Tips for Researchers

v0.06

Ji Soo YiAssociate Professor

School of Industrial EngineeringPurdue University

IE 697004:30 – 5:20pm 2014-10-07

Disclaimer

• This material is largely based on the presenter’s personal experience, which may NOT be readily generalizable to individual circumstances.

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Background

• A researcher in HCI / HF since 2003

• The director of the HIVE Lab since 2009

• The instructor of IE 65900 since 2009

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Quick Survey

• How many of you have any research experiences?

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Quick Survey

• What are your biggest difficulties/obstacles/concerns?

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Difficulties

• Choosing a Research Topic• Overwhelming/boring Lit Review• Tragic Procrastination• Embarrassing/slow Writing• Worries about the progress and

future

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Research Topic

• I don’t know how to come up with my research topic.

• I don’t know whether my research topic is good enough.

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QnDReview

• Quick and Dirty Review

– Review a series of papers quickly

• 100 papers in 7 hours (Yi, 2014)

– Which paper to read is more important than How many papers to read.

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Yi, J. S. (2014). QnDReview: Read 100 CHI Papers in 7 Hours. In Proceedings of the 32nd International Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), Toronto, Canada, April 26-May 1, 2014, 805-814.

Reading Seminar

• Find a group of people who share the similar interests

• 30-minute / day, 1-5 papers / week• Minimal effort / maximum coverage• If you are interested in HCI & HF– 12:30 to 1pm, Wang 4500

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Play Outside the Box

• Expose yourself to totally different domains.

– TED.com

– Adjust your new channels: Flipboard (Zite)

– Professionalize Twitter and Facebook

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Lit Review

– I feel overwhelmed. I feel that I know nothing about this topic.

– I keep finding another article to read. It never ends.

– I am sick of entering citation information and keeping track of pdf/hard copies.

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Arrogant Lit Review

1.QnDReview2.Read the top 10 papers.3.Arrogantly write review as if the 10

are ONLY papers.- e.g., “I am the first person who investigates this problem.”

4.Go back to Step 1 (or 2).

WARNING: If the number of iterations is small, you could end up writing pretty bad literature review. 12

Zotero

• Organize your pdf files and citations.

• You can synchronize your collections with a separate server.

• You can share the paper collection with your friends and colleagues.

• Don’t print out too many papers.• Other tools1

1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_reference_management_software13

Procrastination

• I am too busy with classes. No time for research.

• I want to finish my lit review by January, but it’s already April.

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Daily TODO

1.Write down TODOs for today.2.Do them ALL.3.Go home.

Advice from Dr. Salvendy•Your TODO should be doable-per-day

but challenging.•e.g., Finish lit review. (x)•e.g., Do one arrogant review. (o)•e.g., Write two lines. (o/x)•Don’t go home if you don’t finish. ;)•Don’t be ambitious too much at the

beginning. 15

Morning TODO

• Before going to bed, write down the most important thing to do.

• When you come to office, do it before any break.

• Smile.• Do other tasks.

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I still have the issue.

May be a Sign

• If you keep procrastinating even after all the tricks, it may be a sign for you.

• You might need to be more honest about yourself.

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I still have the issue.

Writing

• I (seem to) know everything, but I cannot start writing.

• I am an international student. English is a bad language.

• It takes so long time to write something.

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Two-Step Writing

1.Write random thoughts.–Do not judge your thoughts.–Do not use even the backspace key.

2.Edit your writing.

Don’t mix these steps up.19

First Sentence Writing

1.Write down first sentences of all paragraphs.

2.Revise these sentences very carefully, so that they reflect the main story clearly.

– e.g., Why is it important? Why do I do this study? How do I do it?

3.Whenever you have five minutes, finish up each paragraph. WARNING: This technique is

more for advanced researchers. Inexperienced researchers may experience too many changes as writing progresses.

Advice from Drs. Yih and Nohadani.20

OWL

• Use twice per week.• Find a good tutor for you and stick

to him/her.• Teach the tutor your research.• Keep the corrected papers.– It will be interesting to see the red

marks on your paper later on.

• Or, hire a private tutor.

21https://owl.english.purdue.edu/

Worries

• I only have one paper submitted. How can I find a job after I graduate?

• Am I on the right track? What if my current research is useless?

• Things aren’t moving, and clock is ticking. Ah, I don’t know.

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Small Wins

• Try to make small wins (e.g., making your bed), which will give confidence and will power.

• Don’t make your worries eat yourself.

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Networking

• But, I’m quite embarrassed to say hello to famous guys at a conference.– Prepare a big research question to be

answered.– The question will lead you to be

connected.

• BTW, I cannot go to a conference, yet.– Email them, then.– One hypothesis, “The more famous a

guy is, the quicker his/her response is.”

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Acknowledgements

Drs. Salvendy, Uhan, Yih, Nohadani, and Hunter provided their own tips.

Any Questions?

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