Transcript Slide 1

Smartening the Environment using Wireless
Sensor Networks in a Developing Country
Computer Science and IT Today:
Research Issues and Publication Tips
Al-Sakib Khan Pathan
Computer Science, International Islamic University Malaysia
Let’s Define Computer Science
• The study of the principles and use of computers.
• Is it only this?
• Computer Science (CS) is the systematic study of the
feasibility, structure, expression, and mechanization of
the methodical processes (or algorithms) that underlie
the acquisition, representation, processing, storage,
communication of, and access to information, whether
such information is encoded as bits in a computer
memory or transcribed engines and protein structures in
a human cell.
(http://www.cs.bu.edu/AboutCS/WhatIsCS.pdf)
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Areas in Computer Science …
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Theoretical computer science
Theory of computation
Information and coding theory
Algorithms and data structures
Programming language theory
Formal methods
Applied computer science
Artificial intelligence
Computer architecture and engineering
Computer graphics and visualization
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Areas in Computer Science …
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Computer security and cryptography
Computational science
Computer Networks
Concurrent, parallel and distributed systems
Databases
Health Informatics
Information science
Software engineering
• Any topic can be mixed with computer science .. !!
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Comp. Engg. & IT
• Computer engineering is more about making computer
parts work together - research, design and development
of computer equipments like circuit boards, microchips,
routers, sound cards, hard disk, video cards, etc.
– Something more inclined to electrical engineering.
• Information Technology (IT) is the application of
computers and telecommunications equipments to store,
retrieve, transmit and manipulate data, often meant for
business or other enterprises.
– Dealing with data and information.
• Today’s definition of CS may include some of these!
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Main Types of Research
• Main types (classification I)
– Fundamental research
– Applied research
• Main types (classification II)
– Academic
– Industrial (how many publications do you see?)
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The Known First Step but Noted
Choose a Topic to
work on …
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The Second Step Asked Often ..
Download/Obtain
research papers to
read and read and
read …
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The Idea and Knowing “Quality”
• Got any idea on any issue?
• Know about quality before writing the draft …
• What is quality?
• Quality varies and the categories come out from that
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Quality Measuring Angles
• Two ways to see the quality of a journal paper:
– From Paper’s Angle?
• Good quality paper
– In a GOOD journal
– In a BAD journal
• Bad quality paper
– In a GOOD journal
– In a BAD journal
– From Journal’s Angle?
• Good journal publishes bad quality paper
• Bad journal publishes good quality paper
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More Questions on Quality
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Can quality vary?
Who decides what is quality journal?
What is the standard for paper?
What is the standard for journal?
• For journal case: Quality may be ..
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audience dependent
time dependent
place dependant ...
The standard body may even shift its stance on a journal or
publication ! (case of LNCS for example)
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The Quality of a Journal
• Currently we consider ‘Thomson Reuters’ as the most
reliable STANDARD Body .. Others are also available
however may not be credible …
• For Science Citation Index (SCI) journals:
– http://science.thomsonreuters.com/cgi-bin/jrnlst/jloptions.cgi?PC=K
• For Science Citation Index-Expanded (SCIE) journals:
– http://science.thomsonreuters.com/cgi-bin/jrnlst/jloptions.cgi?PC=D
• What is the difference between SCI and SCIE?
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SCI/SCIE/SSCI Indexing
• SCI/SCIE: Science Citation Index covers over 3,700
(could vary) of the world's leading scientific and technical
journals across 100 disciplines. Also available through
Web of Science® and the online version, SciSearch®
as Science Citation Index Expanded®, which covers
more than 6,500 journals across 150 disciplines.
• SSCI: Social Sciences Citation Index provides access to
current bibliographic information and cited references,
covering more than 3,000 (could vary) of the world's
leading social sciences journals across 50 disciplines.
[ Sources:
http://wokinfo.com/essays/history-of-citation-indexing/
http://thomsonreuters.com/social-sciences-citation-index/ ]
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Thomson’s JCR?
• Journal Citation Reports® (JCR®) offers a systematic,
objective means to critically evaluate the world's leading
journals, with quantifiable, statistical information based
on citation data
– Peer-reviewed journals
• By compiling articles' cited references, JCR helps to
measure research influence and impact at the journal
and category levels, and shows the relationship between
citing and cited journals
– Impact? Is there any Impact factor? How to measure it?
