Publishing Papers
Publishing your ideas is important for several reasons: it gives you a source of feedback from people who read
your papers; it establishes you as a member of the research community (useful for getting a job down the line);
and it forces you to clarify your ideas and to fit them in the context of the current state of research in your field.
There are two key properties of a good paper: significant content -- original, important ideas that are well
developed and tested -- and good writing style. The degree to which the paper's content has to be ``significant''
depends on where you're submitting it. Preliminary ideas and work in progress are more suitable for a workshop
or symposium; well developed, extensively tested ideas are more appropriate for a journal. One way to decide
where your paper should be submitted is to read papers in potentially appropriate publications (last year's
conference proceedings; current journal issues). Another method to show a draft or outline of the paper to your
advisor or other colleagues and ask their advice.
if you have a great idea, but present it poorly, your paper probably won't be accepted. Be sure you know what the
point of the paper is, and state it clearly and repeatedly. The same goes for the key technical ideas. Don't make the
reader work to figure out what's important -- tell them explicitly. Otherwise, they might get it wrong, if they
bother to finish reading the paper at all. State the problem you're addressing, why it's important, how you're
solving it, what results you have, how other researchers have addressed the same or similar problems, and why
your method is different or better.
Write for the audience that you expect to read the paper, just as you would plan a talk. Give more background for
general audiences, less background and more technical detail for specialized audiences. Use a running example if
possible, especially if your paper is dense with equations and algorithms.
Don't try to put every idea in your thesis into one conference paper. Break it down into pieces, or write one or two
longer journal articles.
As you refine your ideas, you can re-publish in new forms, but be sure you're adding new material, not just
rehashing the same ideas. Some papers start as short workshop papers, evolve into conference papers, and
eventually -- with the addition of detailed empirical results or formal proofs -- become journal articles. It's usually
okay to publish the same or substantially similar papers in multiple workshops, but papers for conferences and
journals generally have to be original, unpublished work.
It is critical that any paper you plan to submit be read by someone else first, if only to check for typos,
grammatical errors, and style. A good reviewer will give you feedback on the organization and content of the
paper as well (see the section on feedback). The more tightly refereed the publication you're submitting to, the
more trouble you should go to to have it pre-reviewed. For a workshop paper, having your advisor read it over is
probably enough. For a refereed conference, have one or two other graduate students read it as well. For a journal
paper, you should probably find researchers who are active in the field, preferably at other institutions (to give
breadth), read it over and give you comments. This is where the network of colleagues you should build (see the
section on networking) comes in handy.
If your paper is rejected, keep trying! Take the reviews to heart and try to rewrite the paper, addressing the
reviewer's comments. You'll get more substantial and useful reviews from journals than conferences or workshops.
Often a journal paper will be returned for revisions; usually a conference paper will just be accepted or rejected
outright. After reading the review the first time, put it aside. Come back to it later, reading the paper closely to
decide whether the criticisms were valid and how you can address them. You will often find that reviewers make criticisms that are off-target because they misinterpreted some aspect of your paper. If so, don't let it get to you --
just rewrite that part of your paper more clearly so that the same misunderstanding won't happen again. It's
frustrating to have a paper rejected because of a misunderstanding, but at least it's something you can fix. On the
other hand, criticisms of the content of the paper may require more substantial revisions -- rethinking your ideas,
running more tests, or redoing an analysis.
Networking
One of the most important skills you should be learning in graduate school is how to ``network.'' Breaking into the
research community requires attending conferences, meeting established researchers, and making yourself known.
Networking *is* a learned skill, so you shouldn't expect to be an expert at it immediately; but it is also a skill that
you can, and should, learn in order to be a successful member of the research community.
Just going to conferences and standing in the corner isn't enough. Especially if you're not normally an outgoing
person, you have to make a conscious effort to meet and build relationships with other researchers. Presenting
papers is a good way to do this, since people will often approach you to discuss your presentation. Introducing
yourself to people whose presentations you found interesting, and asking a relevant question or describing related
research you're doing, is also a good way to meet people.
You should talk about your research interests every chance you get. (But be sure to spend some time listening, too:
you'll learn more this way, and people will feel that your conversations are a two-way street.) Have summaries of
your work of various lengths and levels of detail mentally prepared, so that you can answer the inevitable ``So
what are you working on?'' intelligently and clearly. If someone expresses an interest in your work, follow up!
Send them e-mail talking about new ideas or asking questions; send them drafts of papers; ask them for drafts of
their papers and send them comments. (If you do this, they'll be sure to remember you!) Bring business cards with
your e-mail address to conferences to help new acquaintances jog their memory.
Maintain the relationships you form via e-mail, and by re-establishing contact at each workshop or conference you
attend. If you work at it, and use your initial acquaintances to meet new people, you'll find that your ``network''
grows rapidly.
Sometimes these contacts will grow into opportunities to do collaborative research. Seize these opportunities: you
will meet more people, often become exposed to new methods of doing research or new subfields within your
research area, and the responsibility you feel towards your collaborator may give you more of an incentive to stay
motivated and keep accomplishing something.
Other professional activities can bring you into the research network as well: volunteer for program committees,
send your resume to a book review editor, offer to give seminars at other universities, write conference and
workshop papers and send them to people you've met or would like to meet, or organize a workshop on your
subfield at a larger conference. Mentoring junior graduate students and undergraduates is a good investment in the
long run (besides providing them a valuable service and making you feel useful and knowledgeable).
Finding specific mentors can be very useful. Especially if you feel that you are isolated at your institution, having
a colleague at another institution who can give you advice, feedback on drafts of papers, and suggestions for
research directions can be extremely valuable.
All Work and No Play...
Finding a balance between work, play, and other activities isn't easy. Different people will give you very different
advice. Some people say you should be spending eighty or ninety percent of your waking hours working on your
thesis. Others (myself included) think that this is unrealistic and unhealthy, and that it's important for your mental
and physical health to have other active interests.
If you have a family, you will have to balance your priorities even more carefully. Graduate school isn't worth
risking your personal relationships over; be sure that you save time and energy to focus on the people who matter
to you.
One of the keys to balancing your life is to develop a schedule that's more or less consistent. You may decide that you will only work during the days, and that evenings are for your hobbies. Or you might decide that afternoons
are for socializing and exercising, and work late at night. I decided very early on in graduate school that weekends
were for me, not for my thesis, and I think it helped me to stay sane.
Many graduate students hit the doldrums around the end of the second or beginning of the third year, when they're
finishing up their coursework and trying to focus in on a thesis topic. Sometimes this process can take quite a
while. Try to find useful, enjoyable activities that can take your mind off of the thesis. Sing in a choir, learn a
foreign language, study the history of ancient Greece, garden, or knit. If you schedule regular activities (rehearsals,
tennis lessons), you will probably find it easier to avoid drifting aimlessly from day to day.
In the final push to finish your thesis, though, you will almost certainly have less time for social activities than
you used to. Your friends may start to make you feel guilty, whether they intend to or not. Warn them in advance
that you expect to turn down lots of invitations, and it's nothing personal -- but you need to focus on your thesis
for a while. Then you'll be all done and free as a bird! (Until the next phase of your life starts...)