Writing Perfect Papers

李葆春教授的分享，受益良多，感谢。本文主要是摘抄李教授提供的 Slides 作为后续查找复习资料。

Video: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV18v411n7mr/

Slides: https://iqua.ece.toronto.edu/papers/writing-perfect-papers-2021.pdf

Our goal today: improve both the skills and the process.

1 Writing perfect papers

A top-down approach: from the big picture to tiny details.

1.1 The story

How do I make a great movie? A great movie starts from a powerful and convincing story.

Three essential elements of a great story: Your paper is not really the best place to show your theoretical prowess. It's about advancing the state-of-the-art.

• The problem
  • Don't have to be something "trendy".
  • But it has to be something you really enjoy working on.
  • The "trend" may not last forever.
  • Following the trend may lead to more "incremental" results —— less exciting and less important.
  • Be a contrarian and working against the trend may be good idea.
• What's new?
  • In the context of what's already done in the related work, what's new in your work?
  • First, briefly introduce the state-of-the-art in the literature, solving the same problem you wish to solve.
  • Then write about what is new in you work that is different from previous work.
  • If the problem is different from previous work —— different assumptions, for example —— provide justifications why this is important and necessary.
• How is it better?
  • Now that your ideas are new, they should also lead to bettter results than before.
  • Show how your solution is better than previous work: such as stronger theoretical properties or better experimental results.

1.2 The work

Two things that you must do: Read and Write.

Read:

• Goal: become an expert on the problem.
• But how?
  • Start from one paper.
  • Perhaps a highly cited seminal paper.
  • Then do an expanded-ring search.
    • Papers that cited this paper.
    • Papers that it cited.
    • Papers authored by the same researchers.
  • Try not to depend only on a search engine.
  • Read quickly first.
  • Read more carefully if necessary later.

Write:

• Write about what you understood.
• Write every day.
• idea -> write paper -> do research
• If I don't have an idea what do I write about?
  • You write anyway.
  • Write about related work.
  • Write about what's challenging.
  • Write about why the problem is important.
  • Write about what needs to be fixed.
  • Write a survey paper.
  • Submit your survey paper for publication.
  • Write about what's new in the context of related work.
• Creating ideas interacts with writing closely.
• Writing is the best way to force yourself to think clearly and be focused and to crystallize what you don't quite understand yet.
• Writing also opens a dialogue.
• For others to read what you wrote.
• To stimulate discussions with others.
• That's why writing is a slow and painful process.
• Write in a crystal clear way.
• Write about one problem and one (potential) solution.
• Write with a flow of ideas that's easy to follow.
• Keep your readers engaged throughout the paper.
• Write your paper so that it's as easy to understand as absolutely possible.
• Your readers don't have to work hard.
• Write your paper slowly, so that your readers can read quickly.

1.3 The art

Pay attention to the title, abstract, introduction, and flow of ideas.

Tital: 2 lines, 10,000 readers. Abstract: 10 lines, 1,000 readers. Introduction: 100 lines, 100 readers. The rest of the paper: 1,000 lines, 10 readers.

The title

What's good title?

It attracts a reader to read the abstract.

It reflects the essence of the new idea.

It is as simple as possible

• does not have to be a precise summary of the paper.
• does not need to include all the keywords.

The best title is one that is the easiest to understand at a glance.

The abstract

The abstraction is a very important tool to attract readers to read the introduction.

Again, it conveys essential information about the paper.

It should be concise, and does not need to be long.

Remember the three essential elements: The problem, What's new? and How is it better?

A typical structure

• One sentence to state the background.
• One sentence to state what the proble is.
• Two to four sentences to state the original contribution in the paper —— what's new?
• One sentence to state how the solution is better, validated using analyses, simulations or experiments.

The introduction

If your title and abstract can get a reader to read the introduction, you are half way there.

The remaining job: impress the reader with an exciting and clear introduction.

The introduction is so important that I rewrote the introduction in many of papers.

It is important because we wish our reader to understand our ideas, even if they only read the introduction and noting else.

Write a good introduction

• It should be self-contained, so that a reader short on time doesn't need to read the rest of the paper.
• It should be clear what the problem is.
• It should be easy to understand why our solution is new, and how it's better than previous work.
• Don't make it too long.
• Don't spend too much space on the background and related work.
  • There can be a separate "Related Work" section.
• Don't make your work sound more original than it really is.

