This document provides guidance on writing and presenting a paper for a BPM conference. It discusses finding a good topic by ensuring it addresses an interesting problem and makes an original contribution. It also covers positioning the work by using an "AIDA" structure in the introduction to grab attention, induce desire, provoke intention, and define action. The document advises evaluating the paper's contribution based on standards from literature in software engineering and information systems. Finally, it offers tips for clearly writing and structuring the paper according to the conference template to maximize readers and citations.

1. How to write a BPM Conference paper?
Jan Mendling and Hajo A. Reijers

2. The presenters
Dumas et al. 2013

5. Agenda
1. How to find a good topic? by Hajo
2. How to position the work? by Jan
3. How to evaluate the contribution? by Jan
4. How to present and write? by Hajo

6. How to find a good topic?
Hajo Reijers

7. Opportunities:
• Setting of cooperative work
Limitations:
• Size
• Review process
IT Artefact?

9. Not an effective strategy

10. Sorting out paper ideas
 “Round” story
 Fresh approach to
identified problem
 A fresh problem with a
not-so-bad solution
 A structured literature
review
 The theory of everything
 A (purely) conceptual
story
 A marginal improvement
More promising Less promising

11. Weighing your chances..
Originality
Technical
quality
Contribution Clarity
Add up

12. A check-list for your topic
 Does it match an interesting problem?
 Do you know the related work?
 Do you have a contribution?
 Can you show for it?
 Can you explain all this in 16 pages, LNCS-style?

13. How to position the work?
Jan Mendling

14. AIDA is everywhere

15. AIDA in Marketing
Wikipedia 2015

16. Four-Paragraph-Intro (FPI)

17. Paragraph 1
 Create Attention for Topic:
 Explain context of study
 Refer to taxonomy if available

18. Paragraph 2
 Explain Desire to Know:
 Explain focus of study
 Clarify research gap

19. Paragraph 3
 Provoke Intention to Read:
 Explain contribution
 Clarify relevance of results

20. Paragraph 4
 Define Action:
 Guide reading
 Describe steps of the argument

21. Example from BPM 2015 – P1
Bala et al. 2015

22. Example from BPM 2015 – P2
Bala et al. 2015

23. Example from BPM 2015 – P3
Bala et al. 2015

24. Example from BPM 2015 – P4
Bala et al. 2015

25. How to evaluate the contribution?
Jan Mendling

26. What is the Claim?
Gregor, Hevner 2013

27. Improvement:
Compare with best Alternatives
Gregor, Hevner 2013

28. Exaptation:
Show that it works
Gregor, Hevner 2013

29. Invention:
Start a Business
Gregor, Hevner 2013

30. Discussion on State of the Field
Formalisms
Design
Behaviour
mathematical formulae,
algorithms,
lemmata,
logical proofs

31. Discussion on State of the Field
Formalisms
Design
Behaviour
socio-technical
phenomena
grounded in social,
psychological or
cognitive theory.
Hypotheses deducted and
tested using forms of
empirical inquiry.

32. How to evaluate
Gauch 2003

33. Findings on State of the Field
Behaviour
1. Experiment Standards from
Empirical Software
Engineering (ESE)
2. Survey Standards from
Information Systems (IS)
3. Case Study Standards from
IS and ESE
4. Standards on Systematic
Literature Reviews from
Software Engineering
Recker, Mendling 2015

34. Discussion on State of the Field
Formalisms
Design
Behaviour
New ways of solving socio-technical
problems,
formulating means-ends relationship,
application demonstrated in order to
support that certain end is achieved
in a better way.

35. Hypotheses and Measurement
Sanders 2009

36. How to present and write?
Hajo Reijers

37. How to write?
The primary goals of a scientific paper are:
 To maximize the number of readers
 To minimize the time to read it
 To maximize the fraction of satisfied readers
 To maximize the number of citations the paper will get
Therefore:
 Make life easy and pleasant for your reader
Lagendijk: Survival Guide for Scientists. Amsterdam University Press, 2008.
37Lagendijk 2008

38. The reviewer’s perspective

39. General Do‘s and Don‘ts
 Paragraphs:
A paragraph containing more than 10 sentences is too
long, 2 sentences too short
 Spaghetti:
Do not continuously refer to earlier pages
 Structure:
Do not surprise reader with original structure
 Length of Sentences:
Try to keep sentences short. Replace dependent
clause (which, that) with sentence.
39Lagendijk 2008

40. General Do‘s and Don‘ts II
 Abstract:
Write the abstract last
 Introduction:
Use the intro to describe the field, your specific
question and the outline
 Conclusion:
A conclusion is not a summary. Sum up what you have
found, not what you have done.
 References:
Citing papers that are not English is futile
40Lagendijk 2008

41. General Do‘s and Don‘ts III
 Implications:
Do not use „this means“, rather „this observation
implies“
 That and which:
If you can put a comma before that, it must be which
 Absolute statements:
Always relate to units
 Highlighting:
no exclamation mark, use italic
 Abbreviations:
Do not introduce new abbreviations
41Lagendijk 2008

42. Stick strickly to the template
 LNCS Templates and Instructions:
http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-7-72376-0
 Templates for
 Word
 Latex
 FrameMaker
 Ignore at your peril:
 Convey that you do not really care
 Convey that you are a lousy planner
 Convey that the paper is sent out
everywhere

43. On writing
“Almost without exception,
good writers read widely
and frequently.
By osmosis, they learn from
the reading an incalcuble
amount about vocabulary,
spelling, punctuation, style,
rhythm, tone, and other
crucial writing matters.”

44. Final words
 Keep on sending in your good work
 There is an element of randomness
 Nonetheless, you can improve your chances:
 Select a good topic
 Position your work well
 Evaluate, evaluate, evaluate (substantiate your claims)
 Write clearly

45. References
 Bala, S., Cabanillas, C., Mendling, J., Rogge-Solti, A., Polleres, A. (2015): Mining
Project-Oriented Business Processes. BPM 2015: pp.425-440.
 Dumas, M., La Rosa, M., Mendling, J., Reijers, H.A. (2013): Fundamentals of
Business Process Management. Springer-Verlag.
 Gauch, H.G. (2002): The Scientific Method in Practice. Cambridge University Press.
 Gregor, S., Hevner, A. (2013): Positioning and Presenting Design Science Research
for Maximum Impact, MIS Quarterly 37(2), pp.337-355.
 Lagendijk, A. (2008): Survival Guide for Scientists: Writing-Presentation-E-mail.
Amsterdam University Press.
 Recker, J., Mendling, J. (2015): The State-of-the-Art of Business Process
Management Research as Published in the BPM conference: Recommendations for
Progressing the Field. Business & Information Systems Engineering, accepted for
publication.
 Sanders, P. (2009): Algorithm engineering–an attempt at a definition. Efficient
Algorithms. Springer-Verlag. pp.321-340.
 Wikipedia (2015): AIDA (Marketing).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIDA_%28marketing%29.
 Yagoda, B. (2013): How to Not Write Bad: The Most Common Writing Problems
and the Best Ways to Avoid Them. Riverhead Books.