Scientific / Research Paper Writing

notes_paperWriting.md

Some personal thoughts about writing scientific papers

1. Basic Requirements: Stick to the topic, maintain coherence, ensure consistency, and present clearly and neatly.

2. First, check the requirements of the intended submission venue:

   • Deadline, Abstract Deadline
   • Whether authors can be modified after the Abstract Deadline, and if the author list can be changed
   • Word count/page limit
   • LaTeX template/Word format
   • Whether it is anonymous

3. Before writing, clarify the core selling point of the paper:

   • A good paper should have one core (major) selling point; multiple selling points may indicate insufficient summarization or lack of significance in each point.
   • A strong core selling point can overshadow minor flaws; a weak core selling point makes even advantages seem trivial.
   • Design the title around the core selling point to highlight it.

4. Before writing, plan the overall structure around the core selling point:

   • All structural arrangements should revolve around the core selling point.
   • Emphasize aspects related to the core selling point, covering background, problems solved, macro ideas, details, qualitative and quantitative analysis, theoretical proofs, etc. Be as solid as possible.
   • Combine related work and background to explain the importance of the core selling point.
   • Detail the methods related to the core selling point.
   • Support the core selling point.
   • Omit irrelevant content; every extra sentence may invite questions.

5. Writing, like speaking, requires context:

   • Ensure the reviewer understands the context; introduce it if necessary, especially if your work is based on a specific paper.
   • Different contexts may require different expressions for the same idea.
   • Among three reviewers, one may know more about your topic than you, while another may know less.

6. Maintain consistency:

   • Consistent symbols
   • Consistent expressions
   • Consistency in all aspects

7. When writing a paper, engage deeply and think from multiple perspectives. Aim to:

   • Justify your writing choices to advisors, considering potential risks.
   • Acknowledge better alternatives but explain constraints.
   • Reach a stage where collaborators have minimal major suggestions.

8. Avoid taking risky shortcuts; resolve issues before submission if possible.

9. Use Overleaf for collaborative writing; share LaTeX files with relevant content and a clean structure.

10. Check grammar with tools like Grammarly before sharing with collaborators to avoid basic errors.

11. If using ChatGPT for polishing, check for plagiarism to avoid academic misconduct.

12. When exceeding page limits, first check for lines with only one or two words and adjust indentation.

13. Fix LaTeX syntax errors; ensure the document compiles on all platforms.

14. Spell out abbreviations the first time they appear, capitalizing the first letter, e.g., Recurrent Neural Network (RNN).

15. Be precise and rigorous; carefully consider word choices to avoid reviewer scrutiny.

16. Stay focused:

    • Write around the core selling point, with one main idea per paragraph.
    • Avoid irrelevant content.

17. Use a clear total-division structure with coherence.

18. Explain every design or choice, even if experimentally derived; provide reasonable justification or note:

    • The topic is well-known to reviewers.
    • Space constraints required omitting details, which are in the appendix.
    • No justification could be found; prepare for reviewer questions.

19. Consider if justifications might be questioned by reviewers.

20. Among three reviewers, one may be a novice, and one may be an expert; think from different reviewer perspectives.

21. Less is more; omissions can be addressed later, but poor writing may face severe criticism.

22. Similar experimental content can be reorganized with different entry points and summaries to continuously improve the core selling point.

23. Vocabulary diversity: Use accurate, advanced, and varied words.

24. Figures and tables: Ensure clear captions and descriptions; aim for reviewers to understand the paper by just viewing the figures and tables.

25. Provide simple, direct explanations for formulas so readers can understand them without much thought.

26. Conclusion: Include future work.

27. Carefully check grammar, symbols, subscripts, typos, etc.; consider having someone else review them. Low-level errors can significantly lower reviewers' impressions, turning borderline cases into weak rejections.

28. Have friends or roommates not in your field review the paper; any confusion indicates areas for improvement.

29. When using LaTeX, prefer Google's default bibliography style for collaboration to avoid duplicate references.

30. Decide whether to use a total-division or progressive structure.