[ Source: http://wokinfo.com/products_tools/analytical/jcr/ ]
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Impact Factor (IF)
• The Impact Factor (IF), often abbreviated IF, is a
measure reflecting the average number of citations to
articles published in science and social science journals
– The impact factor was devised by Eugene Garfield, the founder
of the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), now part of
Thomson Reuters
• Journals with higher impact factors are deemed to be
more important than those with lower ones
• Impact factors are calculated yearly for those journals
that are indexed in Thomson Reuter's Journal Citation
Reports (JCR) .. Well !, two-year IF, five-year IF ….
[ For more see: http://www.elsevier.com/editors/journal-metrics ]
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Calculating IF
• In a given year, the impact factor of a journal is the
average number of citations received per paper
published in that journal during the two preceding years.
• For example, if a journal has an impact factor of 3 in
2012, then its papers published in 2010 and 2011
received 3 citations each on average
– Manipulation, misuse .. POSSIBLE ?
– Is it actually right? Or, reflecting the ‘True Quality’?
[ Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_factor
http://www.elsevier.com/editors/journal-metrics ]
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ISI and SCOPUS
• List of Thomson’s SCI/SCIE/SSCI indexed journals
(commonly called ISI journals)
• http://scientific.thomsonreuters.com/imgblast/JCRFullCo
vlist-2013.pdf
• Other indexing that is valued often __
– SCOPUS: 50 million records | 21,000 titles | 5,000 publishers
– Scopus delivers the most comprehensive overview of the world's
research output in the fields of science, technology, medicine,
social sciences and arts and humanities.
[Source: http://www.elsevier.com/online-tools/scopus ]
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Claiming Quality Publication!
Publish your paper in
an indexed journal !
Is that it only?
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Is that it? .. Finished?
• Have we reached a decision to measure quality journal?
– NOPE!
• A journal may be a new one .. Newly launched!
• A journal may not have completed the period of time so
that its impact could be measured by checking the
number of citations of its published papers!
• A journal may not have been recommended for
Thomson’s indexing .. Yes, someone needs to put it
forward for consideration!! (Well! In most of the cases ..)
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Does Quality Depend on Choice?
• So, your paper still could be a quality paper but you may
choose a below standard journal to publish it
– by mistake, or
– may be you want to publish it quickly that an SCI/SCIE indexed
journal may not allow you to …
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Supervisor’s choice
Hidden agenda
Less courageous / failing to measure the level of your own work
Add more …
• Yes, it has happened that many good works got rejected
but later became something revolutionary
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Einstein's Story as claimed ..
• Einstein’s indignant reply to the editor is amusing to
modern scientific sensibilities, and suggests someone
quite unfamiliar with peer review:
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Dear Sir,
We (Mr. Rosen and I) had sent you our manuscript for publication and had not
authorized you to show it to specialists before it is printed. I see no reason to
address the in any case erroneous comments of your anonymous expert. On the
basis of this incident I prefer to publish the paper elsewhere.
Respectfully,
P.S. Mr. Rosen, who has left for the Soviet Union, has authorized me to represent
him in this matter.
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Types of Works/Writings
• 1. Get something, find flaw, correct it, and then go for
enhancement
– Incremental research
• 2. Get idea from paper A, another from paper B, …
combine them, make a paper!
• 3. Come up with a solution to a problem that nobody
thought of … some revolutionary way
• Which one is the easiest?
– Easiest is not the best for being a Quality Journal Paper!
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The Questions You Must Answer
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What is the topic?
Do you have any problem formulation?
Is it worthy of stirring the intelligent minds?
Has anybody touched on this issue?
How is your work contributing something to the research
community?
• Do you have any proof? Or, Just claim?
– Claim based papers are also available!
• Prove it ‘NOT RIGHT’!!
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Writing Style for a Journal
• Writing style
– There is no alternative to good English handling skill …. Umm …
natural? May be! Or, get help from others, if possible …
– Spoken English doesn’t help your writing, .. Writing skill is
different …
• You want the reviewer to control your thinking?
• You want to control the thinking of the reviewer?
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Common Structure of Writing
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Introduction
Related Works
Your Proposal
Proof of Efficiency/Performance Analysis/
Simulation/Experimental Evaluation/Logical
Proof/Mathematical Proof/Arguments and Discussions
• Comparison with Similar Alternatives
• Conclusion and Future Works
• There is no alternative to good presentation style!
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A+, A-, A+ Style!
• A+
– Well, you know this is a serious issue …
– We got the solution !!
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Actually there are more things to think …
This is what we thought …
You know all things you can’t solve from human perspective ..
We are short of knowledge … reality!!
