations for most journals.
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Acknowledgement
• Funding sources and grant number.
• Research partners and participants.
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Additional Notes
• Conference papers only need to have about
50% of the above coverage.
• Target only major professional conferences
to report work in progress and solicit
feedback.
• Conference papers need to be quickly
expanded to target at top-tier journals.
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Additional Notes
• Select the right journals for publications.
• Research journal scope, past publications,
and AE background.
• Consult senior colleagues for suggestion.
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Behavioral-oriented: MISQ, ISR
Math-oriented: MS
System-oriented: JASIST, DSS, JMIS
Algorithm-oriented: IEEE TKDE, ACM TOIS,
IEEE SMC
• Application-oriented: CACM, IEEE Computer
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