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PhD Student Manual

This document lists the main resources and tools necessary for any PhD student, particularly for scientific monitoring, literature review, and writing research papers.

Research Glossary

Conference

A conference is a localized scientific event (specific city and date) centered around a defined theme. It gathers researchers, PhD students, professors, and sometimes industry professionals.

Speakers are selected by the conference organizers during a selection phase. Researchers submit their research papers, which are then anonymously peer-reviewed. If the paper is deemed solid, it is accepted, and the scientist presents their work.

There are several forms of presentation:

  • Keynote (Plenary): A master presentation in an amphitheater delivered by leading experts in the field.
  • Parallel Sessions: 20-30 minute sessions running simultaneously, requiring attendees to choose their schedule.
  • Poster Session: The most common format for PhD students, allowing them to present their results on a large poster, coffee in hand.

Scientific Journal

A scientific journal is a periodical, often digital, that compiles all research papers submitted to and accepted by the journal's editor.

The submission process for a paper to a scientific journal is as follows:

  1. Submission of the research paper to the journal.
  2. Peer reviewing: A detailed reading of the paper by anonymous peers.
  3. The verdict: Either accepted on the first attempt (rare), accepted pending corrections, or directly rejected.

Research Paper (or Scientific Article)

PhD students and researchers write research papers. These are scientific documents of about twenty pages focusing on a specific topic, where they present the progress of their research by detailing the methods used and the results obtained.

These papers serve to:

  • Share knowledge.
  • Obtain feedback from the scientific community via peer review.
  • Establish ownership of a discovery based on the submission date.

They generally follow the IMRAD structure:

  • Introduction
  • Methods
  • Results
  • And
  • Discussion

Peer Reviewing

Before being published, articles undergo peer review where other researchers anonymously critique the work. This process helps identify flaws and inaccuracies, and filters out unreliable papers. Reviewers can request modifications or reject the article entirely.

There are several types of research papers:

  • Original articles: Bring something new to the field and present improvements through results.
  • Reviews and surveys: Analyze and synthesize dozens of other papers to provide a summary and comparison.

Conference Article

Very similar to a scientific article, this is a research paper submitted to a conference. The difference lies in the fact that there is limited time to accept the paper, so it is generally either accepted or rejected outright. If accepted, the PhD student may present the article on stage or via a poster.

Proceeding

A proceeding is a published collection of the research papers presented at a conference. It serves as the official record of the conference's scientific contributions and is often published by a reputable publisher (such as Springer, IEEE, or ACM) under a specific series.

Preprint

A research paper just before its submission to a journal or conference, meaning before peer review and eventual corrections.

  • It is often accessible for free and publicly online on platforms like arXiv and HAL.
  • It allows researchers to get quick feedback and date their discovery, as peer review can take several months.

Thesis Manuscript (Thesis Dissertation)

The final synthesis of a PhD, a document of about a hundred pages where the student details their journey. It covers the literature review, problem statements, methodologies used, results obtained, areas for improvement, etc.

DOI (Digital Object Identifier)

A unique identifier for a digital document. It precisely identifies a research paper and allows it to be found even if the website structure changes.

  • Structure: editor_identifier/number_assigned_by_the_editor
  • Example: 10.1038/s41586-021-03430-5

You can resolve any DOI by appending it to the doi.org domain — for example, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03430-5 redirects to the official publication page.

ORCID

ORCID stands for Open Researcher and Contributor ID. It is a unique 16-digit identifier assigned to a researcher. You can create one at orcid.org.

PhD Student Tools

Zotero

A free and open-source bibliographic software used to reference all read and utilized research papers. It automatically generates document bibliographies and tracks research progress.

  • It consists of a desktop client compatible with Windows and Linux, alongside a browser extension to save an article from arXiv or HAL in a single click.
  • You can create an account to synchronize your library with Zotero servers.
  • It integrates seamlessly with LaTeX.

LaTeX

A document preparation language and typesetting system. It is the equivalent of Word but specialized for research. The document structure is defined using instructions, making it easy to maintain a common layout for research papers.

Overleaf

The equivalent of Google Docs for LaTeX. It provides a web interface to write documents in LaTeX collaboratively.

Google Scholar

A search engine specialized in academic and research papers. It allows searching by keywords to find related research.

arXiv

An open-access digital archive on the web where researchers can upload their papers. (Pronounced "archive", where \(\chi\) = Chi).

Quality Warning

These papers are not peer-reviewed; therefore, their quality can sometimes be mediocre compared to a prestigious journal that only selects high-quality papers (in theory).

HAL

Hyper Articles en Ligne, the French equivalent of arXiv. It is a national repository open to everyone for depositing preprints, research papers, theses, etc.

Theses.fr

The French national directory of current and former PhD students. It is highly useful to check that no one else is working on the exact same thesis topic, or to view all the publications of a specific researcher.

Core Conference Portal

A global reference tool used to rank computer science conferences by prestige level (A*, A, B, C).

dblp

Stands for Digital Bibliography and Library Project. It is a bibliographic database dedicated to computer science. In practice, it acts like an arXiv or Google Scholar specifically for computer science, but strictly lists high-quality papers published in reputable scientific journals.

Sci-Hub

A shadow library that provides free access to millions of research papers and academic articles publish before 2022, bypassing publisher paywalls. It automatically resolves DOIs to their full-text PDFs when a paper is behind a paywall.

Legal Considerations

Sci-Hub operates in a legal gray area and has faced multiple lawsuits for copyright infringement. The website may be inaccessible depending on many factors.