Research Paper and Presentation The work in this course includes a written term paper on a topic related to the topic of Human-Computer Interaction, and specifically Interaction Spaces. Your emphasis can be either on technical or conceptual aspects of interaction spaces. In addition to the term paper you can do a presentation on the same topic.
This paper and presentation can be done individually, or in pairs of two students. If you choose to do it with another student, I expect your paper to be either significantly longer (about twice the length), or on a significantly more challenging topic. For the latter, please put a short justification in the proposal.

Topic

You can select your own topic, but it must be pre-approved by the instructor. A formal topic proposal must be submitted via PolyLearn or an alternative repository (to be discussed in class). Your topic proposal must include:

  • proposed title
  • proposed abstract (a two or three paragraph explanation of the topic)
  • an outline of your approach to the topic (list the big issues and how you want to look at them, maybe a note about why this is an important or timely topic); as an alternative to a conventional outline, you can also create a concept map
  • a short bibliography (five sources minimum; books, papers, Web pages or other sources; “naked” URLs are not sufficient)
  • date of the presentation (via the signup sheet)

Related Work

Sources for Ideas

A collection of interesting items that I have encountered over the last few years is available via Evernote; see UCD Nuggets (User-Centered Design, Human-Computer Interaction), AI Nuggets (Artificial Intelligence), KM Nuggets (Knowledge Management).

Due Dates

The timeline for the presentation and paper is in the course schedule. The documents are typically due at the end of the day (midnight) on Thursday of the week indicated in the table above. Since the presentation dates are different for individual students, due dates for presentation material will vary: A draft version of the presentation is due one week before the presentation. The final version of the presentation material is due when you give your presentation. Late submissions are subject to a penalty of 10% per business day.

Submission for Grading

We'll be using a spreadsheet with links to the individual submissions and reviews on a cloud repository like Dropbox or Google Drive.

Format

The formatting instructions can be obtained from the ACM CHI 2016 conference site; there are templates for Microsoft Word and LaTeX formats. Please use these templates or the corresponding instructions, with the following exceptions:
• do not include the ACM CHI "First Page Copyright Notice"
• include the following information in the header: Author name, (short) title
• include the following information in the footer: Cal Poly CSC 570-F15 [page number] [date]
Your paper should be 6 pages long in the above format, which corresponds to 4,000 - 5,000 words. It may include images equivalent to a maximum of one page.

Submission of Papers for Publication

This might be especially interesting for those of you working on a thesis, and intending to submit the paper for publication. If you’re looking for a potential venue, one of the top conferences, ACM CHI 2016 will take place from May 7-12 in San Jose, CA. The general submission deadline is Sep. 25, but there are some categories with later deadlines ( doctoral consortium: Oct. 9, student research competition: Jan 13). There are also other opportunities through further conferences on related topics organized in collaboration with ACM.

Structure

You paper should contain the information listed below. You may use a different structure if you believe that it is better suited for your topic.
  • Cover Page: Title, author, affiliation of the author, date, and abstract (5 - 10 sentences, about 150 words is typical)
  • Introduction Section: an overview of what issue you are writing about, and how this relates to the topic of the class.
  • Background Section: This section provides background information on your topic. It often contains material that is necessary to understand the technical aspects, related work (especially if it lead to the work you're presenting), and some information on the context of your topic. Any factual statements or other evidence must be supported by citing your sources.
  • Main Section:In this section, you're discussing the relevant concepts, methods, approaches, systems, etc. central to your topic. This is typically the longest section, and can be divided into subsections. The structure of this section also depends on the type of the paper. If a new approach, system, method, or algorithm is presented, it typically contains an overview, then technical details, and possibly some experiments to demonstrate the feasibility or performance. If the paper is centered on a (possibly controversial) issue, it may start with a statement of the issue, present arguments supporting various perspectives on the issue, and then analyze those arguments. The arguments can be based on your own assessment, or on other people's statements. For both types of papers, there should be an evaluation based on objective evidence, such as experiments, systematic evaluations, or facts presented earlier. This section is also the proper place to express your subjective opinion.
  • Conclusions: This section is usually short, and contains the main aspects of your overall document. As a writer, it is your chance to refresh and confirm the reader's impression. You should not, however, just copy and paste statements from previous parts. While there is some overlap in content between the abstract, the introduction section, and the conclusions, it is better to rephrase important aspects, instead of repeating sentences.
  • Bibliography and Citations: The purpose of references and bibliographies is twofold: On one hand, they establish a trail of evidence that the reader can follow to verify facts, or find out additional information. On the other hand, they also acknowledge work performed by other people. Whenever one or both of these aspects applies, you need to put a reference in your paper (Ex 1: "the Internet now makes up 4% of the Gross National Product of the USA" [cited source goes here and in your bibliography.] Ex 2: This document contains material based on Dr. Turner's CSC 300 class; since that material is not formally published, however, and this is not a formal publication either, I chose to give credit via a direct acknowledgement; such an acknowledgement is also often placed in a footnote or endnote, or in a separate Acknowledgements section.)
    There are many bibliographic styles in use. Two of the most popular ones are: 1) Numbered schemes, where you list the sources in the order in which they appear in the paper, and refer to them via a number in the text (e.g. [3]). This is the scheme suggested for the ACM Crossroads magazine; see http://www.acm.org/crossroads/doc/information/wg/citations.html. 2) Schemes that include the names of the author(s) and the year of publication. In this case, the sources are listed alphabetically at the end, and something like [Parberry, 1994] is used in the text. While I personally prefer the second scheme since the anchor in the text is more meaningful, both ACM and IEEE publications usually require a numbered bibliography. Since this is the case for the ACM CHI 2016 format as well, we will use a numbered scheme here.
    When you use Web pages as a source, try to provide at least the following information in addition to the "naked" URL: Title, author, affiliation, date of publication (or date of viewing). And of course you should be especially careful with the reliability and trustworthiness of Web pages.

