Guidelines

Preparation

• Consider the content of your paper.
• Think about the messages that you want to give to the reader.
• Consider the expected background of the reader.
• Domain expert, scientists in possibly other field, student of this or of other field, layperson.
• The less relevant background the reader has, the more basic your explanations have to become.
  
• Consider the length of your paper.
  
• Publication: page limits are strictly enforced.
• Plan the structure of the paper accordingly.
  
• Sections, section titles, section lengths.

Head Material

• Title: a first approximation of the paper.
  
• One to two lines of text.
• Important keywords: domain, problem, solution.
• 90% of the potential readers will just read the title.
• Author(s): who wrote the paper and/or actively contributed to the result.
• No "honorary" authors.
• Full name, affiliation (department, institution, city, country, email address)
• Multiple authors may share affiliation.
• Sponsor note: who gave money to produce the result.
• Sponsoring organization, project number, project title.
• Footnote to title (LaTeX: \thanks), alternatively: "Acknowledgment" section at the end of the paper.
• Date: usually only for technical reports, not for publications.
• Journals may automatically insert dates.
  

Abstract

• The second approximation of the paper.
• Of those who go beyond the title, 90% will just read the abstract.
• Must be self-contained.
• Stored in bibliographic databases and the like.
• No citations, no references to specific parts of the paper ("in Theorem 5").
• The problem domain, the problem addressed, the solutions/results derived.
  
• Make clear what is original in the paper.

Introduction

• The third approximation of the paper.
• The first section of the paper (usually written after the rest of the paper has been written).
  
• About 1-3 pages (not more than 15% of the whole paper).
  
• Of those who go beyond the abstract, 90% will just read the introduction (and the conclusions).
• Make sure that the reader understands the problem that is addressed.
  
• An introductory paragraph about the problem domain (citations).
• Some paragraphs about the actual problem addressed (citations).
• At least one paragraph about the solutions/results derived in this paper.
• Make explicit what is original in this paper.
• State of the art
• A description of the relevant prior work with citations.
• Shorter papers: part of the introduction (also mixed with description of problem domain and problem addressed).
• Longer papers: potentially a separate section (after the introduction or before the conclusions)
• Publications: make sure your state of the art description is reasonably comprehensive.
• Referees get annoyed if their own relevant work has not been cited
• Structure of the remainder of the paper.
• One paragraph that describes each of the remaining sections in one sentence.

Conclusions

• The last approximation of the paper.
• Most actual readers of the paper will just read introduction and conclusions.
• A concise summary of the results of the paper.
• About 0.5-2 pages (not more than 5% of the paper)
• Assumes that the reader has read the introduction.
• Highlights the main results.
• Outline of future work
• Sometimes title: "Conclusions and Future Work"
• How can the results be applied?
• How can the results be generalized?
• How do the results pave the way to new research?

Acknowledgements

• Acknowledge work of non-authors that contributed to the paper.
• Possibly: acknowledge sponsors (if not in head material).
  

References

• List of papers and other resources cited in the paper.
• Order and format typically automatically generated
• BibTex, BibLaTeX.
• Must be comprehensive enough to find the resource.
• List of authors (full names preferred, avoid "et al.", if possible)
• Full title.
• Year.
  
• Journal: title of journal, volume, number, page numbers.
• Conference proceedings: title of conference, acronym,  city, country, date, publisher (name, city, country), publication series, volume, page numbers.
• Book: publisher (name, city, country).
  
• Report: type of report ("technical report"), number, department, institution, city, country.
• DOI (Digital Object Identifier):
  
• Use DOI rather than URL, if possible (URL may change, DOI is stable).
• BibTex: note={\url{https://doi.org/...}} (package "hyperref")
• BibLaTex: doi={...}

Core Content

• General: the material must be understandable in the presented order but also communicate the goal of its presentation.
  
• Put yourself into the position of a reader who sees the material for the first time.
• On the one side, has the reader really seen already all material on which the explanation depends?
• On the other side, does the reader see what all of the presentation amounts to?
• Recommendation: mix "top-down" and "bottom-up" presentation.
• Top-down: first explain first what the point of the subsequent presentation is.
  
• Bottom-up: then present the material in the logical order (define before use).
• Applies to whole paper and to each part (section).
  
• Main structure: sections (LaTeX: \section{...})
  
• Thesis/book: chapters (LaTeX: \chapter{...}}
  
• Sections are numbered
  
• Long papers: also numbered subsections (LaTex: \subsection{...}}.
• Within longer sections: also named paragraphs possible (LaTex: \paragraph{...})
• 10 page paper: typically 2-3 sections (in addition to introduction and conclusions)
• Language: English
• Spelling: typically American English ("center", not "centre")
• Use a spelling checker!
• Grammar: simple.
• Use complete, short, and clearly structured  sentences.
• Use active voice rather than passive voice.
• Vocabulary: simple.
• Prefer words that everyone understands to less well-known ones ("intention" vs "premeditation")
• Terminology: define before use.
  
• Not universally known terms (notations, abbreviations, constants, functions, predicates) have to be introduced (formally defined or at least informally described) before they may be used.
• Consistency: same application everywhere
• All applications of the same term must have the same form ("f(x,y) vs f(x,y) vs f(x) vs f[x,y]")
• Formal Units: definitions, theorems, proofs.
• LaTeX package "ntheorem" for defining all kinds of mathematical environments.
• Numbered (with \label) for later reference (with \ref)
• Optionally also named.
• Formal Well-Formedness:
• In a definition, every variable that occurs on the right-hand side of the definition must also occur as a parameter at the left-hand side (wrong: f(x):=x+y; wrong: "Let x be a natural number. Then f(x) is x+y.")
• In a theorem, every variable must be appropriately quantified and it must be clear which quantifier is applied (wrong: "we have ∀x. f(x,y)", wrong: "we have f(x,y) for every x", wrong: "we have f(x,y) for x,y")