• A+
– We have done so far and thinking about FUTURE(!)
– Why not take ‘this and that’ as the OPEN issue?
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The Things You Must Know
• Use the most recent works, if possible
• Use the references of famous works, if possible
• If there is a conference version and a journal version of a
paper, in usual case: take JOURNAL version
– Well, if the journal is of low quality, take the conference version!
– There is a list of commonly agreed high visibility conferences
• Emphasize on what you have accomplished
• Why do you think this one is a novel contribution? If not
novel, if there are other alternatives, have you really
compared with the best or near-best one?
• Try to take idea from other field and show how it fits
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Critical Matters Often Ignored
• Reference Style
– Be very careful about the references cited. Cite every detail.
– Make sure the author names are correctly mentioned.
– Surname should be used for shortened name, like if someone is
“Al-Sakib Khan Pathan”, then either “Pathan, A.-S.K.” or “A.-S.K.
Pathan”. Similarly, Matin Saad would be Saad, M. or M. Saad,
not in any way Matin, S. (incorrect)
• Appropriate treatment to every detail of a paper: format
– Spell out each term before its use....just do not leave it
considering others know it. Even in case of IPv6, write at the first
occurrence (Internet Protocol version 6) .. afterwards in the
paper, you may freely use IPv6
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Critical Matters Often Ignored
• When something is “not recognized”, it should be known
that it has reason to be not recognized.
• The reality is: Clear Grammar-error-free English has no
other alternative and many fail in this point.
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Paper From Conference
• Same version
– If it is a ground-breaking work!
– Greater visibility … higher dissemination …
• Extended and revised version
– Usual case: at least 30% enhancement in the content
– Some journals do not accept, especially the communications,
letters, or magazine style journals( what is that?)
Conference publications greatly help Journal publications
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Replying to the Reviewers
• Be polite in replying the comments
• Never lose your own ground in replying, accept the
comment but work on reviewer’s mind
• Put arguments why or why not an issue raised by the
reviewer is worthy of mentioning within the work or not
• If something is outside the scope of the work, simply
mention that the issue needs a separate publication
• Do not send response letter before at least 15 days or
follow the given time in full but don’t wait till last day
• If there is any misunderstanding, try to clarify that not
insulting the reviewer’s comments (i.e., … agree but …)
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Things That you Must AVOID
• Do not put an issue that you have no knowledge on
• Never try to prove your proposal as the best unless you
have valid data to support the claim, but rather be critical
of your own work in some aspects
– Without diminishing your success stories
• Do not leave any portion that needs citation, ‘Not-cited’ !!
• Never show off to the reviewers once you get conditional
acceptance (e.g., as a reply noting that the author has
25 years of experience in this field, thus what he claims
is the best way to describe such and such!!)
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Know Your Rights as an Author
• Decision is not always final
• Your strong position could also influence the Editor-inChief in some cases
• Use E-publishing or give prior information on your
website for critically novel works, if need be …
• Accept-Reject incident (an incident)
– One acceptance, one rejection … either one of the reviewers is
wrong in decision, so how can the Editor/EiC make a decision on
the negative one?
• Yes, he can .. If the topic is not directly related to the journal and the +ve
reviewer could not understand it as he is not related directly with the topic
• If journal policy is like that .. All reviewers must be positive!
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About Collaboration and Patent
• Collaboration, if you really mean so …
• Patent writing is different. How?
– Often collaboration is needed for financial support!
– What is the key factor for claiming a patent?
– Plus+ ?
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Bona fide Experts Say, We Do ..
• As usually said: “Do not reinvent the Wheel!”
• So-and-so said that? Take that as FINAL …
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… and we Do Not Do! ..
Zil 29061
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvFKzgF5t94
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Psychological Issues and Reality
• Be bold in your claim
• Rejection doesn’t mean your work has no good quality!
– Take this approach that the JOURNAL is wrong! You are right..
– Well! You need to be patient and really you need to be inherently
RIGHT about your claim!
• YES, personal credentials and your current status or so
called “name” have impact on any future paper’s fate!
• One quality paper brings another, even if may be “not so
good” quality ..
• Try, Try, and Try again …
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Success Algorithm to Know …
1.
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4.
5.
Continuous trial is the key to get success.
Success itself is a continuous process.
False step may jeopardize success.
Correct false step with continuous trial.
Run steps 1 to 4 again!
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THANK YOU
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Questions and Answers
Any query should be directed to
[email protected] , [email protected]
???
For More Information:
http://staff.iium.edu.my/sakib/
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