Advice Collection
(Maintained by Tao Xie and Yuan Xie)
- Ph.D. dissertation/research advice
- Presentation advice
- Technical writing/research advice
- Technical reviewing/referee advice
- Advice for faculty
- Job hunting advice
- Misc. advice
- English learning advice
Ph.D. dissertation/research advice
- Advice for Prospective Research Students on Contacting Potential Advisors by David Evans
- Suggested guidelines for finding “related work” for conference papers. by Gail Kaiser
- A course on Preparation for Statistical Research offered at NCSU Stat Dept
- Principles of Effective Research by Michael A. Nielsen
- The Ph.D Experience by Mihir Bellare
- Tom Henzinger’s advice on doing research
- Why do we cite papers? by Jeff Offutt
- The scientific method by Jeff Offutt
- What is a PhD? by Jeff Offutt
- Thoughts on choosing an advisor by Jeff Offutt
- Thoughts on writing a Ph.D. proposal by Jeff Offutt
- Thoughts on reading papers by Jeff Offutt
- Advice for Computer Science College Students by Joel Spolsky
- How to Start Research in Computer Networks? by Ahmed Helmy
- How to Be a Good Graduate Student by Marie desJardins, Indiana University
- Excellent advice about graduate school life by Ronald T. Azuma, University of Virginia
- Discussion on Ph.D. thesis proposals in computing science by H. C. Lauer
- How to write a PhD Thesis given at the doctoral symposium at ASE'03 (Oct 2003) by Steve Easterbrook
- Advice for finishing a Ph.D. (pdf document containing slides by Prof. Daniel M. Berry) Lecture
- Some guidelines on doing good research
- How to Organize your Thesis, by John W. Chinneck.
- Chris Riesbeck on What is a Thesis Defense?
- How to write a thesis in an Experimental area of Computer Science by Doug Comer.
- How to escape during a Ph.D. Final Exam by Doug Comer.
- An explanation of language used in CS Departments by Doug Comer.
- For anyone considering a Ph.D. in Computer Science by Doug Comer.
- How to measure research by Doug Comer.
- How to write a Ph.D. thesis by Joe Wolfe.
- Tips for Writing and Presentation of Thesis or Dissertation by Joseph Levine.
- Dissertation Advice, by Olin Shivers Dissertation Advice
- Resources for Students interested in the PhD by Norman Ramsey
- How to get admitted to a PhD program, by Norman Ramsey.
- Graduate School Advice
- Advice collection
- What Am I Doing Here? A Guide to the Unwritten Rules of Grad School in the Sciences by Cory Kerens, Ph.D.
- For anyone considering a Ph.D. in Computer Science, by Doug Comer
- Making key research decisions. From 500 Tips For Research Students, by Sally Brown, Liz McDowell and Phil Race.
- Thesis resources
- PhD rants-and-raves
- Dissertation writing
- Tips on research and writing, by Renée Miller.
- Jeff Offutt Lectures for PhD Courses
- So long, and thanks for the Ph.D.!, by Ronald Azuma
- A Letter to Research Students, by Duane A. Bailey
- Networking on the Network: A Guide to Professional Skills for PhD Students
- Master Thesis Computer Science
- Ph.D. Qualifiers by Phil Koopman
- qual page for some good hints from the student point of view.
- Graduate Study in the Computer and Mathematical Sciences : A Survival Manual, Dianne O’Leary
- How to be a Good Graduate Student by Marie desJardins.
- Guide to working with Norman Ramsey expectations and obligations as an advisor.
- A Dictionary of Useful Research Phrases
- Burnout Prevention and Recovery at MIT
- How to be terrible graduate student (by Graeme Hirst, University of Toronto).
- Choosing an Advisor by Marshall Lev Dermer, UW-Milwaukee.
- Information for current and prospective graduate students by Timothy Finin.
- Computer Science Graduate School Survival Guide by Ronald Azuma.
- Notes On The PhD Degree
- Re-Envisioning the Ph.D. by the graduate school of UW
- Statement of Purpose Tip Sheet
- Acronyms Frequently Heard Around the School of Computer Science by Paul Heckbert
Presentation advice
- Giving a talk by Mike Ernst
- Hints on making presentations by Jeff Offutt
- Some Advice on giving a Talk, by Olivier Danvy. Issues in making an oral presentation
- Presentation advice by Armando Fox
- Conference talk advice from Mark Hill.
