Handbook for PhD Students
This PhD Handbook serves a dual purpose: it describes the research methodology of our group and gives general advice to students, and it sets out the standards and processes that all students in the group are expected to strive for.
A paper with great science can be difficult to get published if the writing is not good. This includes good text structure and flow, sound arguments, correct use of grammar, no typos or informal writing, etc. Practice is key to achieving a good standard. The IAD offers courses for PhD students, including courses about academic writing.
- Online course: Writing in the Sciences
Structure and narrative: A good guide is to follow the problem-driven research questions. The introduction section can give summary answers to all four questions, while the related work section can give more details on why current methods fall short of solving the problem and why your method is different. The technical sections can then give a precise formal description of the problem and proposed method.
It is important to carefully think about the narrative of your paper - that is, how you will lay out and support your claims and arguments. There are many ways in which this can be done. Two general types of narratives include what I often call 'vertical' and 'horizontal' narratives. A vertical narrative proposes a novel algorithm and focuses on establishing new state-of-the-art performance achieved by the algorithm in some way. I call this narrative vertical because I imagine one algorithm and many results and analyses for that algorithm stacked below it. In contrast, a horizontal narrative may propose several methods to address a new problem and focusses on comparisons between these methods. I call this narrative horizontal because the aim is to propose a broader spectrum of possible solution methods for the problem and understand the differences. Examples of horizontal narratives include this and this paper. In practice, a horizontal narrative can sometimes be easier to pass by reviewers because the focus is more on tradeoff analyses between the proposed algorithms rather than establishing state-of-the-art performance against prior work. However, both narrative types still rely on a strong methodology and useful insights.
There are some general principles which should be followed:
- To maintain good reading flow, each sentence should logically build up to the next sentence.
- A useful rule of thumb is that a reader should be able to summarise the main point of every paragraph in one sentence.
- Keep it as simple as possible, and as complex as necessary. For every sentence you write, ask yourself: do I need this sentence? Read: Simple rules for concise scientific writing
- Use watertight logic. Anticipate a reviewer who will probe every statement you make.
Pre-writing form: To help you prepare for your writing, about two months before the paper deadline, fill out and send me your pre-writing form. Then, send me your first complete draft of the paper four weeks before the deadline to leave enough time for feedback and improvements.