Resources

Course Information

• SE Library info Link Topic - This is a great link to start with when researching articles.
• SWEN 640: Signature Sheet for Capstone/Thesis Preparation Meeting
• Human Studies Training
• Capstone/Thesis registration form

Finding Scholarly Works

There are many good resources for finding high quality, published works. Here are a few:

• Google Scholar
• ACM
• IEEE

Note: If you're off campus, you may need to VPN in.

Conference Rankings

Ranking conferances and journals is a very difficult and often imprecise task. However, here are a few sites that are a good starting point for determining the quality of a venue.

• SE Top Publications - Google Scholar
• Conference Ranking
• Journal Ranking
• Conferenceranks.com (not SE specific). The rankings for venues are similar to that of grades (eg A is better than B, etc...), where A1 is the best. Generally, you should focuses on venues rated B or higher. When possible, try to focus on A1/A venues (especially when just starting out).
• Guide2Research (not SE specific)
• Tao Xie's Conference stats - Old, but good
• Tao Xie's SE Research Links - Old, but good

Capstone and Thesis Options

You will need to conduct a thesis or capstone project in order to graduate. Choosing between a thesis and a capstone option isn't always an easy task for student. You may visit the FAQ Capstone vs Thesis page for more information on the potential options.

Using Latex

You are not required to use Latex in writing your papers, but I really encourage you giving it a good try. It will definitely take some getting used to, but after a while you likely prefer it over Word. Some helpful links for using Latex are:

• An example Latex project for this course. This contains a few helpful examples.
• https://www.overleaf.com/: An online editing tool for latex documents. This is likely the most popular Latex tool and is one that I recommend.
• http://www-h.eng.cam.ac.uk/help/tpl/textprocessing/: A good introductory guide to using Latex.
• https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX: Contains helpful snippets about how to create items such as tables, include images, etc...
There are MANY helpful sites and tools for using Latex, these are just a few which I've found to be helpful.

Statistics

• Precision, Recall, Accuracy calculator: Example excel sheet for performing calculations
• Pearson Correlation Excel sheet for performing correlation calculations

Writing Guides

• http://www.uni.edu/reineke/developi.htm Guide to critical writing
• http://www.eapfoundation.com/writing/critical/ Guide to critical writing
• http://abacus.bates.edu/~ganderso/biology/resources/writing/HTWgeneral.html Journal style writing
• https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/owlprint/965/ Good general guide to writing
• https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/685/02/ Another good guide to essay writing
• RIT Writing Center
• Creating a Problem Statement
• Steps to writing a literature review
• Sample Problem Statement

Creating Citations

Properly citing a research artifact is important, but doesn't need to be challenging. There are many guides on the web that you can use to properly perform MLA/APA citations. Some helpful tips are:

• Review the Purdue citations website.
• When citing something from the IEEE or ACM website and using latex, try using the provided bib code.
• If you're using Word, try using its built in citation manager.

Poster Info

• Poster information: Sizes and templates.