- Veljko Milutinovic, A Good Method to Prepare and Use Transparencies for Research Presentations
- Robert Drysdale on Giving Technical Talks
- Peyton Jones, Hughes and Launchbury on How to Give a Good Research Talks
- Hints on Writing Technical Papers and Making Presentations
- Presentation Advice
- Presentation Techniques by T.H. Tse
- How to Give a Technical Talk by Donglin Liang
- Things I Hope Not to See or Hear at SIGGRAPH by Jim Blinn.
- How to Do Research and Give Presentations
- How to give a good research talk, Simon Peyton Jones, John Launchbury, John Hughes, SIGPLAN Notices 28(11), Nov 1993.
- How to give a good research talk: comments by others (Simon Peyton Jones)
- Guide for Speakers by Ian Parberry
- Writing Good Papers and Presentations by David Coppit
- Ideas from Bruce Donald
- Ideas from Paul Edwards
- Maxims for Malfeasant Speakers
- Tips and tricks for giving a talk
- Oral presentation skills Tips for Preparing and Delivering Scientific Talks and Using Visual Aids
- Preparing Your Oral Presentation
- The Short Talk
- Giving a Talk: Guidelines for the Preparation and Presentation of Technical Seminars
- The Best Method for Presentation of Research Results A Good Method to Prepare and Use Transparencies for Research Presentations
- How to Present a Paper in Theoretical Computer Science: A Speaker’s Guide for Students
- Ian Parberry, How to Present a Paper in Theoretical Computer Science: A Speaker’s Guide for Students
- How to Present a Paper by Ashwin Ram
- How to Give a Good Research Talk
- Designing Effective Poster Presentations
Technical writing/research advice
Courses:
- Mary Shaw’s How to Write a Good Research Paper? (course) WordWright – the Rite of Writing Right Mary Shaw’s course on “What Makes Good Research in Software Engineering?” What Makes Good Research in Software Engineering? Writing Good Software Engineering Research Papers Designing Good Research Projects in Software Engineering
- Writing Good Software Engineering Research Papers by Mary Shaw
- What Makes Good Research in Software Engineering? by Mary Shaw
- VT’s course on Research Methods in Computer Science
- Scholarship Skills by Andrew Black OGI MockPC
- UMBC CMSC 691B: Basic Research Skills
- UCIrvine ICS 280: Seminar in Information and Computer Science Research Methodology for Software
- Gary Leavens’s Computing Writer’s Workshop A talk about research and writing in Computer Science
- Computer Science Research Methods and Writing Workshop by Iowa State U.
- Research Methods in Computer Science (Tom Dietterich’s course at Oregon State).
Conference paper writing advice articles:
- Writing tips by Steve Zdancewic
- Tools and Tips for Writing Papers
- Writing papers by Jeff Offutt
- How to Write Good by Frank Visco
- Writing a technical paper by Mike Ernst
- Suggested guidelines for finding “related work” for conference papers. by Gail Kaiser.
- How to have your abstract rejected, by Mary-Claire van Leunen and Richard Lipton
- How to get a paper accepted at OOPSLA (panel)
- How to Get a Paper Accepted at OOPSLA (93) How to Get Your Paper Accepted at OOPSLA (91)
- Technical writing advice by Armando Fox
- Guide to Successful Papers Submission - CHI 2001
- William Pugh - Advice to Authors of Extended Abstracts (POPL)
- Advice for 1996 POPL submissions
- How to Increase the Chances Your Paper is Accepted at ACM SIGCOMM
- An evaluation of the ninth SOSP submissions -or- How (and how not) to write a good systems paper
- What kinds of papers does USENIX publish?
- ACM UIST 2003 Author’s Guide
- Why don’t more non-North-American papers get accepted to CHI?
