Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Organization
Scientific papers follow a standard structure that allows readers to quickly dis-
cover the main results, and then, if interested, to examine the supporting evidence.
Many readers accept or reject conclusions based on a quick scan, not having time
to read all the papers they see. A well-structured write-up accommodates this
behaviour by having important statements as near the beginning as possible. You
need to:
Describe the work in the context of accepted scientific knowledge.
State the idea that is being investigated, often as a theory or hypothesis.
Explain what is new about the idea, what is being evaluated, or what contribution
the paper is making.
Justify the theory, by methods such as proof or experiment.
Theses, journal articles, and conference papers have much the same organization
when viewed in outline. There are distinctions in emphasis rather than in specific
detail. For a thesis, for example, the literature review may be expected to include
a historical discussion outlining the development of the key ideas. There is also an
expectation that a thesis is a completed, rounded piece of work—a consolidation
of the achievements of a research program as well as a report on specific scientific
results. Nonetheless, these forms of write-up have similar structure.
A typical write-up has most of the following components:
Title and Author
Papers beginwith their title and information about authors including name, affiliation,
and address. The convention in computer science is to not give your position, title, or
qualifications; but whether you give your name as A. B. Cee, Ae Cee, Ae B. Cee, or
whatever, is a personal decision. Use the same style for your name on all your papers,
so that they are indexed together. Include a durable email address or Web address.
Also include a date. Take the trouble to type in the date rather than using “today”
facilities that print the date on which the document was last processed, or later you
may not be able to tell when the document was completed.
The front matter of a paper may also include other elements. One is acknowl-
Another element is a collection of search terms, keywords, or key phrases—additional
terminology that can be used to describe the topic of the paper. Sometimes these
keywords must be selected from a specific list. In other cases, the conventions for
choosing such terms are not always clear, but in general it is unhelpful to use words
that, for example, are a description of the experimental methodology: don't write
“timing experiments”, for example. Use words that concern the paper's principal
themes.
