Active questions tagged writing - Academia Stack Exchange most recent 30 from 2019-09-22T06:04:06Z 5 How to overcome losing of appreciation for the work done during manuscript preparation? confusedgradstudent 2019-09-16T07:22:37Z 2019-09-16T18:48:12Z <p>As a fifth year PhD student, I am currently finalizing my manuscripts for submission having worked on them for over the past two years. However, everytime I am editing my manuscripts based on the feedback from my advisor, I feel disgusted with the quality of work done. I feel that I have done a really poor non-rigorous job and I should have worked harder or in a different topic to make the work more worthy of getting published. I also feel that the work presented in the manuscript won't get accepted anywhere and I have just wasted my time.</p> <p>Is it something everyone experiences or am I suffering from self-esteem and confidence issues? How to overcome this feeling?</p> 0 Professional writing tips Ayesha 2019-09-12T15:08:15Z 2019-09-13T08:27:49Z <p>I just started my post doc and currently writing a paper but I don't have any professional writing experience. Is there a learning curve or forums that can help with improving writing skills? E.g. I want to rephrase "The review paper published recently talked about the wide range of.." into more professional sentence. How can I get help on this?</p> 12 When did English come to lead in published research? TheEnvironmentalist 2017-12-11T19:05:30Z 2019-09-10T23:43:47Z <p>As any modern student knows, nearly all published research these days is in English. That's just the way of the world. But it didn't used to be that way. Many of the most pivotal pieces of scientific literature in the world, like the writings of Riemann, Cantor, Einstein, Galois, Schrödinger, (Gregor) Mandel, Linnaeus and many, many others were written in German, French or Latin. These days, publishing in a language other than English hurts your credibility, and is largely discouraged.</p> <p>When did English become necessary for publishing scientific literature?</p> 2 How to write about the history of a new line of research in a grant application? B. T. 2019-09-06T10:25:46Z 2019-09-07T06:15:09Z <p>I'm a Ph.D. student and my advisor has asked me to write a few paragraphs about the history and the existing literature of a relatively new line of research (the first paper on this topic was published in 2014 and there are only 3-4 major papers on this topic) to be included in a grant application. Since this is my first encounter with grant writing, I would appreciate any help with what to include in these paragraphs given that there are only a few major papers on this topic. </p> <p>Thanks a lot in advance! </p> 1 Advices for writing the research statement Heba Mohsen 2019-09-06T20:42:32Z 2019-09-06T23:52:28Z <p>I am writing my first research statement to apply for a faculty position. what are the most important parts to focus. I am thinking of dividing it into 3 sections. One for current Research, the second for future research and the third one is for previous research works. Is this a good organization?</p> <p>What are common mistakes to avoid? </p> 13 What is the best way of breaking a mathematical development into a sequence of articles? j0equ1nn 2016-10-04T07:18:01Z 2019-08-23T15:02:19Z <p>I am currently in the process of turning my math doctoral thesis into articles to submit to journals. This is my first time writing anything mathematical for publication.</p> <p>My thesis was on the long-side, and referenced a lot of background material from areas of math that do not often communicate. (The principle field is topology, but it draws heavily on some specific corners of algebra, number theory and relativity theory that most topologists do not study.) It also has a historical component and the first result is a completion of a somewhat archaic classical idea. I then go on to develop that idea to obtain results pertinent to current active research.</p> <p>Due to this, as well as the common advice of not making an article too long (especially one's first article), I am breaking my results into two articles. The first one will say something about what I intend to do in the second for motivational purposes, and lay all the groundwork, but is focused on generalizing a classical theorem. Then the second will focus on results more relevant to current topology, referencing results form the first but not weighed down by them.