- Writing Good Papers and Presentations by David Coppit
- Phil Koopman’s how to Write an Abstract (tailored for Computer Engineers)
- ACM SIGPLAN author information
- Richard Stallings on writing a technical report
- Veljko Milutinovic, The best method for presentation of research result
- Guidelines for Writing Papers by Munindar Singh, NCSU
- Common Bugs in Writing
Advice slides:
- Daniel Jackson’s Hints on Research Strategy slides slides Class
- Jeff Offutt’s Hints on Writing slides
- Effective Technical Communication slides by David Coppit CSci780
- How to Have a Bad Career In Research/Academia (David Patterson).
- How to Have a Bad Career in Research/Academia by David Patterson
Others:
- Experimental Studies in Empirical Software Engineering by Sebastian Elbaum 2001 ACM Crossroad
- Hints on Writing Technical Papers and Making Presentations by Victor Li 1999 IEEE Trans. on Education
- Guidelines and Requirements for Writing a Research Paper by Hossein Saiedian U. article
- Knuth’s Mathematical Writing book
- Paper Writing and Paper Reviewing (article)
- Technical Writing Guide by Fenton (article)
- How to do Research At the MIT AI Lab (article)
- Writing Technical Articles (article and collections)
- You and your research, by Richard Hamming.
- On Being a Scientist booklets
- A primer on mathematical writing, by Steven L. Kleiman
- Hints on good mathematical writing, by David Goss
- Summary of useful rules.
- Common Errors in Technical Writing (particularly in LaTex)
Collections:
- Some guidelines on good writing style
- CMU Advice on Research and Writing
- Tips and Resources for Writing Systems Papers (Resource collections)
- Collected Advice on Research and Writing
- Advice on Research and Writing
- Researching and Publishing (collections)
- Qingfeng He - Research - Advice on Research and Writing
- Information on doing research in CS
- How to do research: some hints (collections)
- Doing Research: Some practical advice
- Advice on Research and Writing
- Research - Advice on Research and Writing
- Research tips Research-tips
- Some tutorials on how to write and how not
- Austin SE course writing resources Examples of IEEE formatting for references
- Technical writing resources
- Technical writing course at U Mass
General writing books:
- Book: (Online) Strunk, W., Elements of Style Strunk (Easy to read, very useful as the first writing book to read) American Heritage® Book of English Usage. Bartleby Reference
- Book: BUGS in Writing: A Guide to Debugging Your Prose (Also easy to read, like a manual for checking different issues)
- Book: Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace (This is not a book for easy reading, but it can be very helpful in improving writing style)
- Book: The Handbook of Technical Writing, Seventh Edition (This can be a good reference book to put on your bookshelf)
- Book: Writing for Computer Science: The Art of Effective Communication
- Book: The Chicago Manual of Style: TThe Essential Guide for Writers, Editors, and Publishers
- Book: Mathematical Writing book by Donald E. Knuth
- Book: A Few Rules from “A Handbook for Scholars” Scholars
Technical reviewing/referee advice
Course:
- Teaching reviewing to graduate students by Jens Palsberg
- Scholarship Skills by Andrew Black OGI MockPC
- Reviewing in compiler technology Lecture on Aspects of reviewing
Conference paper review:
Reviewing:
- Reviewing papers hints by Jeff Offutt
- Major revision or Reject? by Jeff Offutt
- Why do we cite papers? by Jeff Offutt
- Inside Peer Review by Donald Christiansen, IEEE Today’s Engineer
- Reviewing papers by John Ousterhout (Berkeley)
- Teaching Reviewing to Graduate Students, Jens Palsberg and Scott J. Baxter, CACM 45(12), December 2002.
- John Ousterhout’s Hints for Reviewing Papers via Armando Fox
- Jeff Offutt’s Reviewing Papers slides
- Norman Ramsey’s Resources for Writers
- The Task of the Referee by Alan Jay Smith, IEEE Computer 1990
- Parbury: “A guide for new referees”
- Experience in literature review
- Efficient Reading of Papers in Science and Technology by Michael J. Hanson and Dylan J. McNamee
- Resources about Reviewing Papers (from Wilson)
- Some sample review forms: PPoPP 99, PLDI 01.
- A Guide to New Referees in Theoretical Computer Science by Ian Parberry
- Paper Writing and Paper Reviewing
- Chairing a Conference Session
- Suggested guidelines for finding “related work” for conference papers. by Gail Kaiser.
- C. Collberg and S. Kobourov: Self-Plagiarism in Computer Science. Communications of the ACM 48(4):88-94, April 2005.
