CSci 8990
Research Seminar
John A. Miller
Fall 2022
CSCI 8990: Publishing a Conference Paper
Publishing a conference paper is required for PhD Students and some major professors require this for MS Thesis Students.
Skills also useful for writing MS Thesis of PhD Dissertation.
Goal for CSCI 8990: Learn how to successively write a research paper, by writing and presenting a "practice paper".
Meetings:
Wednesdays starting Aug 24
Time: Wed. 5:20 pm - 6:10 pm
Presenters of Items 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7: Need Group Volunteers
0. Organizational Meeting
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Organize into groups of two.
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Pick one of next seven next topics to present.
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Pick topic for group's paper/presentation.
+ Presentation on Item 0 - Wed, Aug 24
Each student group will give one presentation from topics/items 1 - 7:
1. Initial Work
- Find a Topic
- What Is the Current State-of-the-Art Related to Your Topic
- What Can You Contribute
- Is Your Idea or Future Paper Innovative or Incremental
- Must be at Least One and Top Conferences Require Innovation
- Find a Conference
- Assess the Quality of the Conference
- IEEE conferences require at least 2 reviewers per paper
- If the conference does not meet the IEEE minimum, move on
- If it reviews abstracts rather than full papers, move on
- Read Related Papers - use Google Scholar
- Learn Style of Papers Published in Selected Conference
+ Student Presentation on Item 1 - Wed, Aug 31
2. Organizing the Paper
- Select Word or LaTex
- Download and Use Conference Template
- Carefully Read Paper Preparation Guidelines
- Create an Outline of Your Practice Paper
- Strat Performing Computer Experiments
- Write a Sentence for Each Paragraph of the Planned Paper
- Write Tentative Abstract
Sample Sections:
Abstract
Introduction
Background
Related Work
Your Proposed Algorithm, Method, System, Models, etc.
Experiment Setup - Should Facilitate Reproducibility of Results
Discussion of Results
Conclusions and Future Work
References
+ Student Presentation on Item 2 - Wed, Sept 7
+ Brief Status Report for each Practice Paper
3. Writing the Literature Review
- Read Abstracts of Related Papers in Target and Related Conferences
- Find Survey Papers
- Create a Timeline for Progress in the Research Area
- Categorize Papers as Background or Related Work
- Background Papers Help a Review to Understand the Technical Material in Your Paper
- Related Work - What Others Are Doing to Solve the Problem You Are Working On
- How Does Your Work Compare to Related Work
+ Student Presentation on Item 3 - Wed, Sept 14
+ Brief Status Report for each Practice Paper
4. Ethical Research and Open Science
5. Writing the Paper
- Read Several Papers
- Do Not Look at any Paper while Writing the Paper
- Afterward Check for Mistakes by Confirming with the Literature
- Avoid Plagiarism
- Check Spelling
- Check Grammar
- Put Defendable Claims in Conclusions
- Rewrite the Abstract Last
+ Student Presentation on Item 5 (cover plagiarism) - Wed, Sept 21
+ Brief Status Report for each Practice Paper
6. Reviewing a Paper Submitted to a Conference
- Read the Introduction. Is the purpose of the work and the paper clear? Will positive results be of any benefit?
- Read the Conclusions. Do the authors claim any contributions for their work?
- At this point, if the purpose of the paper and contributions of work are unclear or insignificant, then lean toward rejecting the paper.
- Read the Related Work section. How does this paper compare with related work. How much advancement does it make?
Is the paper innovative or incremental?
- Read the methods sections. Are these sections technically correct? If not, try to point out where the paper is not correct.
Are the systems, algorithms or equations presented in an understandable way?
- Are the methods properly evaluated, for example via a set of experiements?
Are the experiments reproducible?
- Other issues include relevance to the conference, spelling, grammer and overall readability.
+ Student Presentation on Item 6 - Wed, Sept 28
Faculty Research Presentations
- Two talks per week - Wed, during October
- Faculty Members will discuss the research they are working on and how to join their research labs
- Open to All CSCI Graduate Students
7. Preparing the Presentation
- Prepare PowerPower (or Equivalent) Slides
- Use a Presentation Theme/Style
- Construct an Outline
- Follow Conference Guidelines for Preparing Slides
- Approximately 1.5 Minutes Per Slide - 20 minutes => 14 slides
- No Paragraphs or Long Sentences
- Use Bullet Items
- Use Diagrams/Pictures
- Don't Read Your Presentation
- Engage the Audience
- Don't Put Anthing in a Slide that You Can't Explain
- Last Slide "Questions" - leave a couple of minutes
- Goal: Audience should learn something which requires a clear presentation that is to the point
+ Student Presentation on Item 7 - Wed, Nov 2
Giving the Presentation
+ Present Practice Paper (3 20-minute presentations)
7. ++ Groups 1, 2, 3 - Wed, Nov 9
+ Present Practice Paper (3 20-minute presentations)
8. ++ Groups 4, 5, 6, 7 - Wed, Nov 16
Paper Submission:
+ Submit Practice Paper to me - Wed, Nov 30
What if your paper is so good you believe it should be submitted to the conference.
First ask your Major Professor their opinion.
If they like it, they may suggest that you revise it and at some point in the future actually submit it for publication.
Publishing in a high quality research conference is very difficult, so make sure your paper is of the highest quality before submitting.
Also, note that plagiarism may make it so that your future papers will be automatically rejected.
Policies
- Make-Up Presentation - written pre-approval or medical documentation required