Nothing is more frustrating than not being able to figure out what the paper is about until page 5. π Show a TEASER figure on the very first page highlighting the inputs/outputs/key findings.
*Figure 2: WHY did you do it?*
Motivate and justify the key insights/ideas of your work. It is often helpful to illustrate this more clearly by 1) SIMPLIFYING with a toy example and 2) CONTEXTUALIZING with prior work.
*Figure 3: HOW did you do it?*
Show an *overview* figure on how your method works. Label everything so that it provides a clear roadmap of the entire paper.
*Move figures/tables to the top*
Add "[!t]" parameter to your figure/table so that LaTeX will try placing them on the top of the page. Why?
Figures/tables are much easier to understand than reading plain texts. Moving them to the top helps readers quickly understand your work.
*Self-contained figure/table caption*
Whatever you want to say for the figure/table, say them in the caption. It's annoying to find and match the corresponding texts describing the figure/table in your paper.
Use SINGLE letters for your math notations. Examples:
β’ Color_j -> C_j
β’ Net -> F(\cdot)
All the other descriptions should be within
\mathrm
*Short titles*
Add titles (e.g., using \paragraph) to your figure/table captions and the main texts. They make your paper more structured and organized and help your readers navigate the paper with ease.
*Clean table*
Follow simple design principles for making clean a table:
β’ no \line, use \toprule, \midrule, \bottomrule
β’ no vertical lines
β’ left align text
β’ center align numbers
β’ group and remove repetition with multirow/multicol
*Avoid empty spaces*
Fill the paper into full page limit. It gives your readers a sense of a POLISHED and not RUSHED paper.
Here they use a TOY example to highlight the key issue from PRIOR WORK (wavelet transforms), i.e., the coefficients of original signal and the shifted version change dramatically.
Source: Shiftable Multiscale Transforms '92
Example "How did you do it?" figure.
This figure provides an overview of how the method work by connecting inputs and outputs and all the intermediate steps.
Writing an effective rebuttal helps answer questions, address reviewers' concerns, clarify misunderstandings, and help the AC make an informed decision.
But it takes work to write a good one. π
Sharing some tips I found useful. π§΅
*Start positive*
Start with summarizing all the strengths noted by the reviewers and adding quotes to provide evidence.
Remind the reviewers and AC of
"Why should this paper be accepted?"
*Neutralize negative comments*
AC and other reviewers may only see all the NEGATIVE comments you responded to.
Some tips on why, what, and how to do experiments. π§΅
*Why? π€*
β Do an experiment to get improved performance.
β Do an experiment to test a hypothesis.
Many students trying to show improved results with experiments are missing the point.
Your goal of experiments should be to validate/test your research questions.
*What? π€*
What experiments should we do?
This involves three main steps:
1β£ identify key research questions
2β£break them down into baby steps
3β£design experiments that best answer those questions