</p> <p>My question is about what I should include in my setup at the beginning of the second article. I summarize a bunch of standard ideas at the beginning of my first article, which really does need to be there because it is not typical for someone working in any one of the fields to be familiar with the other concepts. I also introduce notation. Then in my second article I use all the same stuff, plus some more.</p> <p><strong>Is it okay to leave out a repetition of that background info, and refer the reader to my first article?</strong> I figure I should re-define any original or unusual notation, but I don't want to have all that repetition in the first section of both articles. On the other hand, I want people to read the second one, and not be off-put by being referred to the first one, or feel the background is not well established.</p> <p><strong>Is there a standard protocol for writing a series of two or more articles that develop a concept continuously, which draw upon the same set of background definitions and theorems?</strong> Would it be better to just write one very long article after all?</p> 3 Credit for republished writing Simon 2019-07-20T08:47:42Z 2019-08-19T10:01:35Z <p>I recently had an essay published in a semi-academic journal. It was widely shared and consequently got picked up by a few other online magazines who republished it. How do I list this on a CV? As separate publications with the title, or a note explaining the situation?</p> 47 Is using the phrase "... is left as an exercise for the reader" considered good style in academic papers/theses? Jan 2014-05-01T09:34:59Z 2019-08-19T07:44:29Z <p>Possible arguments:</p> <p>Pro</p> <ul> <li>For brevity for trivial deductions</li> </ul> <p>Contra</p> <ul> <li>Looks like the writer could not be bothered to write an extensive explanation</li> <li>Definition of what is trivial to which reader and what not</li> </ul> 31 How to improve technical writing Ran G. 2012-03-15T04:04:10Z 2019-08-19T06:45:18Z <p>Whenever I write an article, I feel the result is not good enough. Although every theorem is solid and correctly proven, something is always "squeaky".</p> <p>The main evidence for my feeling shows itself when my co-authors revise theorem I've written. Suddenly everything becomes compact, precise and clear. Properties that were used several times get a name; modular parts of the proof become lemmas; etc. The math remains the same, but the presentation is way more efficient and easy to follow.</p> <p>How can I improve my technical writing skills? Any tips and resources would be appreciated. <br/> <sub>Comment: I'm not a native English speaker, which is an additional factor.</sub></p> 1 APA location/address of publisher vs location of conference lo tolmencre 2019-08-18T14:00:34Z 2019-08-18T17:14:23Z <p>I need some clarification of the parameter <code>location</code> specified in the APA manual regarding papers published in the proceedings of conferences. Virtually all online data banks for papers that I came across give the location where the conference took place but not the location of the publisher. Some times I have a hard time finding out what the latter is sometimes I can't find it at all.</p> <p>The manual gives this example:</p> <blockquote> <p><strong>39. Proceedings published in book form</strong></p> <p>Katz, I., Gabayan, K., &amp; Aghajan, H. (2007). A multi-touch surface using multiple cameras. In J. Blanc-Talon, W. Philips, D. Popescu, &amp; P. Scheunders (Eds.), <em>Lecture Notes in ComputerScience: Vol. 4678. Advanced Concepts for intelligent Vision Systems</em> (pp. 97—108). Berlin, Germany: Springer-Verlag. doi: 10.1 007/978-3-5407460729</p> </blockquote> <p>Does <code>location</code> really mean the formal/legal location of the publisher? What if I can't find out what it is because the publisher does not mention it on their website?</p> 1 How to avoid generalization? [closed] Goodie Good 2019-08-15T05:07:35Z 2019-08-15T15:45:19Z <p>One of the tips I learn when writing academic papers is to avoid generalizing, and by that, it means we, as writers, need to understand the difference between fact and opinion and try to express things with different levels of certainty. However, I still find the way to differentiate between fact and opinion quite confusing. It would be great if someone can explain the difference between these two things.</p> -1 writing a brief description of yourself [closed] Elena93 2019-08-15T14:51:12Z 2019-08-15T15:19:37Z <p>I have just started my first job in a company as an engineer, I was asked to write a brief description of myself which will be sent to all the staffs. Could you please provide some template? how we can write an interesting autobiography?