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Presenting Your Research: Papers, Presentations, and People

Presenting Your Research: Papers, Presentations, and People. Marie desJardins ( mariedj@cs.umbc.edu ) CMSC 691B April 24, 2006. Thanks to Rob Holte for permission to use some slides. Research Isn’t Just Research. Who cares what you do, if you never tell them?

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Presenting Your Research: Papers, Presentations, and People

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  1. Presenting Your Research:Papers, Presentations, and People Marie desJardins (mariedj@cs.umbc.edu) CMSC 691B April 24, 2006 Thanks to Rob Holte for permission to use some slides

  2. Research Isn’t Just Research • Who cares what you do, if you never tell them? • You’ll need to present your ideas in various forms and venues: • PEOPLE: Networking with colleagues at your institution and elsewhere • PAPERS: Writing and submitting papers to workshops, conferences, and journals • PRESENTATIONS: Giving talks at workshops, conferences, and other institutions • (You should also put together a website that highlights your interests and research activities) • …oh, and these things also provide useful experience for job interviews, not to mention valuable job skills… Marie desJardins -- Presenting Your Research

  3. Paper Writing: Strategies • First, decide where you plan to submit the paper • You may not finish in time, but having a deadline is always helpful • Two to four months away is a good planning horizon • Next, decide what you will say • What are the key ideas? Have you developed them yet? • What are the key results? Have you designed and run the experiments yet? Have you analyzed the data? • What is the key related work? Have you read the relevant background material? Can you give a good summary of it? • Now get started on the work you need to do to fill in the missing holes! • Write early and often: You can (and should)write in parallel with finishing the work! Marie desJardins -- Presenting Your Research

  4. Paper Writing: Design • Abstract –summarizes the research contributions, not the paper (i.e., it shouldn’t be an outline of the paper) • Introduction/motivation – what you’ve done and why the reader should care, plus an outline of the paper • Technical sections – one or more sections summarizing the research ideas you’ve developed • Experiments/results/analysis – one or more sections presenting experimental results and/or supporting proofs • Future work – summary of where you’re headed next and open questions still to be answered • Related work – sometimes comes after introduction, sometimes before conclusions (depends to some extent on whether you’re building on previous research, or dismissing it as irrelevant) • Conclusions – reminder of what you’ve said and why it’s important Marie desJardins -- Presenting Your Research

  5. Paper Writing: Tactics • Top-down design (outline) is very helpful • Bulleted lists can help you get past writer’s block • Unless you’re a really talented/experienced writer, you should use these tools before you start writing prose • Neatness counts! Check spelling, grammar, consistency of fonts and notation before showing it to anyone for review • If they’re concentrating on your typos, they might miss what’s interesting about the content. (More about the reviewer’s perspective later...) • Leave time for reviews! • Fellow students, collaborators, advisors, … • A paper is only done when it’s submitted... and usually not even then. Marie desJardins -- Presenting Your Research

  6. Knowing Your Audience:A Reviewer’s Perspective • First, I read the title: is it in my area? (self-selection) • Next, I read the abstract: is it interesting? (self-selection) • Next, I skim the introduction and form my opinion about the paper • Next, I read the rest of the paperlooking for evidence to support my view •  By the time I get to Section 2, I already have a very strong opinion about whether to accept or reject. • Your job is to give me the evidence I need in the title and abstract to select your paper for review, and in the introduction to result in the right opinion! Marie desJardins -- Presenting Your Research

  7. Good Reviews Are... • Polite • Fair • Concise • Clear • Constructive • Specific • Well-documented • Represent the scientific community • ... but you get what you get! • Bad, unfair review that missed the point? Fix your paper anyway! Marie desJardins -- Presenting Your Research

  8. Rejected!!  Now What? • Fix the paper! • Read the reviews, rail and complain, berate the reviewer • Calm down • Read them again with an open mind • Do more experiments, revise the paper, … • Go back to the reviews again – have you addressed all the points? • Have people read the revision critically • Do more experiments, revise the paper, … • Repeat until the next deadline  Marie desJardins -- Presenting Your Research

  9. Some Useful Resources Any Questions? • Some useful resources: • Writing: • Lynn DuPre, Bugs in Writing • Strunk & White, Elements of Style • Giving talks: • Mark Hill, “Oral presentation advice” • Patrick Winston, “Some lecturing heuristics” • Simon L. Peyton Jones et al., “How to give a good research talk” • Dave Patterson, “How to have a bad career in research/academia” • These slides: • http://www.cs.umbc.edu/~mariedj/talks/presenting-research-dc-jul05.ppt Marie desJardins -- Presenting Your Research

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