Advice for faculty
Writing funding proposals:
- Writing an NSF Career Award proposal from Michael Ernst’s advice for faculty
- Advice on Writing Proposals to the National Science Foundation by Susan Finger, Carnegie Mellon University
- Guide for Writing a Research Proposal by Joseph Levine.
- Prof. James Hendler’s slide show on “how to obtain funding”.
- Research proposal template by David Coppit Proposal Sample Budget Calculator Paper Template
- Research/Writing Resource
- NSF SE/PL granted funding
- NSF Programs for Education and Academic Career Development
- NSF programs info from Caltech Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER FAQ) Program (NSF 02 -113)
- So you want to win a Career Award: advice from NCSU
- Tips from Grant Proposal Development Workshop@PDX
- NSF Grantsmanship Workshops at Buffalo
- NSF program overview CISE Overview PROPOSAL WRITING WORKSHOP ITR Vanderbilt meeting ITR 2004 meeting
- UC Berkeley’s Chess project review
- Challenges in Interdisciplinary Education for Embedded Systems
- National Science Foundation (NSF) Sponsored Workshop on Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) for SCADA and IT Systems
- NSF Infrastructure 2005 2005 NSF CISE/CNS CRI PI’s Meeting
- Contacts
- Contacts at Funding Agencies
- 2005 NSF Career Award Proposal Writing Workshop (in ME)
- NSF: fastlane / CISE
- DARPA / NASA / NIST / ONR
- The following are collected by David Coppit
- Gregory Abowd (GA Tech CS, Full)
- David Evans (UVa CS, Description)
- Ahmed Helmy (USC EE, Full)
- Durward Kenneth Sobek II (Montana State ME, Full)
- David Wiley (Utah State IT, Description)
- Other sample NSF proposals collected from Internet:
- NSF ITR: A Framework for Environment-Aware, Massively Distributed Computing by David Evans
- NSF CCLI: Teaching Software Engineering Using Lightweight Analysis by David Evans
- University of Virginia Teaching Fellowship: Teaching Introductory Computer Science as a Liberal Art by David Evans
- NSF CAREER: Programming the Swarm by David Evans
- NSF ITR MIT project
- NSF ITR program proposal, Alan F. Karr, David Notkin, Adam Porter, and Douglas Schmidt.
- NSF Project Proposal by E. James Whitehead (This Proposal gives background of SCM systems, initiatives for SCM domain analysis and modeling, contribution to software engineering research community, project plan and schedule.)
- NSF Project Proposal by E. James Whitehead
- NSF ITR proposal by Walt Scacchi
- Computational Infrastructure for Geodynamics (CIG) NSF Award An NSF Proposal by Robert Paige NSF KDI Proposal: Project Description CAIDA IEC Proposal to NSF - CAIDA NSF 952 NSF Proposal 98-10280
Faculty mentoring:
- CRA Academic Careers Workshop 2004 Slides Career Mentoring Workshops Booklet
- New Software Engineering Faculty Symposium (NSEFS) NSEFS 03 slides
- 2004 PAESMEM/Stanford School of Engineering Workshop on Mentoring in Engineering Talk slides
- CRA-W’s publications page contains resources such as their “Career Mentoring Workshops Booklet”.
