Advice on Research and Writing

A collection of advice about how to do research and how to communicate effectively (primarily for computer scientists).

• An Evaluation of the Ninth SOSP Submissions, or, How (and How Not) to Write a Good Systems Paper by Roy Levin and David D. Redell
• How to Have a Bad Career in Research/Academia by David Patterson
• Networking on the Network by Phil Agre
• On Being A Scientist: Responsible Conduct In Research, from the National Academy of Sciences
• CRA Committee on the Status of Women in Research
• Includes a Graduate School Information Kit for Women in Computer Science and Engineering
• and the Distributed Mentor Project for female undergraduates.
• Hints on good mathematical writing, by David Goss
• A primer on mathematical writing, by Steven L. Kleiman
• How to be a Good Graduate Student/Advisor, by Marie desJardins
• How to Get a Paper Accepted at OOPSLA, by Alan Snyder.
• Includes comments from an OOPSLA program committee.
• A Letter to Research Students, by Duane A. Bailey
• The IUCS Graduate Student Survival Guide.
• Includes Survival Skills for Graduate Women
• and The Assistant Professor's Guide to the Galaxy.
• How to do Research in the MIT AI Lab, ed. David Chapman
• How to Give a Good Research Talk, by Simon Peyton Jones et al.
• How to Present a Paper in Theoretical Computer Science, by Ian Parberry.
• A Guide for New Referees in Theoretical Computer Science, by Ian Parberry.
• Advice to Authors of Extended Abstracts, by William Pugh.
• How To Have Your Abstract Rejected, by van Leunen and Lipton.
• Advice for 1996 POPL submissions
• How to cope with "burnout", by Andreas Gehmeyr.
• Burnout Prevention and Recovery at MIT (humor)
• Papers on women in computer science.
• Includes Why Are There So Few Female Computer Scientists?, by Ellen Spertus.

Other references and related resources

• Study, Research, and Writing Skills web page from the American Communication Association.
• The Young Scientists' Network (career oriented)
• Dissertation News, published by The Association for Support of Graduate Students.
• Ivan Sutherland, "Technology and Courage," in CMU Computer Science: A 25th Anniversary Commemorative, ed. Richard F. Rashid. ACM Press, 1991.
• Alan Jay Smith, "The task of the referee," IEEE Computer, April 1990, pp. 65-71.
• ACM SIGMOD academic careers information
• Includes transcripts from the Workshop on Academic Careers for Women.
• Resources for dissertation research (gopher)
• Information resources for graduate students by Jennifer Myers.
• Information for current and prospective graduate students by Timothy Finin.
• A Guide for Applying to Graduate Schools by Piroz Mohseni.