This document provides tips for writing a good research paper. It discusses selecting an appropriate topic and audience, developing an outline, writing drafts for feedback, choosing a descriptive title, writing a literature review, crafting an introduction, including figures and tables, addressing reviewer comments, avoiding plagiarism, and acknowledging collaborators. The goal is to write papers that clearly communicate research and can be improved based on feedback from others.

1. How to Write a (Good) Research Paper
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ponguru/
March 28, 2023
Woxsen University
Ponnurangam Kumaraguru (“PK”)
#ProfGiri CS IIIT Hyderabad
ACM Distinguished Member
TEDx Speaker
https://www.instagram.com/pk.profgiri/

2. Assumptions / Disclaimer
You want to write a (good) paper
There is no one way 
You know the components of the paper
You are using LaTeX to write papers
Not possible to cover this topic comprehensively in 90 mins
Will have CS bent
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3. Know the audience
PhD students / Faculty
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4. What do you want to get in the next 90 mins?
want to apply for multiple funds can i ? , how to save myself from
plagiarism , Is it like how many pages we write is important or only
short but sweet main key points are needed !
How to select the methodology for my research
What are the software tools suitable for various stages of research
process and for drafting the thesis?
What is the basis for identification of suitable journals for publication
of research papers. ( since publishing minimum two papers is
mandated as a requirement by UGC before submission of thesis).
The "Quality research or Citation" which one is Important?
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5. How do you read research papers today?
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6. How do you write papers today?
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7. Let’s look at a paper, recently accepted
https://precog.iiit.ac.in/pubs/Effect_oF_Feedback_on_Drug_Consumpt
ion_Disclosures_on_Social_Media___ICWSM2023.pdf
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8. Don’t Wait: Write
Write paper as you do research
Why
Helps in putting the ideas clearly for somebody to give feedback
Forces you to think in way that is clearer
Sometimes you are only waiting for results while experiment is
running
Writing paper is the primary mechanism for doing research
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https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1mPDO1LUitzBdaipFghPKXpj8DnVJgrni/edit#slide=id.p1

9. Importance of outline
Full picture / structure is clear broadly
Storyline is clear
Feedback sorted for the outline
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10. Have Shepherds to review
People whom you know may or may not be from the domain
Having a full draft 4 weeks before deadline is a good idea; usually does
not happen 
Difference between a paper and a great paper
Need not be researchers too, they can review your draft for readability
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11. What are these?
School of Phish: A Real-World Evaluation of Anti-Phishing Training
Phi.sh/$oCiaL: The Phishing Landscape through Short URLs
Call Me MayBe: Understanding Nature and Risks of Sharing Mobile
Numbers on Online Social Networks
“The Times They Are-a-Changin”: The Effect of the Covid-19 Pandemic
on Online Music Sharing in India
A Tale of Two Sides: Study of Protesters and Counter-protesters on
#CitizenshipAmendmentAct Campaign on Twitter
“I'll be back”: Examining Restored Accounts On Twitter
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12. Title
Try to include keywords [concepts, results, cool connections (games,
songs...)] of the entire paper, important things that you want to capture in
the paper
Maybe include results in the title
When people search for your paper, it should show up in search, avoid
$earch as Search as it wouldn’t show up in search
Readers should be able to get your paper while searching. Title should reflect
your content
1 week before submission is okay to ponder over the title… you’re more
familiar with the paper
Length: not more than 2 lines; Eg. ABC: DEFG….
Titles may identify a group… similar titles from a research group
Good way to create a title – process
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13. Writing a Good Literature Review
Connect to you work
Don’t bash the existing work; one of those authors can be the reviewer
A said phishing is an important problem
B said many loose money
Men fall for phishing more [C]
D said ….
Better version: Phishing is an important problem, many loose their
money [A, B], empirically it is shown men fall for phishing more [C,
D]
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14. Writing a Good Introduction
Thematic opening sentence in the paragraphs
Step-wise writing
Have an image / pic / diagram in page 1
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15. Twitter Threads
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https://twitter.com/jbhuang0604/status/1437443017510621185

16. Twitter Threads
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https://twitter.com/jbhuang0604/status/1437931004451250176

17. LaTeX tips
Use Macros
~cite{} ~ is necessary
Citations shorthand to be meaningful / parsable –
rathode2021propensitydriving
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18. Tips
Captions of a figure and table should highlight the main points of the table
and summarize the takeaway (observations / results) from them.
The footnote should come at the end of a sentence after the full-stop.
e.g. LIWC is a tool . . . for analysis.~footnote{www.liwc.org}
The usage of words ending in “ing” should be reduced as much as possible.
e.g. “analysing the data” can be written as “analysis of the the data” (or
something similar)
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19. Tips
Figure size must be visible clearly in hard copy. For e.g. Legend, title,
x-label, y-label. Avoid using colors in the figures, since most of the
readers B&W printers. Use gray scale and different distinguishable
symbols to plot
Figure / Table should always come after its first reference (after the
paragraph in which its first referred); in other words, tables/figures
should come after the text relevant to it in the text of the paper
The text should not blabber what is in the figure or table. Make the text
more intuitive and conclusive i.e. what you infer by the table/figure
(especially when the table shows statistics and numbers)
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20. Tips
While explaining the results, mention explicitly the data points you refer to.
E.g. “Figure 1 shows, large percentage of users use Twitter.” Instead use,
“Figure 1 shows 95% of users use Twitter.” Avoid using large/small/little,
while referring to figure.
While referring to figures in the text, explicitly write about what is the
important conclusion from the figure that the reader should takeaway. You
will write the same in the caption of the figure or table.
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21. Writing Rebuttal
Thank the reviewers
Take each and every point prepare your reactions, including what
changes will you make in the draft
Discuss the reactions with co-authors
Club the reviews together; e.g. Regarding data annotation [R1, R2]
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22. Other things to take care
Plagiarism
Co-authorship
Acknowledgements
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23. Let’s write better papers from now on!
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24. Scientific communication
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https://www.slideshare.net/precogatIIITD/strategies-for-scientific-communication-part-of-ssnce-research-scholars-colloquium

25. References
https://cs.dartmouth.edu/~wjarosz/writing.md.html
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BJwvPHEE4r5uGsge0vYxCaEj7B
ZhnUhbndlrfTxSEpk/edit
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26. Group pic & Selfie 
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27. 27
Thanks!
Questions? pk.guru@iiit.ac.in
http://precog.iiit.ac.in/
@ponguru
pk.profgiri
linkedin/in/ponguru