A 60 minute lecture on how to write a great research paper by Prof. Simon Peyton Jones.

What I Learned

  • Once you have an idea, start writing right away
  • Identify what your contributions will be at the beginning of the writing process. This list can be updated as you go
  • Be engaging and grab the reader in
  • Save related works for the end
  • Use plenty of examples as evidence
  • The majority of the paper should be the details (results/analysis)
  • A reviewer should come away knowing exactly what the 1 main idea/contribution was
  • Give credit instead of tearing down other similar works and identify your weaknesses in the paper
  • Always listen carefully to criticisms
  • Have 1-2 people read each draft of your paper, being sure to have them tell you where they got lost

As a researcher, either you won’t understand something and you will feel stupid and like a worm, or you will understand something and think it’s too trivial and hence still feel like a worm; it turns out that the life of a Data Scientist is quite depressing.