The First Draft should have at least one page of text in English, an initial list of references to the source material that will be used in the paper, and an outline for the rest of the paper. Use of the course LaTeX template is required.

Name your paper as YourLastname_draft.tex and correspondingly YourLastname_draft.pdf. Upload both files to the Submissions/Drafts folder in Optima.

Full Draft

The Full Draft should have 5-7 pages of text. All sections should have their main content and the text must have been revised at least once by the student. The readier the paper at this point, the more useful the tutor and opponent comments will be. Include the Abstract and Conclusion section even if you still are not sure what the final results or conclusions will be. Use of the course Latex template is required and the references must be formatted with Bibtex.

Name your paper as YourLastname_full.tex and correspondingly YourLastname_full.pdf. Upload both files to the Submissions/FullPapers folder in Optima.

Opponent tasks after Full Draft submission

Each student will be assigned as the opponent to another student. The opponent will read the Full Draft version of the paper and provide constructive comments and criticism to the author. The goal is to help the other student to improve the paper. When writing the comments, consider at least the following:

Does the paper have a point? Try to summarize it in 2-3 sentences.
Are the main ideas well presented or does something require clarification?
What is the main contribution (i.e. best feature) of the paper and is it sufficiently emphasized?
Could the structure, presentation, illustrations or language be improved?
Are the references sufficient and are there also references to high-quality research literature?
How could the paper be made even better?

Write or upload your comments to Optima in the Submissions/FullPapers folder and link them to the paper you are supposed to comment (how to do this is described in course's Optima instructions).

Final Paper

For the Final Paper, update the technical facts, arguments, conclusions and any experimental results to match your latest understanding. Make changes based on the comments from the tutor and opponent. Improve the clarity and readability of the text and figures. Read the text thought several times to make iterative improvements. Rethink the organization of the paper if necessary.

Name your paper as YourLastname_final.tex and correspondingly YourLastname_final.pdf. In addition to these, you have to upload all your other files such as .bib and figures. Name them also in a way that you name is in the filename. Upload all files to the Submissions/FinalPapers subfolder that is named after you Optima.

Opponent tasks after Final Paper submission

The opponent should read through the Final Paper before the seminar days and prepare a few questions for the author of the paper.

Presentation slides

Name your presentation slides as YourLastname_presentation.pdf or YourLastname_presentation.ppt. Upload your file to the Submissions/Presentations folder in Optima.

Seminar days

Participation in the two-day seminar is a mandatory. All students present their work at the seminar.

The presentations are 15 minutes in length and given in English. More detailed instructions for the presentations will be given in the second course meeting. It is a skill to conclude your presentation on time. Note that you will talk either faster or slower than when practicing and should plan in advance which parts can be skipped.

After the presentation, there will be time for questions and discussion. The opponent will start with his/her questions and then the others in the audience may continue the discussion.

Opponent tasks after the seminar

The opponent have to upload her/his comments concerning the final paper after the seminar dates together with the comments of the presentation before deadline. The comments have to include following clearly:

What was good in the paper? What could be improved in the paper?
What was good in the presentation? What could be improved in the presentation?
How well did the presenter answer the questions from you and others in the audience?

Name your comment file as YourLastname_comments_to_PaperAuthorLastname.txt. Upload your file to the Submissions/FinalOpponentReports folder in Optima.

Final grade

The final grade will depend on the paper, the presentation, and the opponent tasks. These are judged as a whole, with most emphasis on the paper. To pass the course, performance must be acceptable in all these areas.

On grading: Grades 1-2 meet the minimum requirements for the course but indicate major flaws in the paper. Grade 3 is given to a good paper that meets most formal requirements of a technical or scientific publication and has no major flaws. All students should be able to get this grade with sufficient effort. Grade 4 requires the paper to be excellent in some aspects, and to be interesting to the reader. Students achieving this grade should feel that they have done a very good job. Grade 5 is only given to exceptional papers, such as ones making a clear research contribution or having high value to the reader. (See tutor instructions for more detailed criteria for grading.)