</p> <p>edited: Having said that some humor or random facts can be included in this bio.</p> 6 How to explain my methods and results? wwl 2017-07-04T02:53:07Z 2019-08-14T17:56:22Z <p>I currently am writing a paper which uses regressions (from statistics) heavily. The objective is to show (as far as possible) that A causes B.</p> <p>The main analysis of my paper uses regressions to show that A is correlated with B. </p> <p>After showing this correlation, I wish to show that A occurs before B occurs so as to give further evidence of a causal relationship. This requires another set of regressions. (The set of explanatory variables changes significantly, so I need to specify the new regression equation.)</p> <p>Furthermore, I need to show that factors C, D, E mediate the relationship between A and B. (Again, I am much better off specifying the new regression equation. Even if you doubt this, just believe me on this)</p> <p>How should I go about this?</p> <p>Option 1: Explain all methods (correlation, temporal precedence, mediation) in the Methods section. Then give all results in the Results section.</p> <p>Option 2: Explain the methodology for detecting correlation, then give the results. Then explain the methodology for temporal precedence, give the results. Then explain the methodology for mediation, and give the results.</p> <p>The problem is, no matter which way I do this, I get criticism that the structure is confusing, along with suggestions that I should do the alternative approach. For example, if I try option 1, people say that temporal precedence and mediation only make sense if I detect a correlation, so these analyses should be shifted to the back. On the other hand, if I try option 2, people say that my methodology should all be neatly encompassed in a single Methods section.</p> <p>I'm curious as to what most people do when they are in a similar situation?</p> 2 Does the related work section need to be strictly about other's work only? lo tolmencre 2019-08-10T06:12:49Z 2019-08-10T10:14:16Z <p>I would like to clarify a writing style issue concerning separating related work from my own work: </p> <p>Does the related work section need to be strictly about other work only? Or may you also explicitly explain the relevance of the related work to the text at hand?</p> <p>That is, should you avoid explaining why a given related paper is related to your work and just report on the paper itself, or is it okay to also explain, WHY that paper is relevant while you talk about it? For example</p> <p><strong>Related work</strong></p> <p><em>[...] Someone et al. (2010) report that "X -> Y". Someoneelse (2011) however found evidence for "not X -> Y". It is not entirely obvious where this difference in findings results from. That is why I study "X" in regard to its influence on "Y" in more detail in this thesis. [...]</em></p> <p>A version of this statement would also find itself in the introduction and possible the abstract, but imagine there to be more surrounding explanation in the related work section.</p> <p>Is that permissible writing style? Or is the <em>That is why I study "X" in regard to its influence on "Y" in more detail in this thesis.</em> part out-of-place in the related work section?</p> 1 APA reference same author, one dated, one not dated: which order? [closed] Leah 2019-08-02T16:53:09Z 2019-08-02T17:16:37Z <p>If I have the same author twice in my reference list, and one work is dated and the other is not, which comes first in the list? E.g.: Lastname, F., (n.d.). Title [etc.] Lastname, F., (2019). Different title [etc.]</p> 4 Public data repositories: Multiple figures as one reference Ttam 2019-07-01T23:36:42Z 2019-08-01T08:02:20Z <p>my current manuscript is combining work in multiple research fields, so naturally it's difficult to find good journals to submit it to.</p> <p>At the moment I'm down to one journal where I would really like to submit it, however, the author's instructions of the journal make it difficult to wrap all my data into it.</p> <p>I'm only allowed 2 tables and 3 figures and all supplemental material needs to be uploaded to public data repositories like FigShare. There is another table and 3 more figures that I would like to include that way. BUT The journal also only allows 30 references. At the moment I'm at 29 references. I have never used FigShare before but as far as I understand it, I need a new reference for every figure or table I cite that way?! So that would leave me at 33 references and I really can't afford to cut my text. I also don't have any redundant references.