Copyright Issues and Plagiarism

It can be tempting to "write" the paper by copying and pasting parts (or the whole paper) from somebody else's document. Under no circumstances is this justified without acknowledging the original work. If you as the author feel that it is critical to include pieces from another publication, the proper way to do this is as a quotation. A quotation is either surrounded by quotation marks, or visually marked, often by indentation and the use of a different font or style. In both cases, a reference to the original work must be given. This applies not only to text, but also to other artifacts like diagrams, charts, drawings, photographs, etc. If your paper includes a reproduction of artwork, you may have to get copyright clearance from the copyright holder (often the publisher, sometimes the author of the original work).

The Role of Peer Reviewers

In addition to giving a presentation and writing a term paper, you are required to act as peer reviewer or commentator on two papers written by other students, and on their presentations. In this capacity, your task is to make sure that the material is presented in such a way that it is as easy as possible for readers to benefit from the paper. This includes, but is not restricted to the following:
  • Verify the facts. Make sure that the sources cited in the paper exist, confirm the facts, and are reputable.
  • Check the arguments, and the conclusions derived. Try to ensure that the reasoning employed in the paper is consistent and sound. Point out if there are gaps, inconsistencies, or other problems.
  • Ensure balance and fairness. Especially for controversial issues, authors may get carried away by their own preferences and viewpoints. Look at the arguments presented for or against different perspectives, and point out omissions or biased presentations. This is of course less relevant for the sections where the authors present their own, subjective opinion. Opinions and personal preferences should be clearly identified, and there should be a clear separation between facts and issues on one hand, and the subjective opinions on the other.
  • Do a consistency check between citations and the list of references in the bibliography. Every citation in the text must have a full listing in the bibliography, and each source listed in the bibliography should be referenced at least once in the text.
  • Point out spelling and grammatical errors.
  • Phrase your criticism in a professional and positive way. Your job is not to "trash" the paper, but to help the author improve it.
The issues above are typically addressed when professionals review articles submitted to academic journals, and are usually followed by a recommendation to publish the article, reject it, or to ask the author for modifications. To this end, the evaluators fill out a review form, and return it to the editor of the journal, who then makes the final decision about publication, rejection, or a request for modification of the paper. You also need to formulate at least two follow-up questions that can serve as a starting point for further discussion, for example after the respective presentation.
The reviews of the papers will probably be done through Blackboard. For the feedback, we will either use an online form, or a spreadsheet template that I use in other classes.
The identity of the reviewers is usually only known to the editor (also called “blind” reviews). In order to keep the administrative overhead low, we will probably conduct open reviews, where the authors know the identity of the reviewer.

Term Paper Writing Tips


  • Do a spell check!
  • Check the grammar!
  • Remember the Writing Lab in 10-138.
  • Use a clean, clear format, with descriptive headings.
  • Number the pages.
  • Use the formatting support provided by word processors, such as styles.
  • Do not use long quotes; cite the ones you use.
  • Cite all "facts" you state by listing a reference to the sources of those facts (this is important!)
  • Link citations to your bibliography in a reasonable way (author and name, or numbers are fine); journals also often specify explicitly how citations must be formatted.
  • Do an explicit analysis of the ideas, concepts, methods, or tools under investigation in a rational manner, and restrict your subjective opinions to the appropriate parts of the paper.
This list is also based on Dr. Turner's CSC 300 class.

Presentations

A presentation on the same topic as your research paper contributes 10% to your grade. You will sign up for a time slot through the 570 Paper and Presentation Form.
If you don't have much experience giving presentations, follow this link to some presentation hints.

Grading Guidelines

The score will be determined by the following criteria (which are very similar to the ones used for other assignments):
  • knowledge of subject matter (does the author demonstrate a good grasp of the topic)
  • evidence, (does the author present facts, examples, or other material that supports the arguments, and are the sources cited)
  • complexity and difficulty of the topic investigated, (is the topic new, unexplored, difficult to comprehend; does the paper contain original ideas)
  • thoroughness of the evaluation (are all relevant features of the tool examined)
  • accuracy (is the material presented correct, consistent, and complete)
  • organization and readability of the write-up, (is the paper well organized and easy to follow)
  • presentation and appearance (is the appearance of the paper of professional quality, e.g. without spelling or grammatical errors)
The peer reviews may influence my assessment of the paper, but they will not be used in a quantitative manner to calculate the score.