Writing a scientific paper

Maxine EskenaziMeeting 1 - Overall Structure and Content of a Paper

IMPORTANT NOTE We will talk about conference papers, not journal

papers WE WILL USE PUBLISHED PAPERS IN THIS COURSE AS

EXAMPLES NEVER NEVER NEVER COPY THE CONTENTS OF A

PUBLISHED PAPER NEVER NEVER NEVER REWORD THE CONTENTS OF

A PUBLISHED PAPER If you want to cite someone for background

Cite the main idea in less than a sentence then “(Name et al, 2008)” Or “Name et al (2008) states that …”

Session 1 – the paper, overall

What is its goal? Why is it interesting? What is in it?/What isn’t in it? Where are you giving it? What is its structure?

What’s in a paper? – THE GOAL What is the goal of the paper? How to find the goal:

Take a step back Go from specific to more general

What is your technique? – How does that fit into a bigger picture?

Why did you do this? How does this fit in the project that pays you? Imagine you were from another lab, reading

this… What do you want to prove? What do you want folks to take away? What don’t you want folks to take away?

Why is it interesting? Important?

Is this new work? Does this extend something? Does this use a new technique from

another field? Can it be generalized to something else? Can it be replicated? Can you think of 2 other labs who would be

interested in these results – would use them, replicate them, build on them?

Contents: what’s in it, what’s not in it? Make the paper general enough to be relevant to

many readers Choose only one topic, not many Completely explore the topic you have chosen

Discuss things you thought about but could not do Compare your work to similar work by others.

Credit others who have published on it – not just those in your lab

Respect the page limit! Respect the formatting! Get a native speaker to read it over

Where are you giving it? Is this a conference, a workshop, etc? Who will be there?

Experts in the field? Grad students only? Folks from other fields

Choose the venue that best matches its content

OR – make the paper match the venue

What is the structure of a paper?

What is the structure of a paper?

What is the structure of a paper?

What is the structure of a paper?

What is the structure of a paper? Title, authors, affiliation Abstract Introduction Background What you did that is innovative How you proved it worked – study/assessment Presentation of results Discussion of results Conclusions Acknowledgements References

Title, Authors, Affiliation Who did the work? Who advised? Who had the idea? Who consulted? Who helped? Be inclusive

If there was a contribution from someone, either: Make them a coauthor OR thank them in the acknowledgements Best: ask them what they are comfortable with

Ordering the authors… Different faculty have different ordering… First author will be use when article is cited…

Our affiliation is the Language Technologies Institute. You must use this. You can add School of Computer Science.

Assignment for next time

For the next paper you plan to write (or a paper you recently wrote): What is the goal and the scope of the

paper? Be prepared to defend it!

Why will others be interested in your paper?

What is the novelty? Why is it appropriate for the venue?