Paper Writing Resources

This article presents some basic principles and best practices for producing publications. This is different from the technicality of writing a paper with a modern editor, which you can find here. Almost every paper will have the following section, in order:

• Abstract
• Introduction
• Literature Review
• Methodology
• Results
• Conclusion

This article presents the recommended order of writing. Writing your dissertation or thesis follows the same guidelines. You can learn more about it in this article.

Literature Review

It is useful to first look into literature as it will inform you on what is done in the field and what needs to be done. This way, you will know what value your paper adds. Be sure to include a broad set of works from at least 10 years prior to the year of your publication submission, ideally from different areas/inter-discipline (e.g., computer science, information science, social sciences, etc.). For each publication that you present here, write a few sentences about the what, why and how of their work. End this section with how your work either builds upon these previous works in some way or overcomes their limitations. If your literature review should be broken down by sub-sections (e.g., if there are definitive differences in topics), then do so as needed. Be sure to only use references that truly are integral to your work, e.g., lend information to the overall background of your work.

To find papers, usual research engines will work, with google scholar being the most famous. Some websites will facilitate the rest of the steps and also share useable code. Others provide advanced tools such as networking visualizations of papers.

Methodology

Write at least three sentences introducing the next discussion components, which are the sections of the methodology used. If you don’t have multiple sections in your methodology, then just write a paragraph here summing it up nicely.

Data Collection and Processing

Write about how the data was collected and processed. Use this as a subsection under “Methodology” if this steps needs a lot of explaining. If it doesn’t need a lot of explaining, then simply write this section within the main “Methodology” section above. Be sure to cite the software tools used.

Model/Algorithm

Explain the model and the calculation of its metrics. This is a subsection of the Methodology section. If your work did not present a novel model, then simply write about what you did (model or calculations used) within the main “Methodology” section above.

Results

Write at least three sentences to introduce the analysis steps and their results. Then use the subsections below to expound upon each one. Put as many analysis subsections as needed below. Be sure to cite the software tools used.

In this section, discuss your results, typically in figure or table form, and ensure that each figure/table is numbered appropriately and has a comprehensive caption.

Conclusion

Write (in a reiterative way) about the overall conclusions of your work. Then write about your plans and/or ideas for future work. Reiterate one or two sentences about how this work is a valuable contribution to the discourse/how it is novel and how it either builds upon previous work in some way or overcomes limitations of previous work. (Don’t just copy and paste from previous sections; rewrite them instead to ensure that they are separate sentences that can stand on their own to connote the message).

Introduction

Now that you know the structure, content, and findings of your paper, synthetize that information in the introduction. This section gives an overview of what to expect in the paper, as well as some basic context. It should include: the what (main research objective), why (more about the motivation), and how (brief, two-to-three sentences about the sub-research objectives and the methodology used to meet them). End this section with a sentence that says something like, “The remainder of this paper is presented as follows: “[and list the sections in order in the form of complete sentences].

Abstract

The abstract is a further synthesis exercise. It should present the main motivation and contributions of your work in a very short format, typically under 250 words. Write a few sentences about the background/what the paper is and the motivation for doing it. Then write a few sentences about the methods used. Then write a few sentences about the results. Then write a few sentences about the conclusions. Also include here one or two sentences about how this work is a valuable contribution to the discourse/how it is novel and how it either builds upon previous work in some way or overcomes limitations of previous work.

Other Sections – References

Number and list your references in the order that you presented them in the above sections. Before you submit your paper, ensure that each reference in this list was properly cited within-text above. If it wasn’t then either insert it somewhere above (if it is indeed a vital reference), or delete it from this list. Ensure that this list of references is formatted according to the official instructions of your target publication. If you are using Overleaf or any editor supporting BibTex bibligraphy management, this will be handled automatically.

Other Sections – Acknowledgements

Write this section according to your advisor. Some publications have specific instructions for where this section should be placed (e.g., some say at the end, some say at the beginning), so determine the proper placing and execution. Also be aware of publications using the “Acknowledgements” or “Acknowledgments” spelling.