Home page of the course
Research Methods

Course Overview

Module 1: Introduction to research and scientific paper reading and writing - D. Calvanese (31/8/2015 - 4/9/2015)

1. What is Research?
2. Research in Computer Science
3. Selection of PhD topic
4. Reading scientific papers
5. How to write a scientific paper

Module 2: Empirical/experimental CS research methods and paper writing - F. Ricci (7/9/2015 - 11/9/2015)

• Template for reading and critiquing a scientific article

Module 3: Research evaluation - W. Nutt (14/9/2015 - 18/9/2015)

1. Peer reviewing
2. Bibliometrics

Module 4: How to write a research plan - S. Helmer (21/9/2015 - 25/9/2015)

Module 5: Presenting scientific work - M. Montali (28/9/2015 - 2/10/2015)

Example presentations:

• Keynote by Joe Hellerstein on "The Declarative Imperative"
• BPM 2014 presentation - Check in particular the introduction and slides 14-16.
• KR 2014 presentation - Check in particular slide 2 and slides 12-23.

Module 6: Good scientific writing style - E. Franconi (5/10/2015 - 9/10/2015)

• Writing style for computer science
• Slides on LaTeX (by John Lees-Miller, University of Bristol)
  1. The basics
  2. Structured documents
  3. Presentations and more
• Introduction to SVN
• Additional material on LaTeX

Course Material

Additional useful material

On Writing and Scholarly Publishing

• David Evans, Paul Gruba, Justin Zobel. How to Write a Better Thesis. 2014. Electronic edition available via the unibz library through SpringerLink.
• Robert A. Day. How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper. 1998. [Slides]
• Razvan Andonie, Ioan Dzitac. How to Write a Good Paper in Computer Science and How Will It Be Measured by ISI Web of Knowledge. 2010.
• Alice Meadows, Karin Wulf. Seven Things Every Researcher Should Know About Scholarly Publishing. 2016. Original post available here.
• Jan Mendling, Hajo A. Reijers. How to Write a BPM Conference Paper? 2015.
• Donald E. Knuth, Tracy Larrabee, Paul M. Roberts. Mathematical Writing. 1987.
• P. R. Halmos. How to Write Mathematics. 1970.

On Reading

• S. Keshav. How to Read a Paper. 2007.

On Doing Research

• Edsger W. Dijkstra. Three Golden Rules for Research. 1982. Available on request.
• Dianne Prost O'Leary. Graduate Study in the Computer and Mathematical Sciences: A Survival Manual. 2009.
• Mikael Berndtsson, Jorgen Hansson, Bjorn Olsson, Bjorn Lundell. Thesis Projects: A Guide for Students in Computer Science and Information Systems. 2008. Electronic edition available via the unibz library through SpringerLink.
• Committee on Academic Careers for Experimental Computer Scientists, National Research Council. Careers for Experimental Computer Scientists. 1994.
• Peter Wegner. Research Paradigms in Computer Science. 1976.
• David A. Patterson. How to Have a Bad Career in Research/Academia. 1976.