Hints for Seminars
Proseminars and seminar as well as student research projects have a common scientific method. It is very crucial to critically select and reflect existing research literature on the one hand, and to comparative evaluate and distillate this knowledge for papers and presentation on the other hand. This page gives some basic hints in the scientific method for seminars:
- Guidelines for reading, writing, and presenting
- Templates for papers and presentations
- Useful tools for literature management
- Important sources for scientific literature research
- Collection of further useful links
- References
Guidelines for reading, writing, and presenting
- How to read a paper. A presentation about an efficient approach to scientific articles.
- How to write a paper. An overview of fundamentals in structuring and writing scientific papers.
- How to give a presentation. A collection about organising and holding a free and lively talk.
- How to write good style. An illustration of pitfalls and chances in writing a paper in good language.
Templates for papers and presentations
- Templates for seminar papers: LaTeX, MS Word
- Templates for presentations: LaTeX, Microsoft PPTX, OpenDocument OTP
- Templates for short papers or proposals: LaTeX, MS Word
- Template for Bachelor/Master/PhD theses: LaTeX
Useful tools for literature management
- JabRef - open source and platform independent research resource management system with easy-to-use access to the most important literature search engines. Allows to import from various formats and stores in bibtex as native file format.
- Citavi - commercial research resource management system with a large set of import and export functions including 'reference picker' for many software products (browser, word, etc.).
- EndNote + Reference Manager - commercial but easy-to-use research resource management system for Microsoft products as well as for exporting in bibtex.
- Zotero - open source Firefox extension which collects the research resources in the browser itself.
- CiteULike - free web-based research resource management system. Allows to store and share references on-line and offers several browser bookmarklet and export functions.
Important sources for scientific literature research
- IEEE Xplore
- ACM portal
- CiteSeerX
- ISI Web of Knowledge
- DBLP Computer Science Bibliography
- Computer Science Bibliographies
- Campus-Catalogue Hamburg - Our local library
- Google Scholar - at least better than Google
Collection of further useful links
- Writing in English (Springer)
- Detexify² - helps to classify a LaTeX symbol - works very well!
- Greek letters used in mathematics, science, and engineering
- PGF and TikZ - Graphic systems for TeX and its ressourses
- TeX table editor
- Short Math Guide for LaTeX
- Comparison of 44 BibTeX styles
References
- M. Alley. The Craft of Scientific Writing. Springer Verlag, 1996.
- R.A. Day. How to write and publish a scientific paper. Cambridge u.p., 2009.
- M. J. Hanson, D. J. McNamee. Efficient Reading of Papers in Science and Technology, 2000, online access
- IEEE. IEEE Authorship Series: How to Write for Technical Periodicals & Conferences, 2015, online access
- T. S. Kane. The New Oxford Guide to Writing. Oxford university press, 1998.
- W. Schneider: Deutsch fuer Kenner. Die neue Stilkunde, Gruner & Jahr, 1987.
- B. Sick. Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 2004.
- G.D. Spache, P.C. Berg. The art of efficient reading. Macmillan Coll Div, 1984.
- W. Strunk, E.B. White. The elements of style. Penguin, 2008.
- J. M. Williams. Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace. Longman NY, 1997.