RE: Standing on the Shoulders of Giants!

DAB — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 19:23:07 GMT

I agree, many young engineers do not look at old research as much as they should.

Personnally, I find a much better level of detail in older papers than a lot of the new papers. In part, because the researcher writing the paper assumes that the reader is already deeply familiar with the background. I think this approach is wrong. To be fully useful, you should always provide at least a quick overview of the subject so that you can set up a context in which the reader and assess your claim of improvement.

I have read too many papers that present their approach and then leap to the "Quit Everything is Done" (QED) without really providing the data needed to reach that point.

I also dislike papers that include hundreds of references. Yes it may show that you at least looked at a lot of past research, but it is more useful to cite those that contributed to your idea and led you to your new development. The term "Keep It Simple" KIS should always be invoked.

So if you are writing research papers, keep it simple, set up a context for your idea and then include data that demonstrates your achievement. Only then can you postulate other potential applications for you idea.

Papers writen just to keep your publication count up are generally useless to working engineers who really could benefit from your detailed understanding of the technical issues. You just need to simplify the information so they can quickly grasp what you did and can agree that you have a good idea.

Just a thought,

DAB