Assignment 2

CSC 590, Winter 2009

Turner

Analysis of a Research Paper (or Thesis)

Reading a research paper is different than reading other papers.  There are specific reasons to write a research paper and specific things you might expect to find in a research paper.  There is some “junk” out there as well as some “gold.”  Here are the main factors that I find to detail the quality of a research paper.

Evaluate your chosen Master's thesis on the following factors, and any others you find appropriate.  You will also want to rate the thesis using our Master's thesis rubric (handed out on day 1)

Answer the questions from your reading of the paper.  Note things that are well done, poorly done, or inappropriately missing.  Note the strengths of the paper as well as the weaknesses.  

What is the problem?  

• is it easy to understand? (Do I know what it is about?)
• evidence of the problem? (Facts)
• importance of the problem/solution? (Motivation)

Definition of the critical terms?

• adequate definitions and references?
• appropriate to the level of discussion?

What approaches others take to solution? (Survey!)

• surveys major researchers’ approaches to problem
• evaluates existing solutions (objective criteria - metric to evaluate own solution in end?)
• finds “gap” for new work (author’s target)

What is the author’s approach to the problem?

• an extension, synthesis or novel approach?
• utilizes metric / criteria for evaluation of own solution
• validates own solution - shows its value objectively
• application to a real example?
• contributions, analysis of strengths and weaknesses

Citations - adequate and useful?

• can I verify the work, can I replicate it?
• can I find other sources of work on this problem?