Doing Research andWriting a Paper

Objective• the main metric of a contribution of a researcher is the quality (and quantity)

of his/her research papers. – essentially all effort is directed towards producing best quality research

(as measured by papers): teaching and directing students, getting grant money (administration may think otherwise), discussion with colleagues

• if you think your advisor is mentoring you because he/she likes you. Think again

– to ensure quality of contribution, the submissions are peer-reviewed. Conference submissions have built-in acceptance (rejection) rate. Better ones have it under 30%. Hence, the submission mechanism is self-tightening: researchers are forced to write ever higher quality submissions.

• You need to learn to do research, write papers and publish

Selecting an Advisor• the starting step of your research career. Vitally important. You better be

lucky than good• if you are planning to go into industry – select somebody who is doing

applied research• if you plan to go into academia – select somebody who is the most

productive. Area of research matters little (well, it matters a bit). You’d be surprised what you’ll grow to like

• how to get to know the advisor. Do your research. Take his/her class. Note, the best instructor may not be the best researcher. Advisor’s grad students are excellent source of insider info

• how to make the advisor select you: work hard in class, get the best results, don’t flatter or be obsequious – good researchers do not care

• you can change advisor. Advisors usually do not care as much as you think. Difficult choice, better not do it more than once.

Working with Advisor• beginning objective: to be put on a project leading to paper

– how to recognize: it is an idea, usually half-developed that is novel and interesting. The advisor usually tells you right away and gets excited.

• probably won’t happen immediately. Students are more common than good projects

• expect to be put on grunt work: reading tons of papers, “performance evaluation” coding, researching areas unfamiliar to advisor (avoid the latter)

• do not be afraid of tedious work, all researchers need to learn to do it. Work hard, come up with ideas, code fast. Do not mind that the advisor is not paying you a lot of attention. You are being watched.– a lot depends on the advisor’s style. You may have to work on several

projects at once.• if you think your time is being wasted (you are too bright/handsome for grunt

work), think again – advisor’s time is a lot more valuable• good students are the advisor’s most precious resource – they make the

advisor more productive. Become one.– most students are not.

Learning from Advisor• between you and your advisor, he/she is the only one who knows how to do

research (oh and the advisor knows it, sometimes too much). Learn from your advisor.

• your advisor is the person who forms you as a researcher. Probably the last significant influence on you. Value it.

• how long does it take to learn to do research? When you are ready, you graduate. Rule of thumb: when you realize you are smarter/better than your advisor– MS students do not lean much– PhD students – about three papers worth. Rule of thumb: first paper is

written mostly by advisor, second – about equal, third – you write it, advisor adds his/her name: you are paying back advisor’s investment in time. Be proud you got to this stage, most never do)

• do not be afraid to contradict, come up with your own ideas and otherwise argue with advisor. In fact, it is part of the fun of doing research. However, in the end, do what your advisor tells you.

Writing Papers with Advisor• you think the idea is great, and the result is good, should not we be writing a paper

already? Not until advisor says so: advisor needs to write a high-quality, not mediocre paper.

• rule of thumb: 50% of the quality if the paper is presentation• I am an ex-literature major and the advisor cannot spell pusillanimous. How dare he

correct my English? There is more to presentation than just pretty words• Why are we spending so much time on the introduction? Can‘t they guess, how

important my research is? If intro is muddled, they won’t even get any further• Why won’t fancy greek/hebrew letters do for notation? Doesn’t the advisor know how

hard it is to change once I wrote the paper? Messy notation makes the paper unreadable.

• Does the advisor have to hand-check every proof I wrote? How dare he/she find errors in them? Anyhow, it’s perfect, why does he tell me to simplify/rewrite? Complex proofs are a sign of bad quality paper.

• Why do I have to explain this bump in the graph or redo the experiment? This bump adds character. No it does not

• Who reads these conclusions anyway? Good conclusions are read• Why does it feel like I wrote the paper but it is my advisor who did all the work? You

are in luck. That’s the best process. Hopefully, you’d learned

Selecting Venue

• Conferences – bread and butter. • Journals – mature research, publication round time 1-3 years. You are lucky if

you see it in print before you graduate