Introduciont: a typical structure

• Frist (opening) paragraph:
  • A general overview of the research field -- basic facts needed to "warm up" the reader and to prepare for the problem statement.
  • Not too long -- 2-3 sentences are good enough.
• The second paragraph: problem statement
  • A clear description of the challenges to be addressed and the problems to be solved.
  • Appeal to the intuition of the reader.
  • Describe at a high level.
  • It is fine (and even a good idea) to include an intuitive solution to the problem.

Unnecessary details inhibit the natural and brisk flow of the main ideas.

Returning to the typical structure of the introduction:

• General overview to warm-up the reader (the opening paragraph)
• State the problem (challenge) and existing solutions (1-2 paragraphs)
• Limitations of existing solutions that motivate this paper (2-3 paragraphs)
• Proposed solution: main idea (1-2 paragraphs)

Write about what's new

• Why is the proposed solution different from and better than existing solutions?
• State 1-2 most impressive highlights, not all of them.
• Make the originality of the paper crystal clear and stand out.
• You may use the sentence: "Highlights of our original ocntributions in this paper are as follows. First, ... Second, ... Finally, ..."

The list of original contributions drives the entire paper -- the rest of the paper substantiates the claims you have made.

Your readers may think: "Hey, if they can really deliver this, that'll be very exciting! I'd better read the rest of the paper."

It is a good idea to include a table to compare important properties of the proposed solution with its "direct competitors" in the existing literature, highlighting your advantages.

Use an example:

• It's an even better idea to show an intuitive example.
• Your example shows how your main idea works in a special case.
• Continue with more examples throughout the paper.
• After each theorem is proved -- or each algorithm shown -- explain their implications or intuition with an example.
• Your examples need to be really simple.
• They helps readers to understand your solution well.
• It'll be a greate idea to include a well-designed figure to illustrate your example.
• Includes as many figures as you can throughout the paper.

The flow of ideas:

• Just like the storyboard when making a movie, the flow of ideas needs to be carefully designed.
• Make sure that each paragraph contains one complete idea - split a paragraph that contains more than one idea, and merge short paragraphs that cover the same idea.
• Where is the section on related work?
  • Some prefer to place it after the introduction
    • Rationale: the section can be used to "warm up" the reader.
  • Some others prefer to place it before the conclusion
    • Rationale: After the introduction, the readers don't understand your main ideas yet, there's no point in talking about their differences from related work.
  • It depends on the design of your flow of ideas.
• Where do you write about experimental results?
  • Most papers collect all the experimental results and put them at the end.
  • But you don't have to.
  • Some negative or preliminary experimental results may be important for motivating the main idea in the paper.
  • Your flow of ideas can then be: "initial results - idea to improve - more results to show better performance"
  • You can even interleave experimental results with descriptions of your idea, if this provides the best flow.
• How do you allocate space across sections?
  • The short answer is: no one knows it better than you, because it depends on the flow of ideas.

General rules of thumb:

• Don't write a very long abstract (200 words), introduction (one page), related work (half a page), or concluding remarks (1-2 paragraphs)
• Throughout the paper, make it self-contained, but don't use a lot of space for unnecessary background.
• Keep the motivation short and concise.

1.4 The details

Use a git repository to manage your workflow.

Get repositories help you to track all histories and collaborate with others.

Place everything - source code, reference - into your git repository.

Use any of the public cloud services such as GitHub.

Eliminate typographical and grammatical mistakes.

First, eliminate all spelling mistakes by running your paper through a spell checker.

Use a UNIX command-line tool such as spell to check spelling - not Microsoft Word.

Then fix grammar and usage problems by proofreading.

Proofreading also helps you to fix the remaining spelling mistakes that a spell checker cannot catch.

You cannot rely on someone else - certainly not the reviewers - to proofread for you, it's your paper!

Use transitional words, phrases, and sentences

Use transitions across the boundary of sentences, paragraphs and sections.

Important for readers to follow your flow of ideas.

If you don't add transitons, readers will need to add them subocnsciously in their mind, anyway. You are asking readers to do the hard work!

