Graduate Track - Publishing Your Research

From Anita Borg Institute Wiki

- Do not over-publish.

Two kinds of publications

(1) Original content:

- You must have some NEW results. They can be theoretical: theorems; new algorithms, or robustness studies.

- First test the community by submitting to conference; highly selective conferences can be a good filter.

(2) Survey papers:

- Are very appreciated and important to the community. They will be highly cited and the impact will be high.

- What are the consequences of what’s been done? What new problems have not been solved? What the survey has taught you about the open problems?

Engineering science

- It is always a MODEL (predicting the behavior of the system), made clear the assumptions under which the model operates but then Verified by a well thought out experiment.

- Good review of literature is ESSENTIAL. You must demonstrate that you understand the PAST. As a scientist, you own it to yourself and your community that you understand from where your research came.

- Last but not least, pay attention to English. Lucid writing makes a difference.

General points

- Name is important: your legal name and publication name don’t need to be the same.

- Choose your format (S):

(a) Traditional, higher prestige: journal paper, conference article, book chapter

(b) Traditional, lower prestige: poster, demo, workshop paper

(c) Nontraditional: blog, twitter, youtube

Communication skills

- Take a writing class (or 2 or 3)

- Take a publish speaking class

Improving your technical writing

- Start with an outline: focus on CONTRIBUTION

- Revise, revise, revise: start early.

- Enlist excellent proofreaders: for clarity & for grammar.

- Read, review! How is a program committee like the prom? You shouldn’t wait to get invited.

Don't write comfortable papers. Make advances on the hard and new problems, and don't get discouraged. Persistence is key!