- U. Washington ADVANCE workshops
- CRA Conference at Snowbird 2004 with slides
- CRA-W Graduate Cohort Program with slides
- CRA-W Career Mentoring Workshop with reports and resources
- CRA-W Career Mentoring Workshop 2003 at FCRC with slides
- CRA-W Career Mentoring Workshop 2003 at SIGCSE with slides
- CRA-W Career Mentoring Workshop 1993/1995 with scripts
- CRA Conference on “Grand Research Challenges in Information Security & Assurance” with slides and videos
Professional service:
- Chairing a Conference Session
- Running a conference or workshop from Michael Ernst’s advice for faculty
Networking:
- Career Networking by Janice Cuny (booklet page 31)
- Networking by Lori Clarke
- Networking Skills by Kathryn McKinley and Mary Jean Harrold
- Networking on the Network: A Guide to Professional Skills for PhD Students
- Advice to students who attend conferences by David Notkin
- Networking for jobs
Research component:
- Setting up a Research Agenda at ICSE 2005 and Setting up a Research Agenda at the New Software Engineering Faculty Symposium at ICSE 2003 and by Barbara Ryder
- CRA Mentorship workshops on Collaborative Research by Barbara Ryder
- You and Your Research (or PDF)
- Scientist: Four golden lessons
- On Being A Scientist: Responsible Conduct In Research
- UCIrvine ICS 280: Seminar in Information and Computer Science Research Methodology for Software
- Rick Snodgrass on LPU: least publishable unit, SIGMOD Record, March 2001 In Defence of the Least Publishable Unit / by Whitney J. Owen
Advising component:
- Life After Attaining Full Professorship at FCRC 1999 and Mentoring Students at the New Software Engineering Faculty Symposium at ICSE 2005 by Barbara Ryder
- Writing a letter of recommendation from Michael Ernst’s advice for faculty
- How to Be a Good Graduate Student/Advisor by Marie desJardins
- Guide to working with Norman Ramsey expectations and obligations as an advisor.
- How to stump students on an oral qualifier by Douglas Comer
- Advisor, Teacher, Role Model, Friend On Being a Mentor to Students in Science and Engineering. National Academy Press, 1997.
- How to be a Terrible Research Advisor Nigel Ward, 1992.
- Advice for Prospective Research Students on Contacting Potential Advisors by David Evans
Teaching component:
- Ways to obtain tenure in a university by Douglas Comer
- Teaching-Oriented Academic Jobs Panel
- Postdoctoral Teaching: Opportunities and Resources
- Computing Research Association Effective Teaching Resources
- Teaching Tips from UC Berkeley
- Linked Bibliography on College Teaching by Craig Nelson
Time management
- Time Management (from M.J.Irwin)
- Time Management for New Faculty
- Time Management (or PPT)
- New faculty member learns to manage her time - Christine Julien UT Austin
- Lessons in time management
Misc:
- Becoming a Better Professor by Nigel Ward
- Patterson’s Rules for New Computer Science and Engineering Professors, by Dave Patterson
- How to Have a Bad Career in Research/Academia by Dave Patterson (also look here for Prof. Patterson’s other non-technical talks)
- Non Technical Talks (Career Advice, Berkeley Culture, My Research Past, …) by Dave Patterson
- Tom Henzinger’s advice on doing research
- The Dignified Professor, or Richard Feynman on Teaching
- NCSU’s new faculty 101: An orientation to the professions NCSU’s helping new faculty get off to a good start
- The top ten things new faculty would like to hear from colleagues
- A CRA report - Evaluating Computer Scientists and Engineers For Promotion and Tenure
- Tomorrow’s Professors Tomorrow’s Professor (an excellent collection of articles by Richard Reis, author of a book with the same title.
- How to insult a Computer Scientist by Douglas Comer
- Book: Advice for New Faculty Members by Robert Boice
- Being a computer scientist in Hong Kong
- Interview with Steve Reiss from Brown U.
- Applying for Jobs in Academia, by Luis Gravano.
- The Ph.D. Job Hunt – Helping Students Find the Right Positions - Edward D. Lazowska U Washington
- Information on software engineering education and the importance of mathematics to software engineering
- Tips for a Massive Academic Job Search
- Preparing the New Psychology Professoriate
Job hunting advice
- Career Mentoring Workshops Booklet Page 15- Getting a Job
- The Job Search Process and Later Job-related Decision Making - talk slides at 2005 CRA-W Career Mentoring Workshop Job apps at industrial research labs
- Tips for a Massive Academic Job Search by Ellen Spertus
- U. Utah John Regehr’s advice for academic job candidates based on doing a two-body search in Spring 2003
- MIT Career Office For Graduate Students: Creating an Effective CV CV guide
- UC Davis’ Academic Career Help Links
- Networking for jobs
- Preparing Your Application Resource Links
- A Guide for UIUC Mathematics PhD’s Seeking Jobs
- Postdoctoral Teaching: Opportunities and Resources
- Michigan Engineering - Research Statement Guidelines
- Landing an Academic Job by Jonathan A. Dantzig at UIUC ME
- Ten Golden Rules for Teaching Computer Science by Andrew S. Tannenbaum
- The Ph.D. Job Hunt – Helping Students Find the Right Positions - Edward D. Lazowsk a U Washington
- Getting a job by David Notkin Academic Job Hunt by Vic Basili
- Getting an academic job (popular) by Mike Ernst
- Tips on Interviewing
- Rachel Pottinger’s Job Hunting Resources
- The Ph.D. Job Hunt – Helping Students Find the Right Positions By Edward D. Lazowska (page 5)
- Tips on the Interview Process by Jeannette Wing
- Interviewing during a tight job market, by Qiong Luo and Zack Ives, SIGMOD Record Sep 2002..
