Notes from Kough's presentation
Following notes are taken from a presentation "How to
do good research, get it published in SIGKDD and get it cited" by Eamonn
Kough
·
Must have a problem
·
Write before experiments
(similar to literature review?)
·
Make sure you have real
datasets (find the dataset available on internet or ask from peers / authors of
other papers solving similar problem or generate dataset)
·
Start with simplest idea … convince
yourself and then reviewer that this is simples idea
·
Don’t’ have solution? Try solutions
from other fields …
·
Make problem simple by
taking assumptions, publish early results and then comeback to original problem
by removing assumptions one by one
·
Don’t believe everything
written in literature is true … don’t trust until you test it
·
Make sure problem really
exists
·
Paper must be written in self
explanatory form with self explaining figures so reader should not be forced to
think
·
Invest time on Title,
abstract and introduction: a good introduction with good motivation is half of
your success
·
Introduction must have
following:
o
What is the problem? And why
this problem is interesting (motivation)?
o
Comparison of your approach/methods
with others in terms what other methods actually lacking?
o
Key components of your approach
(basic idea how you got it) including basic assumptions and limitations
o
A final paragraph states
structure of rest of paper
·
Ensure reproducibility, it
will help to increase creditability of your work (and so more chances of
getting acceptance) and more citation as well.
·
Don’t use phrase like attempt
to, tries to, seems to …. Write in oblivious way
·
States why other approaches
can’t work (related work) better is to apply other approaches as well.
·
Quote others’ paper:
·
Give mean or variance of
results instead of actual values
·
Make good and clear figures:
use direct labeling, color and thickness, minimize the details
·
Name columns of table appropriately
instead of Method 1 etc. Also don’t use long significant digits
·
Always write your paper
imagining the most cynical reviewer looking over your shoulder. This reviewer
does not particularly like you, does not have a lot of time to spend on your
paper, and does not think you are working in an interesting area. But he will
listen to reason
Structure of Paper (division in sections is based on my
understanding)
·
Title
o
Make a working title
·
Introduction
o
Introduce the topic and define (informally at
this stage) terminology
o
Motivation: Emphasize why is the topic
important
o
Relate to current knowledge: what’s been done
o
Indicate the gap: what need’s to be done?
o
Formally pose research questions
·
Related Work
o
Explain any necessary background material.
·
Proposed Algorithm/framework
o
Introduce formal definitions.
o
Introduce your novel
algorithm/representation/data structure etc.
o
Describe experimental set-up, explain what the
experiments will show
·
Evaluation and Results
o
Describe the datasets
o
Summarize results with figures/tables
o
Discuss results
o
Explain conflicting results, unexpected
findings and discrepancies with other research
o
·
Conclusion and Future Work
o
State limitations of the
study
o
State importance of findings
o
Announce directions for further research
·
Acknowledgements
·
References
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