</p> <p>So as I said. I would really love to still be able to submit it to that journal somehow. Is there any way that I can upload all my 3 figures and 1 table in a public repository and cite it as one single reference in the manuscript?</p> <p>I hope my question makes sense so far.</p> <p>Many thanks</p> 0 Remarks/Comments inside a translation Ken 2019-07-30T18:54:10Z 2019-07-30T19:10:28Z <p>I'm currently writing up my Masters Dissertation and in one of my sections I have translated an article that was written in German. To the best of my knowledge no current translation of this specific article exists.</p> <p>My question is this; what is the best way to add commentary/remarks to what has been translated without disrupting the flow of the translation?</p> <p>For example</p> <pre><code>foo bar foo bar foo bar and is given by &lt;insert equation here&gt; where ...... </code></pre> <p>I'd like to add a comment along the lines of</p> <pre><code>foo bar foo bar foo bar and is given by &lt;insert equation here&gt; {comment on how he managed to derive said equation because it's not obvious} where ...... </code></pre> <p>Initially I thought that perhaps it's better to comment on them in the footnote as suggested <a href="">here</a>. However, it means some footnotes are going to be half a page and ruin the flow of the translation. </p> <p>Any ideas or feedback is greatly appreciated</p> <p>Regards</p> <p>Kendall</p> 0 How to refer to the empirical study involved in the thesis? Aqqqq 2019-07-27T14:26:22Z 2019-07-27T16:29:07Z <p>Should I always refer to it as "the empirical study of/ involved in this thesis"? I found it too lengthy when I need to refer to it frequently in the thesis. Is there another shorter term to refer to it?</p> 10 What is the Latin term "pace" used for when referencing other scholars? Keelan 2019-06-03T08:59:08Z 2019-07-22T07:34:22Z <p>I frequently come across references to other scholars like:</p> <blockquote> <p>In period P, syntactic construct C did not have function F (<em>pace</em> Smith 2000).</p> </blockquote> <p>I understand that <em>pace</em> here signals that Smith (2000) suggests that C <em>did</em> have function F in P (see <a href="">this related question</a> for the basic meaning of <em>pace</em>). But I'm having trouble relating this to the literal meaning of <em>pace</em> ('in peace'). Does the above mean:</p> <ol> <li><p>That the author holds Smith in high regard (suggested <a href="">here</a>, but this seems odd to me since the relationship between the author and Smith is irrelevant to the content).</p></li> <li><p>That no offence to Smith is intended (suggested <a href="">here</a>, but this also seems odd in an academic work: Smith is aware of the scientific method and the fact that his claims may be challenged).</p></li> <li><p>That the author acknowledges that there are currently different opinions on the matter and that the author accepts Smith's point of view because the matter cannot be settled with the evidence currently available?</p></li> <li><p>Something else?</p></li> </ol> <p>I am looking at a dissertation here where the author at times rebukes another scholar quite strongly, without <em>pace</em>, ("the analysis of Smith is a step backwards from the 100 year old description by Jones"), but at other times uses <em>pace</em> to describe a difference of opinion more neutrally ("<em>pace</em> Smith who does not differentiate further here"). This suggests to me that <em>pace</em> signals something about the content of the referenced proposition rather than the author's attitude to the referenced scholar.</p> <p>It's just unclear to me what <em>pace</em> signifies exactly.</p> 0 Writing a series of papers [closed] Rain Man 2019-07-18T19:14:27Z 2019-07-18T22:48:02Z <p>I'm writing a series of three papers. Each paper I'm writing contains two parts (part A + part X), where part A is a new technology and part X is the field of applying it. Part A is common in all the three papers while part X (the field) is variable according to the field the paper discusses.</p> <p>Can I use the resources of part A in the same arrangement (but with different paraphrasing) in all three papers, or should I get different resources for the same information in part A for all of them?