Tag: papers

Kate’s Paper Management Guide

How to handle multiple authors, get a your paper written, and not drive everyone crazy

For those just starting out in the paper writing process: Welcome! It’s an exciting journey! In the field of HCI, having multiple coauthors is normal. So, in the spirit of helping everyone out, here is a handy guide to help manage the project of getting a paper written when there are multiple coauthors. (And honestly, some of this is probably good if you’re solo on a paper, too.)

A PDF version of this guide is available here.

An open notebook on a dark wood desk with cursive writing in dark pen and a flower in the center of the book.

Step 1. Establish norms among the authors.

  • Versioning: how will you handle multiple versions of the paper? Where will they be stored? Who will have access to them? What software will you be using?
  • Along with versioning, set clear norms around document names and stay consistent for the entire lifecycle of the paper.
  • Authorship: clearly identify tentative author order, explain community norms to outside authors, establish expectations of % contribution
    • This also means establishing when various authors on the team will be involved. Some may come in at the end to shape the discussion while others might help with literature review. This should be decided upon now to avoid surprises down the road.
  • Set deadlines. Be flexible. Know that everything will probably take 3x longer than you expect.

Step 2. Early-stage Drafts.

  • Adhere to versioning established in step 1.
  • Co-writing or tandem writing is fine for early stages of writing. This includes splitting up the sections between different authors. Be sure everyone is aware of what everyone else is doing to avoid doubling up on the work.
  • When making big conceptual decisions about the paper, consult all of the authors involved for feedback.

Step 3. Later-stage Drafts.

  • After some agreed-upon time (as most sections are filled in, for example), move to writing in sequence, rather than parallel. This helps avoid having a choppy sounding paper and makes sure things like the overarching thread is pulled throughout the paper.
    • This means someone will have the “lock” on the paper. Establish norms around how this is specified and handled. This can be a simple “I have the lock” to the group via email (or slack), meaning no one else should be working on the draft. Or using file names in the shared folder to indicate when a draft is “in progress” or “done.”

Step 4. Final Draft & Submission.

  • Congrats on getting to a final draft! Be sure all authors have signed off on the final version before submitting.
  • Be sure to send the final version after submission for everyone’s records.

Step 5. Revisions & Camera Ready.

  • Co-authors are great for sharing the joy of an acceptance or commiserating over a rejection. Be sure to be clear about who will be helping with revisions if needed.
  • If a paper is being resubmitted to another venue, this entire process starts over again. Good luck!

*Other Thoughts*:

  • Clear, frequent communication is key. Ghosting your co-authors isn’t cool.
  • This process is hard and everything I mentioned above are skills. That means the only way to get better is through practice.
An open notebook with cursive writing in the center and an open fountain pen with lid on top of the page.

What other things are important to remember about the writing process? Leave a comment below!

Grad Student Workflow, Part 4

As mentioned in Part 1, I am discussing my various workflow tools in order to have a more pleasant and efficient grad school experience. Last week, in Part 2, I discussed my general task management and in Part 3 I discussed reading and citations. This week I will be starting my sub-series about writing.

Sources: Much of what I’ve learned about my workflow, I’ve gotten from other folks. What I’m discussing in the next few posts is an amalgamation of different work management patterns I’ve gotten from around the internet, people in the lab, or figured out for myself. I would like to give a big thanks to Hacking the Thesis.

writing-quotes_cslewis

Writing

Over the next month I will be posting about the various steps I take in my writing. My plan is to talk about the following:

  • free writing
  • memos
  • academic paper drafts
  • writing for blogs or other “general” audience media

One book I found very helpful was Writing Your Dissertation in 15 Minutes a Day. The habit that I have picked up since my first read through is writing everyday. I do this by setting aside roughly 45 minutes of my day for my free writing. I aim for about 1500 words per day of this kind of writing. The next level of writing is slightly more structured memos, which usually have some kind of focus (a question I am trying to answer, or something specific I am analyzing or drafting up). Finally, the free writes and memos then feed into my rough drafts. When I know what kind of question I want to answer for a particular venue, I can start a more formal drafting process. This is also where I bring in coauthors to help with the argument, literature, and clarity.

While my main focus is my academic writing, I also change things up to give my brain a rest by writing fiction and journalling. Perhaps I will have more on this after I’ve finished this series of blog posts.

ASSETS 2012 Conference

To be honest, I started this blog immediately after I returned from the ASSETS 2012 conference, but everything else in this semester got away from me and I didn’t post it. I’m on winter break now, so I am finally able to catch up on things.

I have finally returned home from my journey to Boulder, Colorado. Firstly, we drove. We should have realized what a crazy idea this was when we stood in a room full of Ringlands, told them our plan to drive down to Boulder and back in a week, and no one even batted an eye.

Family eating lutefisk dinner.

Some of the Ringlands eating at the lutefisk dinner in Poulsbo.

With a belly full of lutefisk (because nothing says the start to a great road trip than unending plates of lefse and lutefisk) we left Poulsbo, WA to arrive 36 hours later in Boulder, CO. I’m going to admit upfront that I missed the keynote Monday morning.  We rolled into the hotel as the address was about half-way over.  If only we hadn’t stopped for that 2 hours of sleep in Rawlins, Wyoming!

First impressions:

*ASSETS is much, MUCH smaller than any other conference I have attended (less than 100 people versus a couple thousand plus).  This allowed me to get to know a lot of the people there.

*ASSETS is a single-track deal.  This was great!  I didn’t have to choose between two awesome papers.  Everything is in one room.  With the exception of the keynote, I didn’t have to miss any of the conference.

*It’s really nice having such a close-knit, small community.  People were super enthusiastic not only about their own projects, but other people’s work and were very willing to get in there and give each other ideas.

There was a lot of really fantastic work presented at the conference.  It ranged from web accessibility to assistive tech hardware to biofeedback interfaces. The populations being worked with were quite varied from physically disabled to the elderly to the visually impaired and so on. I think the most heartening thing about the conference was to see how much great work is being done to help people.

The grad student I worked with on my DREU project, Michele A. Burton, gave her presentation on the accessible fashion we had been working on. She did a fantastic job. I very much wish to follow in her footsteps.

Boulder itself was absolutely beautiful. I had the opportunity to visit the campus and see the Human-Centered Computing Lab there. It was great to meet some of the students and see what projects they are working on. This is definitely one of my top choices for graduate schools.

We got 5 inches of snow just as the conference was ending. It forced us to stay an extra day, but it was worth it.

Snowy creek and trees.

A creek near our hotel in Boulder, CO.

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