how to write a greate research paper

综述类论文

http://222.199.222.10/cache/5/03/www.deeplearningindaba.com/e74e6f02f71f260e4ff2b3e72f44711d/research-paper-writing.pdf

7个建议

1. Don’t wait: write
2. Identify your key idea
3. Tell one story
4. Nail your contributions to the mast
5. Related work: later
6. Put your readers first
7. Listen to your readers

Framing research problems

1. Do you have a clear problem statement in the abstract?
2. It is clear from the paper?
3. Can you write a research statement for your paper in a single sentence?

If a reviewer cannot form such a sentence for your paper after reading just the abstract, then your paper is usually doomed.

The “one thing” is stated in the first two lines of the abstract 问题是什么，我们是怎么解决的。

write to be understood

For every line in your paper, ask questions about your reader’s mental model:
1. What does my reader understand up to this point?
2. What is my reader thinking at this point?
3. How will my next narrative change that?

keeping a flowing story line

Don’t confuse or frustrate your readers, by

• Switching context “mid way” / “mid flight”
• Using undefined notation
• Changing notation

notation

When a concept requires specific notation, I like to introduce the notation with the concept. As early as possible!
It helps shape your reader’s mental model, and minimizes later context switching

Be academically honest. Don’t oversell

High-level thoughts

1. Writing IS research. It is how we formulate, crystallize, and communicate our ideas. Make it a daily habit!
2. Good papers are written, great papers are re-written, so get the first draft done asap. Just do it. “Finish the paper 2 weeks before actual deadline. Get feedback. Rewrite.”
3. Good papers leave the reader with one solution to solving a specific problem; great papers leave
   the reader with new ideas for their own problems.
   Don’t leave it up to your reader, always ask yourself “what have I learned” and make that explicit.

Write to discover/understand (for yourself)

Be precise in what you are trying to do. Use simple language. If you can’t describe your idea in 2-3 simple sentences, maybe you don’t understand it that well yourself. Work at it until you can. Read Strunk & White. It is a timeless classic.
State your hypotheses. Make them falsifiable. It’s how science works.
I like to do a “blank slate” experiment once I have a first draft written (of a paragraph, a section, or a paper): I start reading what I wrote as if I was a new reader reading this for the first time, and I ask “why?” or “why should I care?” after every sentence. It forces you to be more explicit and get to the point.
Keep a daily “snippets” Google doc where you continually summarize your work, results, and ideas. It helps refine your thoughts.

write to get accepted

Reviewers are the unpaid, overworked, gate-keepers of science. Don’t waste their time.
Not all reviewers will be familiar with your work. It is up to you to bring your message across in the clearest way possible! Still, it’s a very noisy process.
Reviewers usually have less than 1h per paper, sometimes only 30min. They are basically trying to answer the question “How can I justify rejecting this?” Get to the point!
Do not write your personal journey. Science is a random walk, but we tell it like a shortest path.

Write to enlighten

Academic writing is not like writing prose. There are no set ups, no surprises,
and no punch lines. Doesn’t mean it has to be dry, though!
1. What you want to tell her;
2. Then tell her; and finally
3. Tell her what you told her
This hour-glass structure (general to specific to general) works very well at the level of paragraphs, sections, and papers.

My (ideal) process

1. Write a rough 2-4 sentence abstract first (what, why, how)
2. Write the Model description next. This is easy, it’s the idea you’re trying out.
3. Then write the Experimental section (ie get the results). Add your results tables, create your graphs.
4. Then write the Discussion & Conclusion sections (what did we learn from this?
5. Finally write the Introduction (expand #1 by framing the research question, and introducing relevant background work)
6. Write the Abstract last.

Low-level ideas

• Learn Latex and use Sharelatex or some other collaborative editing platform with revision control.
  Split different sections into different files (easier to track, can export experiments directly to latex tables, etc)
• Download the conference style sheet and use it from the beginning (start early!)
• Add colourized TODO notes (different colour for each author) in the document using \newcommand. This way you can easily remove them to generate a draft for
  submission.

claims

• Never make a claim that is not directly validated by a theorem, an experiment, or a reference.
• E.g. If you’re claiming that a model has vanishing gradients, calculate the norm of the gradients!.
• Make claims that are useful to tell the story. More claims is not always better.
• It’s important to write the paper first to know what claims you have to make, and what experiments / theory are needed to validate your claims.

Highlight problems and negative results

• People will run into them. Better to prepare them, and propose potential solutions.
• These are avenues for further work. Other readers will often figure out how to solve them, and your algorithm will be even better later.

Flow of the paper

• You have to convince the reader to keep reading at every paragraph. Do not assume that the reader wants to read your paper, or that they will read all of it.
• Before switching sections, always have the last paragraph of the previous one introduce it. More importantly, explain why the next section is needed.
• Only have theorems that improve your story.
• You made a claim that your algorithm approximates some loss function -> prove a theorem quantifying this approximation.