</p> <p>my question here represent my intention to understand the scientific logic not to suggest bad solution because i am a beginner still . </p> 0 Is it acceptable to cite an article from a corporate website? Can Wikipedia be used to prove credibility? StckXchnge-nub12 2019-07-16T11:02:21Z 2019-07-18T18:33:05Z <p>I need relatively broad information on the functionality of a certain technology as part of the exposition to my seminar paper. As scholarly papers tend to focus on very specific questions, already taking the existence of my sought-for concepts for granted, and since suitable books don't seem available to me, I feel that I have to look for answers on a regular website.</p> <p>For this, I've found a short article by a major corporation which happens to be the market leader of said technology. Is it acceptable to cite their web page in a seminar paper?</p> <p>I understand that credibility of the used sources is a major concern. Given the fact they are market leader, I believe that credibility to be present. Do I need to name this company's status (e.g. "According to [company], market leader in [technology], ...") to validate the source? If so, would simply citing Wikipedia for this fact suffice, assuming their prevailing status on the market needs to be proven as well?</p> 0 Referencing earlier passages: Cross reference or "as discussed earlier" lo tolmencre 2019-07-13T11:36:50Z 2019-07-14T21:36:28Z <p>I am looking for stylistic advice regarding the (over) use of cross-references. For instance, using cross-references in Latex through <code>\ref{...}</code> for major structural blocks like chapters and sections certainly is a good idea. But when it comes to subsections or subsubsection that are only one or two pages long, technical cross-references begin to feel a little over the top and I prefer using phrases such like <em>as mentioned earlier</em> or <em>as discussed in the previous section</em> (while possibly actually meaning a latex subsubsection). I also prefer it this way, as I don't like numbered headings for subsections and subsubsections, for the same reason: It looks overkill. But numbered headings are requiered for the cross-references to work.</p> <p>So, should I rather use technical cross-references with <code>\ref{...}</code> throughout the text? Are the more or less agreed upon stylistic rules for this in scientific writing?</p> 55 How to deal with my PhD supervisors rudely critiquing all my draft papers? Rich Gourderton 2019-04-13T03:07:34Z 2019-07-13T19:03:46Z <p>I'm a PhD candidate in biology about three semesters in. I am co-advised by two young married principal investigators (PIs), who are just about to get tenure. Things were going great initially, as I completed a medium-sized project and got publishable data very early on. However, now that it has come to writing papers, I’m finding my PIs to be rude, unpleasant, and excessively hands-on. </p> <p>First of all, almost every time I send something, they respond with something like: "don't send us manuscripts with errors, next time they'll be sent back to you", or: "don't waste people's time with unpolished manuscripts." Of course I do check over them obsessively before sending, but I'm only three semesters in so I'm not perfect. They also will give me comments like, "you didn't explain how you mixed this solution," so I will write, "I mixed the solution by adding XXg of XX to XX." Then they have the nerve to tell me, "you're not doing a good job, you add useless details about adding XXg of XX to XX." Really?! They also make jokes about my writing, like "impossible [to test mice immediately upon birth] unless you're a mouse midwife." I know, it's not even clever. There's also random comments like, "what are you doing here [in reference to a statement]?," "stop doing XX," "don't do that," and "wrong, read it again." They also rewrite almost everything I write. None of my writing ever makes it to the final cut.</p> <p>If I'm just being a baby, totally feel free to tell me just to suck it up. I'll submit a manuscript, and a certain section gets no comments. Then, I submit the manuscript again and the previously fine section is now crap! Why was it ok before, but now it's not? They're nice to everyone's face, but they have been very rude (i.e., actual severe harassment) to at least one other person over email that I know of. </p> <p>I'm middle-aged with a spouse and kids – I don't need to take crap from PIs my own age. I've had two-dozen jobs, and I've rarely been treated so rudely. Switching labs is out, because our department is super tiny. I don't want to leave because I don't have much else going for me job-wise. I don't want to confront them, because past experience has taught me that it makes them even more aggressive and rude. </p> <p>Is this type of behavior normal and acceptable in a lab? Should I just grin and bear it? How do you cope with rude and demeaning PIs?