• Readings from Trees, Maps, and Theorems by Jean-Luc

120723 SRB -- Need to flesh this out...

• How to write a paper:

References

• Managing references is critical to writing a paper. Common reference managers are EndNote, Jabref, Mendeley, and Zotero.

Here is a doc that compares three of these managers.

A note on tense when writing

• All experiments and calculations have already been performed, so these should be in the past tense.

  • Samples were grown by MBE.

  • Mode profiles were simulated with FDTD.

• Statements describing the data should also be past tense:

  • Roughness increased monontonically with growth temperature.

  • The forward voltage increased with current.

• Interpretation -- which is presumably still valid at the moment someone is reading the paper -- should be in the present tense.

  • Phonon scattering limits the conductance in this temperature range.

  • The external efficiency is limited by Auger recombination at low temperatures and carrier leakage at high temperatures.

Misc. Notes

• Refs that are introduced simultaneously should be in chronological order, but refs you’ve introduced previously should be sorted in increasing numerical order.

  • e.g. "wafers were grown by molecular beam epitaxy, as detailed previously [4], [9], [15]." even if [4] is from 2012 and [9] is from 1856!!!

• How to write an abstract

How to write a GOOD abstract

Will be updated/corrected as needed; e.g. tell them what you're going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you told them

• EMC is easier to get into; other conferences (e.g. DRC) are harder.

• Well*written Abstract outline (good example is Hari's abstract for DRC 2013 for the working GaSb laser):

  • Step 1: What's the point?

    • Who is the audience/abstract committee?

    • What area are you working in? What devices do you need for the system? What is the current state of the art?

  • Step 2: What's the problem you're trying to solve?

    • There may be multiple, but what is the one you want to focus on?

    • Should be a relevant one, and one your results improve on.

  • Step 3: What's your approach (in succinct way)?

  • Step 4: Why is our approach/result novel?

  • Step 5: What we actually did/showed.

  • Step 6: What is unique?

  • Step 7: Future work

    • You can address problems if your results are crappy, and solutions to the specific problem.

    • Can be vague for delivery of the future work success.

  • Acknowledge support (ask Seth who to acknowledge).

  • Relevant figures.

Notes from April 4 2013

• Mechanical:

  • AIP style manual