- Interviewing for Academic Positions
- Academic Job Interview Advice
- Academic Job Interview Questions
- Preparing your academic job interview
- Chronicle faculty resources
- Job Interview Advice
- Preparing Interview
- Applying for Jobs in Academia, by Luis Gravano.
- Book: Programming Interviews Exposed How Would You Move Mount Fuji
- Programming Interview Questions techinterviews MS MS MS MS A quick introduction to C++
- Testing: blogs blogs2 chappell Test Outlook express
- UW CSE Job information
- Tips for a Massive Academic Job Search
- JobHunt
- Career Opportunities, etc. (maintained by ACM)
- Jobs in Computing Research (maintained by CRA)
- ASEE - Profiiles of Engineering Colleges
- Tomorrow’s Professor(SM) Listserv. A mailing list that provides twice weekly essays and tips on obtaining, preparing for, and performing well in faculty positions. “Desk-top faculty development, one hundred times a year”.
Misc. advice
- Michael Ernst’s Advice
- David Notkin’s advice
- AnHai Doan’s advice
- Mark Leone’s Advice Collection
- Indiana.edu’s advice
- Big advice collection on Research & Career
- Douglas Comer’s advice
- Jason Hong’s Advice Collection
- Mir Farooq Ali’s Advice Collection
- Georgia Tech Ph.D. Advice
- Wilson Hsieh’s Collection
- Reading list for Computer Scientist
- Academic Succeed Advice Links
- Information resources for the Graduate Student
- more links
- A talk by Zhang Wuchang
- Green card apply article
- Advice for Graduate Students
English learning advice
Grammar/Article usage:
- English Grammar I and II
- RPI handouts Articles for ESL handouts tamu handouts
Dictionary:
- Good dictionary: OALD Good dictionary- Cambridge Good dictionary- dictionary.com
- Webster oed Dic iTools errors logo Computing yourdictionary bartleby EC Dic CE Dic
- How to buy a good English dictionary Collins Cobuild English Dictionary for Advanced Learners (available in store)
- Chinese dictionaries
University writing resource:
- UW Writing Center Engineering Writing Center Student Research & Writing Guides Style in Scientific and Technical Writing
- UW Dept. of English Writing Programs Online English Language Program UW Online Program
- Information on Writing Programs and Courses
- UW Libraries Writing Guide Writing Resources LLC online English resources Bonnie’s Surfing Page
- Principles and Activities For Improving English
- Streaming audio sites that use Shockwave or Real Audio
- Purdue Online Writing Lab Writing Resources Indispensable Writing Resources Writing Assistance [ASU]
- English learning for Chinese
- ZHANG Wuchang’s writing advice stevenxue Chinese English teaching Learning English in US US Slang
- Writing technical paper
- Tips on research and writing, by Renée Miller.
General writing books:
- Book: (Online) Strunk, W., Elements of Style Strunk (Easy to read, very useful as the first writing book to read) American Heritage® Book of English Usage. Bartleby Reference
- Book: BUGS in Writing: A Guide to Debugging Your Prose (Also easy to read, like a manual for checking different issues)
- Book: Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace (This is not a book for easy reading, but it can be very helpful in improving writing style)
- Book: The Handbook of Technical Writing, Seventh Edition (This can be a good reference book to put on your bookshelf)
- Book: Writing for Computer Science: The Art of Effective Communication
- Book: The Chicago Manual of Style: TThe Essential Guide for Writers, Editors, and Publishers
- Book: Mathematical Writing book by Donald E. Knuth
- Book: A Few Rules from “A Handbook for Scholars” Scholars