</p> 0 Do MLA guidelines apply in the UK? [closed] FirePenguin 2019-07-11T10:41:32Z 2019-07-11T17:49:04Z <p>Not sure if this is the right place to put this but:</p> <p>This week I started a six-week school project to write a research paper about diseases. As part of my preperation, I read a short paper on writing research papers (as this is one of the first I have done.) In the paper there was a diagram explaining the MLA guidelines for standardising research paper formatting. My homeschool curriculum is American but I live in the UK. My question is, as a British student, should I write the paper according to MLA guidelines, or is there something else for those of us living across the pond?</p> 2 Referencing next section to avoid confusion Dexter 2019-07-09T10:37:34Z 2019-07-10T21:57:38Z <p>I am writing one research article in the field of biology. I want to refer some concept which I am going to describe in next sections but have not described in current sentence (or previous sections) to avoid confusion. I felt it will break the flow of the article if I explained that concept in previous sections. For example, </p> <blockquote> <p>Section 1: Some Title </p> <p>... We extended this task by performing XYZ (explained in section 2.3) which will help in better understanding of this issue...</p> <p>...</p> <p>...</p> <p>Section 2.3: XYZ </p> <p>This method performs ...</p> </blockquote> <p>I have seen few papers with such referencing. I was just wondering if it is logically fine or there is some alternative style. </p> <p>This is not similar to the content which we put in supplementary data. And also this is <strong>NOT</strong> a problem of keeping it in <strong>Materials and Methods</strong>. It is just complex concept which will need separate section for its clarification. </p> <p>I have found one similar <a href="">post</a> but answer was not satisfactory and slightly unrelated to above situation. </p> 66 Graduate student with abysmal English writing skills, how to help TeacherOfMathEnglish 2019-07-08T16:21:00Z 2019-07-10T07:27:38Z <p>I am a math professor at an R1 university. I have taken up a new graduate student (my n'th for n&lt;=10), who is mathematically quite strong, but whose writing skills are a couple notches below what I have had to deal with so far. </p> <p>We have a new result, which he currently is writing up. He is relatively new to English, and his native language is much unlike English. Though one can understand what he says in a conversation, writing a paper is a real struggle.</p> <p>Most research students that I have worked with start with poor mathematical English skills. Their first drafts have several major problems, and require many rounds of thorough revision. However, there is always at least something which is right from the start. In contrast, this student's drafts appear nearly unsalvageable: they have hardly a sentence in common with any proper exposition. I have lost the track of revision number, but it is likely to be in double digits now.</p> <p>The student is working hard, and the draft is showing some signs of improvement. However, I cannot shake the feeling that there should be more that I can do than provide extensive feedback. I am also worried that if this continues for another few months, the student can get much discouraged.</p> <p>I believe that a part of the problem is the sudden jump in writing difficulty. The mathematical content of the paper-in-writing is more complex than it is typical for a first paper of students that I have supervised so far. This makes the writing task harder. I wish only that the student could practice on a simpler, shorter paper first, to provide a smoother transition from writing homework exercises.</p> <p>I am looking for suggestions. Note that I would like to avoid writing the paper myself (which would be far less work for me than this), for I want the student to learn how to write himself.