Writing Software Engineering papers for beginners

Sections in SE papers

• Introduction
• Background (Optional)
• Motivating Example
• Methodology
• Evaluation
• Threats to Validity
• Lessons Learned (Experience Report, Example: http://www.shinhwei.com/issta21main-final.pdf)
• Related Work
• Conclusion

Which section is easiest to write?

• Evaluation

Which section should write first?

• Methodology

Which section should be written/modified last?

• Introduction, together with Related Work (related work help in positioning the paper)
• Abstract

Main Sections in Software Engineering papers and How to write Evaluation Section:

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQU7bC_aT60

Bilibili: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1qL411s7tg/

Notes:

Use structure like because (1)..., (2), ...(3)

What you evaluate on? Table x illustrates/shows/represents/lists.... Why we select? Why we did not select for outlier?

Definition of the metrics for each RQ

Machine configuration: All experiments were conducted on a machine with Intel (R) Core (TM) i7-8700 CPU @3.2 GHz and 32 GB RAM.

should not used -significantly high (statistically significant) -extremely, obviously (strong words) -very (strong words)

Writing Methodology/Approach Section:

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gGRIzo9OKI

Reduced Noise:

Part 1: https://youtu.be/mgtZWPxAEtE

Part 2: https://youtu.be/x_oUc6hX6bs

Bilibili: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Lq4y1N7VK/

Notes:

Two structures

1. Overall workflow

• Similar to describing a figure in evaluation Figure ... shows/presents the overall workflow. Our approach/ToolName consists of ....: ... Given x, y, ... produces/generates... Our approach/ToolN generates ... using x steps/ x phrases. In the first step/First, ..... Second,
• Use symbol to represent a frequently mentioned component (e.g., buggy app, version app 1, old version 1) $app_{buggy}$ $app_buggy$
• For each ... in list, ...

2. Algorithm

• Challenges: (1), (2) / First, Second, add citations
• It supports three types: (1) ..., (2), (3)
• tool/subject program/app use \texttt{}
• know the correct capitalization: GitHub
• It uses ...strategies. Specifically, ...
• Algorithm ...shows .... (lines 1--2) In lines 12--13, ...

Useful tools for writing papers in LaTex

• Refer to Tools