Use correct English

• Keep punctuations marks inside the closing quotation mark.
• Don't use long sentences
  • Don't use long sentences with more than one comma in the middle of the sentence - and abuse "where", "in which", "whose", 'so that", "such that".
• Don't be too colloquial
  • Don't use words that are too informal and colloquial.
  • "a lot of" is more colloquial than "a large number of".
  • Instead of "big" use "substantial" or "large".
• Don't be too formal either
  • Overly formal words and phrases sometimes feel awkward.
  • "we endeavour to ascertain that..." - "We show that..."
  • "It can be ascribed to..." - "It is due to..."
  • "The overwhelming quantity of..." - "The exceedingly large number of..."
• Don't use words that are too emotional
• Countable vs. uncountable nouns
  • If a word is countable, when using its plural form, remember to use "a few", "a number of", "fewer". Instead of "less bits," use "fewer bits".
  • If not, do not invent its plural form (such as "performances," "advices," "equipments," "informations"),
  • and use "less" or "lower" rather than "fewer"
• Agreement of the verb with the subject.
• Watch out on common words and phrases.
  • It almost takes a lifetime to master the usage of common words, such as "with", "of", "for", "at", "against", "in", "on"
  • Or to master the large number of phrases in English "in other words" or "in another word"?
• Articles as determiners
  • The articles "a" / "an" (the indefinite article) and "the" (the definite article) are frequently used in correctly by new students
  • Plural nouns are typically used without an article:
    • "The source node receives acknowledgements" (not "the acknowledgments")
  • The indefinite is weaker than the definite article:
    • "a large portion of" (not "the large portion of")
  • But there's no need for "the" in section titles - instead of "The System Model," just say "System Model."
  • Articles can be tricky to use, but there are too many of them in paper - pay attention!

Good news: most English problems are not hard to fix - just proofread every sentence with plenty of time!

Typest your paper correctly and beautifully

1. Use LaTex, no matter what.
2. Draw figures using a vector-based application: Image-based drawing applications produce images that become fuzzy when zoomed in on a reader's iPad.
3. Proofread your bibliography and make it consistent: Use BibTex to typeset the bibliography in your paper. After downloading BibTex entries from the web, proofread to get them consistent. Keep a consistent style of abbreviating journal and conference titles throughout the bibliography.

Try your best to find out the venue where the paper was published in, rather than citing arxiv.org.

2 Writing good papers fast!

Writing good papers is hard. That's why you are advised to write slowly. In the good old days, academics can take years to write one research paper. We also have the "publish or perish" culture, where the number of papers is an indication of quality. I need to graduate - tell me how to write papers quickly.

http://faculty.hitsz.edu.cn/hubaotian


Know your deadline

At all times, always work towards a paer deadline.

Deadlines are all equal: It doesn't matter what kind of deadline it is -

• a conference deadline
• a deadline from a journal special issue
• a deadline you set up yourself for submitting a journal paper

1. You will have to make it no matter what happens.

Set your deadline realistically. Admit that you are not able to write a good paper in a month or two.

But a deadline six months later may not carry a lot of weight either - unless you are extremely disciplined.

2. Make it public knowledge

Tell as many peoples as you can when your deadline will be.

So that it feels like a public disgrace if you fail to meet the deadline. As a researcher, your sure wish to be seen as responsible and dependable.

You work around the clock to make sure that others who depend on you will have the peace of mind that the work will be done and done by the deadline.

3. Allocate your time well.

Design a rough timeline at the very beginning. Assign deadlines to each milestone in your timeline.

If necessary, ervise your timeline along the way. But think seriously why you missed your milestone deadlines. Don't procrastinate and delay all the work to the days before the deadline. It may be feasible, but it will be stressful and it degrades the quality of your work

4. Don't follow, lead!

You are the first author of the new paper, right? Then you are the leader, the boss, and the person who cares most about this work.

Start your team at the beginning of your project. Only invite trustworthy collaborators when building your team. Your collaborators include your advisors - get them to work for you. Get them to commit their time. Warn them of the tough work ahead along the way. Promise them an exciting outcome. Assign your collaborators to milestones - they are your "resources". Remind them about their milestone deadlines often. Persist if they forget about your requests. Cancel their "membership" in your team if they consistently fail. Have backup plans if they fail to deliver by the deadline.

Choose a problem with the right size

It must be feasible to be completed before the deadline.

Goal: make solid improvements over on paper, and one paper only.

Choose a paper that you enjoyed reading or even better, a paper with source code. If its source code is not on GitHub, ask the authors. If you don't have source code, estimate the amount of time to reproduce the work. If it may take a long time, give up and choose another paper.

Read the paper along with its source code. The source code contains secret ingredients in its "recipe". It helps you to understand the paper completely and deeply. And only with a complete and deep understanding can you create something new. And create something new quickly. To do it, you will have to a deadline in your timeline for creating something new.

A deadline forces you to think long and hard. Revise the source code and do a feasibility test for your idea. If its feasibility is promising, think about its theoretical properties - anything provably correct? Your little problem must fit into the scope of the conference you'll submit to.

Goal: get the paper accepted.

Many conferences have their favoured research topics.