Critique paper on wireless network research paper
Fund. Wireless & Mobile Protocol
COSC4301/5340
Research Paper Critique
Instructor: Dr. Xingya Liu
Department of Computer Science
Lamar University
Office: MAES 86 Phone: 409-880-8677
Email: xliu@lamar.edu
Fund. Wireless & Mobile Protocol
Paper Critique
• Papers can be divided roughly into two categories: original research papers and survey papers
– Research papers contain a “related work” section that can be considered a survey
• What is a paper critique
– A critique of an article is the objective analysis of a literary or scientific article with emphasis on whether or not the author supported his main points with reasonable and applicable arguments based on facts.
– A good critique demonstrates your impressions of the article, while providing ample evidence to back up your impressions.
– Avoid simply summarizing the points of an article without truly analyzing and challenging it.
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Why Write Critiques?
• Writing a critique on a research work helps to develop:
– A knowledge of the work’s subject area or related works
– An understanding of the work’s purpose, creative idea, development of argument, structure of evidence
– A recognition of the strengths and weaknesses of the work
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Steps To Take Before Writing
• Preliminary reading
– Read through the article you are to critique once to get an overview, the main idea
– Try to understand the overall argument the author is making
• Critical reading
– Read the paper again and again, critically, on both technical contents and presentation
– Make some markings/notes while reading
• Create a unique symbol to differentiate texts that might be confusing, important, or inconsistent
• Underline important statements
• Circle confusing ones
• Star inconsistencies
• It is helpful to take notes when expanded thoughts come to you as you read
– May need to read related references to better understand the technical details, to relate to a broader issue or context
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Steps To Take Before Writing
• Critical reading
– Ask yourself the questions you want to address in your critique while reading
• Is the research purpose made clear in the introduction? Any ambiguous statements?
• What underlying assumptions does the article have?
• Is the technical method correct and described with adequate details?
• Are the study design and methods appropriate and without major flaws for the purpose of the research?
• Have the procedures been presented in enough detail to enable a reader to duplicate them?
• Does the article provide ample and valid evidence to support the research conclusions?
• Did the author build a logical argument? Are there any holes in the author’s argument? Is there other evidence that would support a counter-argument?
• Is there any misrepresentative evidence or bias to evidence?
• Do the research conclusions have practicality and real world application?
• Is the research significant for the particular field of study?
• Is the title of the article appropriate and clear?
• Is the abstract specific, representative of the article, and in the correct form?
• Should some sections of the article be expanded, condensed or omitted?
• Are the Introduction and Conclusion match up?
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Technical
Deeper
Thinking
Presentation
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Steps To Take Before Writing
• Doing some research: check or gather evidence to support/justify your opinions/arguments
• Developing the structure:
– Form opinions/arguments
– Clear logic flow/organization of what you want to present
– Present your opinions/arguments in a well-reasoned, objective tone
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Reading Papers
• Read Abstract first
– Get the high-level idea of the approach/solution
– May have difficulty understanding the subject
– May have doubts about the idea
• Read Introduction
– Understand the subject
– Understand why the issue is important / why need research /what are the requirements or criteria of a good approach, etc.
• Read over the paper body, critically
– Understand the main contribution / novelty / differences with other approaches
– Remove your doubts about the idea
– Read the performance evaluation/results to justify the contribution
• Read Conclusion: confirm the contribution of the paper
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Typical Structure of a Critique
• Paper title, author information, publication information
• 1 paragraph executive summary: summarize the content of the paper
– What is the paper trying to do? Statement of the problem or issue discussed • What is the main research problem?
• What is the objective of the paper?
– What is the potential contribution of the paper? • What is the main work presented in the paper? Approach or methods, hypothesis?
• What are the conclusions of the presented work?
• Strengths: summary of the strengths of the paper
• Weaknesses: summary of the weaknesses of the paper
• Detailed comments: explanations/evidence of the listed strengths and weaknesses
– Begin each paragraph with a theme/topic sentence that summarizes the theme point of the paragraph
• Conclusion: summary of your critique
– Provide a recap of your main points throughout the critique – Suggest potential directions for improvement and broad implications for the field
of study (optional)
• References (optional): to support your assessment
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Technical Issues for Strengths/Weaknesses
• Significance of the research problem
– Is the research problem considered in the paper important and significant?
– Does the paper motivate the considered research problem well?
– Is the considered research problem challenging?
• Novelty / Originality
– Is the presented research novel?
– Does the paper review the state-of-the-art to justify its novelty?
– Is the novelty significant or incremental?
• Technical merits / flaws
– What are the striking merits or major flaws of the technical work?
– Is the technical depth sufficient? Is there any omitted research issues?
• Performance results
– Are there sufficient results to justify the conclusions? Any missing results?
– Do the results have potential impact or provide important insights for the field of study?
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Writing Issues for Strengths/Weaknesses
• Background information
– Does the paper provide sufficient background knowledge introduction?
– Does the background information provided in the paper help to motivate or better understand the presented research?
• Structure of the paper
– Is the organization of the paper clear? Is there a need for re-structure?
– Should some sections of the article be expanded, condensed or omitted?
• Language
– Are there any typos, grammar errors, or ambiguous words/sentences?
• References
– Are the references accurate and adequate? Any missing important references?
– Did the author cite pertinent and only cite pertinent references?
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Critique Evaluation Criteria
• Satisfies page and spacing requirements
– <= 3 pages (>=11pt, 1.5 spacing) including all figures/tables and references
– A separate title page with the title of the paper you critique and your name
• Technical content
– Logic correctness
– Technical depth: deep analysis (show your own understanding)
– Technical completeness/thoroughness
– Technical errors
• Writing
– Structure/logic clarity
– Spelling/grammar
– Use your own words
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Grading
• Technical Content (30)
– Accuracy (10)
– Completeness / thoroughness (10)
– Depth (10)
• Organization /Logic (10)
• Clarity of written presentation (10)
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Common Problems
• Avoid simply summarizing the points of an article without truly analyzing and challenging it.
• Coherent writing (clear logic flow)
– Every paragraph has a MAIN IDEA “main idea sentence” or “topic
sentence” (usually the first/last sentence of a paragraph)
– The remainder of the paragraph expands on the main idea
• May use connecting words to support cohesion: first of all, in addition,
furthermore, moreover, one way is …, another is …, etc.
– Link ideas between paragraphs
• The first sentence of a paragraph may be the linking sentence to link the idea
of the previous paragraph and the idea of the current paragraph
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Common Problems
• PLAGIARISM WARNING: Plagiarism is the act of passing off material (a sentence, a paragraph, a section or an entire document) that someone has written as if you wrote it. This kind of copying is unethical, academic misconduct, and illegal.
– If you want to quote from some source verbatim, you may do so as long as you enclose the quoted material in double quotations and cite the source at the end of the quote.
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