ECE 538/638: Report Requirements
and Resources
Report Requirements and Guidelines
- General Requirements &
Tips
- Should be written for someone
that understands the key concepts and methods covered in this
class. You may assume the reader is a first year graduate student
in an engineering program.
- The reports must conform to
the requirements listed on this web page that are modeled after
the IEEE requirements for journal papers. You may use another
journal format with permission from the instructor.
- If English is not your native
language, I recommend that you have someone at the Writing
Center review your report for organization and grammar.
- Each figure should have a concise,
but complete caption that enables the reader to understand what
the figure shows without having to read the body of the paper.
- Whenever possible, you should
include estimated confidence intervals or some other appropriate
measure that indicates the degree of statistical significance.
- Specific Tips
- Do not include code or raw data
that you've written for the project.
- The MS Word template and IEEE
stylesheet contains a small bug. The abstract apparently starts
on the second line. This results in a vertical misalignment of
the first and second columns on the first page. Because of the
way MS Word formats the stylesheet this is difficult to fix.
It would look better if you can eliminate this extra line break
at the beginning of the first column, but I won't penalize you
if you don't.
- All columns should be justified.
It seems that MS Word often reverts to non-justified columns
part way through the paper. Make sure you fix this, if it happens.
- Avoid passive sentence construction.
If you don't like using first person pronouns ("I"),
you can often use "this paper" or "this report"
as the subject of sentences. For example, "This paper describes
an analysis of..." instead of "An analysis of ... is
described" or "I describe an analysis of ...".
- Do not use headings in your
paper. These are normally reserved for the journal name, but
this isn't a journal article.
- Axis labels and ticks should
have a font size that is approximately the same as the figure
caption font. In MATLAB, one way to control this is to set the
size of the current figure to be roughly the same as what it
will be once you import it into the manuscript. Specifically,
try using something like:
- figure;
- h = plot(rand(50,2));
- set(h,'LineWidth',1.2);
- xlabel('Time (s)');
- ylabel('Voltage (V)');
- title('Example of Figure Formatting');
- box off;
- set(gcf,'PaperPosition',[1 1
4.1 2.5]);
- print('Example','-dtiff','-r200');
- Ideally, each figure should
have a width that is the same as the column width. If for some
reason you must use narrower figures, they should be centered
within the column.
- Label all of your axes in units
that are intuitive and appropriate for your problem domain. For
example, in autocorrelations use units of lag in units of seconds,
days, or years.
- Always refer to figures as "Fig.
3" and tables as "Table 2". Always start with
upper case, abbreviate figure, and do not abbreviate table.
- See the IEEE style guide for
the proper format of headings. For most reports you should only
need the first two levels of headings.
- You should not refer to specific
functions in MATLAB. If you mention the software you performed
the analysis in at all, it should only be a general statement
such as, "All analysis was performed using MATLAB (MathWorks,
Natick, Massachusetts)." Note that MATLAB is capitalized.
-
- Must be written in LaTeX or
MS Word
- Must comply with the IEEE
Final Submission Format
- Must use LaTeX or MS Word stylesheet
(see links below)
- Approximately 10 pt type
- Single spaced
- Approximately 0.6" margins
- Two justified columns
- The first page should include:
the title, name and contact information for the author (institutional
affiliation required; email, address, phone, and fax optional).
- The name of the course (i.e.
Statistical Signal Processing) and term (e.g. Fall 2005) should
be listed as part of the author affiliation. Something like,
"This work was completed as part of a course project for
Statistical Signal Processing at Portland State University
during fall term of 2005." would be appropriate.
- Do not list yourself as a member
of the IEEE unless you really are a member.
- All pages must be numbered consecutively.
- Maximum: 4 pages
- Figures
- Label your axes.
- Describe the figures in words
using a caption below the figure (final submission format) or
on a separate page (peer-review format)
- Be sure to use the IEEE format
for the caption.
- Tables
- Remember to use units
- The captions go above the tables
- Citations
- Include relevant citations
- Use review articles to avoid
a lengthy literature search
- Each reference number should
be enclosed in square brackets
- Do not begin a sentence with
a reference number
- Sections
- Required: Abstract, Introduction, Results, Conclusions,
& References (if any)
- Optional: Acknowledgments and Appendices are
optional
- Prohibited: Source code and raw data in printed
form
- Typical Organization
- Abstract: Concisely state what was done, how
it was done, principal results, and their significance. The abstract
should contain the most critical information of the paper.
- Introduction: State what the problem is specifically,
the significance of finding a solution to the problem, and the
work that other researchers have done on this problem. If you
have a long report, the last paragraph in this section should
describe the organization of the rest of the paper.
- Methodology: In short, how did you do what you did.
This section should include an explanation of the methods you
used, a description of the data set, and you should describe
how the data was collected or where you obtained it from.
- Results: What are the results of applying your
method. This should be strictly factual stating only how well
your model performed, the outcome of your hypothesis tests, etc.
It should not include your interpretation or ideas; just the
facts.
- Discussion: What did you learn from the results listed
in the earlier section. If the results were different than what
you (or the reader) would expect, try to explain why. If you
have ideas for futher research, this is where you should describe
those ideas.
- Conclusion: This section should summarize your main
discoveries or findings from the project.
- Electronic Submission
- The final report must be submitted
in electronic form
- MS Word, LaTeX, postscript,
or PDF are all acceptable
- May email to instructor, email
link to instructor, or hand in on electronic media readable by
a PC
- Reports will be posted to the
class web site. See instructor if you have compelling reasons
not to have your report posted.
- Assessment
- Format: Does the report adhere to the IEEE format and
requirements listed above?
- Grammar: Is the report written in past tense (it should
be). Does the report use the terms "I" or "you"
inappropriately? Were there many grammar or spelling errors?
- Organization: Is the report well organized? Are the
section headings appropriate and clear?
- Clarity: Was the report clearly written? Could
I understand what was done and why after reading it?
- Scope: Was the project of sufficient scope for the class?
Did the project use appropriate methods taught in this class?
- Abstract: Does the abstract give an accurate and
concise summary of the report?
- Context: Was the context of the problem sufficiently
explained?
- Significance: Does the report explain the significance
of the project?
- Objectives: Are the project objectives clearly specified
in the introduction?
- Methodology: Were the methods and algorithms used
appropriate for the data and project objectives?
- Results: Were the results sufficient? Were they
clearly stated? Was a table or plot used to display the results
appropriately?
- Discussion: Are the results discussed? Were there
any surprises and, if so, were ideas about the reasons for the
surprises given? What was the significance of the results?
- Citations: Were appropriate citations made to previous
work?
LaTeX Resources
- MikTeX: A LaTeX compiler and group of tools
for Windows
- GhostView & GhostScript: Useful viewer for postscript files and print
driver to generate ghostscript files. Available for all operating
systems.
- WinEdt: A terrific text editor for LaTeX files.
Not free, but 31 day trial period.
IEEE Journal Requirements
Revised 12.3.05