Pitfalls of your first paper Shu Cai Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Why this report My first paper is rejected from ACL-IJCNLP Unlucky thing, but a good opportunity to learn from this experience I believe that successes could have many, many different reasons… but failures tend to have more clues I write this report to summarize the lessons I learned, and hope other people could avoid such potential errors

Outline Idea Experiments Writing Asking for comments

Idea There are various ways to get an idea… What I will emphasis here is an idea of your own You did NOT simply receive it from an advisor or a colleague… You propose your own idea when you read papers, think about your research, or you just “blurt out” the idea during discussion

Possible flaws of the idea Too idealistic (sounds reasonable but hard, even impossible to implement) Low significance (Similar problem has already been tackled in better ways, or it will be of interest to few people Wrong understanding (You may misunderstand the problem you want to solve)

And how to avoid these traps … Analysis: see if this idea is feasible (Complexity analysis on time and space; Resource checking) Comparison: read related work and compare this idea to others, try to find not only advantages but also disadvantages Discussion: ask for experienced people’s advice, discuss your idea with them

Polish your idea Since it is your first paper, the idea might be coarse Polish it to shine! Early optimization could save a lot of time (see software engineering books for proofs) Think about details of your idea Try to find extensions of your idea But do NOT expect it to be perfect

Be serious about your idea Don’t be afraid of rejection Rejection is better early than late! The idea might be applicable in other areas Think about your readers: what do you expect them to get from your idea?

Experiments After you make sure that your idea is valuable (and feasible), you need to do experiments to prove it. Important but intricate process

Experiments: possible pitfalls “Stuck” in the middle Results are not as expected Time is not enough

Possible solutions Divide your implementation into phases Check at the end of each phase whether you have implemented as you thought Explore why you did not obtain the desirable results at each phase Allocate time for thinking, redesigning, and handling accidental interrupts.

A summary of Experiments A way to test our ideas Carefully design your experiments Experiments should support your ideas Experiments could be a time-consuming process, so allocate enough time! Manage your time and energy!

Writing Deadline is approaching…. You should begin writing your first paper! Exciting? But Challenging also!

Pitfalls of writing your first paper Write it like a technical report Describe every detail of your implementation Not enough time

Take precautions Follow a clear skeleton Delete unnecessary details Allocate enough time

Revising your paper Step by step, Section by Section Ask for comments Remember, your ultimate aim is present the readers with your work. Often, you need to persuade them.

Asking for comments DO NOT only ask your advisor for comments Ask someone in your research area, but do not know about your research to give you advice They are “pseudo-reviewers” Ask for experience people which conference/journal you should submit to

Pitfalls after submission Transfer to another project/ research quickly

What should be done after submission Arrange your files (experiments, papers), make them easy to be found You will soon go back to these files after you get the result (whether acceptance or rejection)

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