writing a databases research paper

Writing a Databases Research Paper

Damian Gordon

Introduction

Database research is at an exciting crossroads, unlike many areas of study in computing, database research and their application in the world of business have a very strong cross-fertilisation.

With the development of Data mining and warehousing, XML, temporal databases, Data Visualization, Open Source, etc. the range of possible ways that an organisation can design, implement, store and retrieve their data has changed significantly.

Introduction

A detailed discussion related to some of the latest topics can be found in “The Claremont Report on Database Research”

Agrawal, R., et al., “The Claremont Report on Database Research”, ACM Comms., 52(6), June 2009.

Who are ACM ?

The Association for Computing Machinery, or ACM, is a learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 as the world's first scientific and educational computing society. Its membership is more than 92,000 as of 2009. ACM is organized into over 170 local chapters and 35 Special Interest Groups (SIGs), through which it conducts most of its activities. Many of the SIGs, like SIGGRAPH, SIGPLAN, SIGCSE and SIGCOMM, sponsor regular conferences which have become famous as the dominant venue for presenting new innovations in certain fields. The groups also publish a large number of specialized journals, magazines, and newsletters.

ACM SIGs SIGACCESS - Accessible Computing SIGACT - Algorithms and Computation Theory SIGAda - Ada Programming Language SIGAPP - Applied Computing SIGARCH - Computer Architecture SIGART - Artificial Intelligence SIGBED - Embedded Systems SIGCAS - Computers and Society SIGCHI - Computer-Human Interaction SIGCOMM - Data Communication SIGCSE - Computer Science Education SIGDA - Design Automation SIGDOC - Design of Communication SIGecom - Electronic Commerce SIGEVO - Genetic and Evolutionary Computation SIGGRAPH - Computer Graphics and Interactive

Techniques SIGIR - Information Retrieval

SIGITE - Information Technology Education SIGKDD - Knowledge Discovery in Data SIGMETRICS - Measurement and Evaluation SIGMICRO - Microarchitecture SIGMIS - Management Information Systems SIGMM - Multimedia SIGMOBILE - Mobility of Systems, Users, Data

and Computing SIGMOD - Management of Data SIGOPS - Operating Systems SIGPLAN - Programming Languages SIGSAC - Security, Audit and Control SIGSAM - Symbolic and Algebraic

Manipulation SIGSIM - Simulation and Modeling SIGSOFT - Software Engineering SIGSPATIAL - SIGSPATIAL SIGUCCS - University and College Computing

Services SIGWEB - Hypertext, Hypermedia and Web

Who else ?

Another significant group are IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) called “eye-triple-e” is a professional organization for the advancement of technology, it also publishes a number journals

IEEE Transactions IEEE Computational intelligence and AI IEEE Transactions on Computers IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence IEEE Transactions on Services Computing IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing IEEE Transactions on Haptics IEEE Transactions on Information Technology in Biomedicine IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing IEEE Transactions on Multimedia IEEE Transactions on Nanobioscience IEEE Transactions on Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) Systems IEEE/ACM Transactions on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking

Good Sources ?

Journal Papers Conference Papers Textbooks Other Books Company Whitepapers Company Websites Blogs Wikis

Introduction

Another approach to identifying up-to-the-minute info is to look at Database Conferences, e.g.

Data Management, Information Quality and Data Warehouse & Business Intelligence Conference 2010, 3-5 November 2010, London, UK

Look at the topics

Information and Data Quality Business Intelligence Data Warehousing Dimensional Modelling Metadata Metadata Management Data Integration Data Architecture Definitions Management Data Modelling Analytics Corporate Data Strategy Cloud Computing

Open Source Data Migration Data Model Scorecard Business Semantics Operational BI Unstructured Data XML Mashups Agile EIM Corporate Data Management Latest Trends Agile Data Warehousing

How do we find good info?

