COMP80142 Academic Writing and Impact Studies

Jon Shapiro and Bijan Parsia 2018 – 2019

[ Resources ][ Schedule ][Group assignment ]

Please note: This page is currently under construction and some details are to be confirmed. Thus please check this page regularly during the next days/weeks.

Announcements

Welcome to COMP80142: Academic Writing and Impact Studies

Course description

Follow this link for the course unit description and syllabus.

Link to Syllabus

Lecturers

Locations and times

Location: Monday, 10–11, Kilburn G41.

Location: Tuesdays, 10–11, Kilburn G41.

Please see below for the session schedule and key dates as well as the group assignment.

Assessment

100% coursework, 0% exam

Session schedule and key dates 2018–2019

notes.html

Academic Writing

The reading list isn’t complete.

Schedule

Week	Class	Lecture	Reading	Assignment
1	Mon	Intro (Jon)	How to Write a Good Paper in Computer Science	Find people in school and their publications
1	Tue	The Basics (Bijan)	Computing as a discipline, How to not mess up your bibliographies with Bibtex, MCR referencing guide	(A1) Create Bibtex file of pubs by in school people
2	Mon	How to Skim/Review a Paper (Jon)	Experimental Evaluation in Computer Science: A Quantitative Study	(A1 due) Extract/manipulate/complete data
2	Tue	Impact and Errors (Bijan)	Spreadsheet Errors: What We Know. What We Think We Can Do., Information Technology Uses in Research: Best Practices and Recommendations,Why Most Published Research Findings Are False	(A2) Tiered venues
3	Mon	Ethics etc. (Jon)	Empirical evaluation in Computer Science research published by ACM	(A2 due)
3	Tue	Paper Process (Bijan)	An Efficiency Comparison of Document Preparation Systems Used in Academic Research and Development, Information Technology Uses in Research: Best Practices and Recommendations	(A3) Tichy coding
4	Mon	Presenting Math/Algos (Jon)		(A3 due)
4	Tue	Presenting Empricial Results (Bijan)	Reread How to Write a Good Paper in Computer Science	(A4) Paper Draft
5	Mon	Theses and EOY Reports (Bijan)	PGR handbook	(A4 due) Review A4s
5	Tue	Wrap up (Jon)		Review A4s

(A5) Final draft submitted with data.

Assignments

Watch this space.

Slides

Mo 28/1 - Fri 1/2 Workshop.
Feb 4 Welcome: Introduction and Overview (JLS) [Slides]
Feb 5
Feb 11 Skimming and reviewing papers (JLS) [Slides]. [Practice papers for skimming.][ Reference: "How to read a paper", S. Keshav. PDF]
Feb 18 Ethics (JLS) [Slides]

Group assignment

The groups have been assigned as yet.

Group         Name

Resources

Assigned reading:

Note: this is not complete as of 3 February, 2019

Andonie, R., & Dzitac, I. (2010). "How to Write a Good Paper in Computer Science and How Will It Be Measured by ISI Web of Knowledge" . Int. J. of Computers, Communications & Control, V(4), 432-446.
D. E. Comer, David Gries, Michael C. Mulder, Allen Tucker, A. Joe Turner, Paul R. Young. (1989). "Computing as a discipline". Commun. ACM 32, 1 (January 1989), 9-23. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/63238.63239.
"How to not mess up your bibliographies with Bibtex", The Serial Mentor Blog, Claus Wilke, Oct 2, 2015.
"Avoiding the official style", The Serial Mentor Blog, Claus Wilke, Aug 26, 2015.
"The University of Manchester Referencing Guide".
Tichy, Walter F; Lukowicz, Paul; Prechelt, Lutz; Heinz, Ernst A, (1995)"Experimental Evaluation in Computer Science: A Quantitative Study", J. SYSTEMS SOFTWARE 199.5; 28:9-18, 1995.
Panko, Raymond R (2000), "What We Know; What We Think Spreadsheet Errors: What We Know. What We Think We Can Do", Proceedings of the Spreadsheet Risk Symposium European Spreadsheet Risks Interest Group (EuSpRIG), Greenwich, England, July 17-18, 2000
Jacques Wainer, Claudia G.Novoa Barsottini, Danilo Lacerda, Leandro Rodrigues Magalhaes de Marco (2009),"Empirical evaluation in Computer Science research published by ACM", Information and Software Technology, Volume 51, Issue 6, Pages 1081-1085, June 2009.
Mia Kamayani and Dan Mugisidi (2017), "INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY USES IN RESEARCH: BEST PRACTICES AND RECOMMENDATIONS", Proceedings, 2nd International Multidisciplinary Conference 2016 pages 377-384.
University of Manchester Computer Science PGR Handbooks 2018-19.

Essential:

Domain specific:

Writing for computer science, Justin Zobel (2004) Springer-Verlag New York Incorporated.
Handbook of writing for the mathematical sciences, Nicholas J. Higham, (1998) SIAM. Also available as an ebook through Manchester University Library (only available on site or through VPN).
Mathematical Writing, Donald E. Knuth, Tracy L. Larrabee, and Paul M. Roberts, 1989. Also available as a PDF, and an on-line video course.

Examples of very well-written computer science papers

These are on the School wiki. Feel free to add examples which you find.

Search and citation search tools

Also on School wiki. Feel free to add others that you find useful.

Useful:

Of Further Interest:

Bertrand Russell: How I Write

Concerning Research and Surviving a PhD

Selecting one paper on which to anchor your research
J. Knowles: The PhD Sanity Test (updated 17 March, 2015)

Journal Format Theses

A journal format thesis presents its content in the form of a collection of units suitable for publication in a peer-reviewed journal or conference. The 'papers' do not have to be published or even submitted. These were previously called "alternative format theses".

"Journal Format Theses - Guiding Principles for Students and Staff" University of Manchester document
Some recent examples in Computer Science
- Thomas Madl: " Bayesian mechanisms in spatial cognition: Towards real-world capable computational cognitive models of spatial memory" (2015).

PhD Course Unit Material
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