Something about graduate studies July 14

Here is an interesting talk on what qualities are important for PhD. As far as I can see, the most important one in the eyes of supervisors is curiosity and persistence.

Here is a talk on how to write a good paper. The most important thing is to make it very clear what are the contributions, and the problem you are solving, the context of the problem, solution, and how your paper improves upon previous work.

Organization plays a vital part, as both that talk and this point out. A paper should start by telling the audience which problem you are addressing, and why they should care about it. Moreover, you should spell it out explicitly the implications of your solution. Then present the reasons why previous solution are not satisfactory. Next, explain your own solution, and do remember to compare it with other solutions.

What is often not noticed is that, the paper should be understandable for those who read it in a hurry. To achieve this, use figures and captions to tell the story. The figure captions should be self-contained and the caption should tell the reader what to notice about the figure.

The most common reasons for rejections include
Promise more than what is delivered
Exclusion of important references
Main idea is not new
The results are similar to previous work
The results are too different from previous work

Start writing the paper early and re-write it until it is good!