The Library

The Web– Google– Google Scholar– Citeseer– Conferences– Researcher’s websites

synonyms

acronyms

polysemy

single-conceptprinciple

neologisms

monosemyabbreviations

quasi-synonyms,or near-synonyms

pseudo-synonyms,or false synonymsantonyms

phraseologism

hyponyms

hypernyms

collocation Cross-

references

PROBLEMS WITH USINGA SEARCH ENGINE AS THE SOLE SOURCE OF

INFORMATION

tautonyms

Other really good sites

http://arxiv.org/archive/cs

WebLenshttp://www.weblens.org/scholar.html

INFOMINE

Gartner

Bibliographical Software

BibTeXFree

PybliographerFree

Biblioscape

EndNote

Mendeley

Reference Manager

What is a Research Paper?

Research Paper

A typical research paper (from a conference or journal) consists of the following parts;

– Title, – Abstract, – Introduction, – Methodology, – Results and – Bibliography.

Research Paper

You will encounter new terminology when reading papers It is important that you note it down, and find out what it means. You can do this by looking it up on the web or in a textbook, if it

is an acronym, synonym or a related term to your research topic,

BUILD A LEXICON. This is a very important step, since any new term could be

central to your research, it may describe a mathematical technique or it could be a

synonym for the research domain itself, whatever the case.

Research Paper

At the beginning of the research process you will be deluged with new terminology, the important thing is to hang in there,

DON’T GET OVERWHELMED BY IT ALL, the more papers you read, the less new terms you will be

encountering, the more of an expert you will become. As you are learning more about the papers it is very important

that you update the records you are keeping about this particular paper, in particular, the research topic or keywords sections.

Research Paper

Title Abstract Introduction Methodology Analysis Conclusions Bibliography

Title

What do it tell you about the paper?

Is it – “The Development of…” – “An Investigation of…” – “The Design of…”

Abstract

Usually answers the following questions1. What is the area of study?2. What is the problem being tackled?3. What does the literature say?4. How did you tackle the problem?5. How did you implement the solution?6. What results have you gotten?

Introduction

Sets the scene for the paper Identifies what is in the rest of the paper More importantly says what is not being covered in

the paper, sets the research scope or research boundary

Review some of the important background literature.

Tells the reader why this research is important

Introduction

Topic?Importance?

Introduction

Arrangement?Background?

Methodology

Your research method is called “Desk-based research” in this section you identify how you undertook your research process, what resources you identified, and how you review them.

Analysis

For this assignment this is the big part of the paper, based on the references you have read :

– What is this topic about ?– Why has this technology been developed?– What are the important trends in industry?– What are the important trends in research?– Where is this going?

Analysis

organised by ideas, research trends NOT chronologically or by author

Conclusions

What are you overall impressions of this topics, what are its strengths and weaknesses?

Where do you think it’s going from here? What did you learn?

Bibliography

List of papers you read, in the following format;

Reviewing a paper

ResearchQuestion

ExperimentResults

Reviewing a paper

Do all three match?

It’s surprising how often they don’t

Some points on writing a paper

It’s and its Perpendicular pronoun and passive voice Possession and plural Try to avoid mixing tenses Punctuation ( . ; : - ) et al.


I keep six honest serving-men(They taught me all I knew);Their names are What and Why and When And How and Where and Who.I send them over land and sea,I send them east and west;But after they have worked for me,I give them all a rest.

I let them rest from nine till five,For I am busy then,As well as breakfast, lunch, and tea,For they are hungry men.But different folk have different views; I know a person small-She keeps ten million serving-men,Who get no rest at all!

She sends'em abroad on her own affairs,From the second she opens her eyes-One million Hows, two million Wheres,And seven million Whys!


The four C’s:• Clarity -- it is easily understood by your intended

audience• Comprehensiveness -- all of the necessary

information is present• Conciseness -- it is clear without excess

verbiage• Correctness -- it is grammatical and follows

conventions


• Write positive language.– Don’t use: Access to student information is not authorized for any

parties except Enrollment Services. Employees who have access to student information are not allowed to share that information with non- affiliated third parties if you have not authorized it.

– Do use: Access to student information is authorized only for Enrollment Services purposes. Employees who have access to student information are required to protect and keep it confidential.

• DON’T WRITE IN UPPER CASE FOR MORE THAN A WORD OR TWO.

Your audience

At the very beginning… think about your likely audience.

The word selection, level of motivation, and background required for a report (or a presentation) depends greatly on the background of the audience.

Over to you...