</p> <p>What I have done so far:</p> <ul> <li><p>extensive comments on drafts, with some verbal explanations</p></li> <li><p>suggested some mathematical readings which I know are well-written (to learn by example)</p></li> <li><p>provided general encouragement</p></li> </ul> 2 Are you required to trace back information on a subject to first publication for a citation on it? lo tolmencre 2019-07-08T09:23:00Z 2019-07-08T20:12:35Z <p>If there is a tree of papers on or involving <em>X</em>, all of which give a brief introduction to <em>X</em> and I need a citation for my use of <em>X</em>, do I need to give the root of the tree as a citation of <em>X</em> or can I cite any of the nodes in the tree that explain <em>X</em> for my use of it?</p> <p>Concretely I need to cite why using point wise mutual information can be used to improve co-occurence matrix based word embeddings. I do not really know where PPMI was first used for this purpose, but I have stepped down towards the root for a few papers now. Do I need to find the paper that first used PPMI for this or can I cite any of the ones I already found?</p> 0 Difference between inclusion and exclusion criteria [closed] Orion 2019-07-08T12:26:29Z 2019-07-08T15:36:40Z <p>Authors frequently report criteria of selecting subjects in studies in two separate categories, <em>inclusion</em> and <em>exclusion criteria</em>, e.g.:</p> <blockquote> <p>Inclusion criteria:</p> <ul> <li><p>age between 18-60</p></li> <li><p>has the disease x</p></li> </ul> <p>Exclusion criteria:</p> <ul> <li><p>smoker</p></li> <li><p>has disease y</p></li> </ul> </blockquote> <p>Alternatively, one can simply put these criteria under one category:</p> <blockquote> <p>Inclusion (or selection) criteria:</p> <ul> <li><p>age between 18-60</p></li> <li><p>has disease x</p></li> <li><p>is <strong>not</strong> smoker</p></li> <li><p>does <strong>not</strong> have the disease y</p></li> </ul> </blockquote> <p>Is there a real distinction between the two terms? Or are they used just as a matter of convention?</p> 0 How to handle capitalized abbreviations in Book, Anthology, Journal, etc. titles in APA? lo tolmencre 2019-07-07T08:08:05Z 2019-07-07T15:23:59Z <p>I am using APA and need to cite an article from a conference which has a capitalized abbreviation in its name:</p> <p><em>Proceedings of the 1992 ACM/IEEE Conference on Supercomputing</em></p> <p><a href="" rel="nofollow noreferrer"></a></p> <p>I can't find information on how to handle abbreviations in the reference entry. My Biblatex code is this:</p> <pre><code>@inproceedings{schutze_1992, author = {Schütze, H}, year = {1992}, pages = {787 - 796}, title = {Dimensions of Meaning}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 1992 {ACM/IEEE} Conference on Supercomputing}, editor = {Robert Werner}, location = {Los Alamitos, CA, USA}, publisher = {IEEE Computer Society Press} } </code></pre> <p>On suspicion, I manually kept the abbreviations capitalized, producing this output</p> <p><a href="" rel="nofollow noreferrer">enter image description here</a></p> <p>But per default <em>ACM/IEEE</em> is not capitalized by Biblatex.</p> <p>What is correct?</p> 1 In a paper, how would you name a part that describes the big picture before the technical details Vincent 2019-07-02T14:52:23Z 2019-07-03T14:33:59Z <p>I have been struggling with finding the right title for a section in a scientific paper (in computer science but I think it can apply to many other fields). I know it's not the first time I encounter this problem, so I guess it's worth asking the question.</p> <p>For now the outline of the paper resembles something like this:</p> <ul> <li><strong>Introduction</strong>: where I describe the problem and the outline of the paper</li> <li><strong>Background/Related work</strong>: where I describe what the state-of-the art is in the field</li> <li><strong><em>Big picture</em></strong>: where I describe where we want to go and how we will go there from a high level standpoint (more detailed than the intro, but less detailed than what follows)</li> <li><strong>[... Implementation ... Technical Details ... Application ... etc]</strong>: the body of the article</li> <li><strong>Conclusion</strong></li> </ul> <p>I'm struggling with the title of the third part <strong><em>Big picture</em></strong>. I want a title that conveys the idea of a high level description of what will follow so that the reader does not get lost in the technical details and keep in mind what the general plan is. Things I had in mind so far: big picture description, methodology, strategy, overview, plan of attack, ... However, none of these section title conveys exactly what I want.</p> <hr> <p><strong>Is there a common practice for the title of such a section of a paper?</strong> </p> <p><strong>What could be a good fit?</strong></p>