How to write a BPM Conference paper?

Jan Mendling and Hajo A. Reijers

The presenters

Dumas et al. 2013

Agenda

1. How to find a good topic? by Hajo

2. How to position the work? by Jan

3. How to evaluate the contribution? by Jan

4. How to present and write? by Hajo

How to find a good topic?

Hajo Reijers

Opportunities: • Setting of cooperative work

Limitations: • Size • Review process

IT Artefact?

Not an effective strategy

Sorting out paper ideas

“Round” story Fresh approach to

identified problem A fresh problem with a

not-so-bad solution

A structured literature review

The theory of everything A (purely) conceptual

story A marginal improvement

More promising Less promising

Weighing your chances..

Originality Technical quality

Contribution Clarity

Add up

A check-list for your topic

Does it match an interesting problem? Do you know the related work? Do you have a contribution? Can you show for it? Can you explain all this in 16 pages, LNCS-style?

How to position the work?

Jan Mendling

AIDA is everywhere

AIDA in Marketing

Wikipedia 2015

Four-Paragraph-Intro (FPI)

Paragraph 1

Create Attention for Topic: Explain context of study

Refer to taxonomy if available

Paragraph 2

Explain Desire to Know: Explain focus of study

Clarify research gap

Paragraph 3

Provoke Intention to Read: Explain contribution

Clarify relevance of results

Paragraph 4

Define Action: Guide reading

Describe steps of the argument

Example from BPM 2015 – P1

Bala et al. 2015

Example from BPM 2015 – P2

Bala et al. 2015

Example from BPM 2015 – P3

Bala et al. 2015

Example from BPM 2015 – P4

Bala et al. 2015

How to evaluate the contribution?

Jan Mendling

What is the Claim?

Gregor, Hevner 2013

Improvement: Compare with best Alternatives

Gregor, Hevner 2013

Exaptation: Show that it works

Gregor, Hevner 2013

Invention: Start a Business

Gregor, Hevner 2013

Discussion on State of the Field

Formalisms

Des

ign

Behaviour

mathematical formulae, algorithms, lemmata, logical proofs

Discussion on State of the Field

Formalisms

Des

ign

Behaviour

socio-technical phenomena grounded in social, psychological or cognitive theory. Hypotheses deducted and tested using forms of empirical inquiry.

How to evaluate

Gauch 2003

Findings on State of the Field

Behaviour

1. Experiment Standards from Empirical Software Engineering (ESE)

2. Survey Standards from Information Systems (IS)

3. Case Study Standards from IS and ESE

4. Standards on Systematic Literature Reviews from Software Engineering

Recker, Mendling 2015

Discussion on State of the Field

Formalisms

Des

ign

Behaviour

New ways of solving socio-technical problems, formulating means-ends relationship, application demonstrated in order to support that certain end is achieved in a better way.

Hypotheses and Measurement

Sanders 2009

How to present and write?

Hajo Reijers

How to write?

The primary goals of a scientific paper are: To maximize the number of readers To minimize the time to read it To maximize the fraction of satisfied readers To maximize the number of citations the paper will get

Therefore: Make life easy and pleasant for your reader Lagendijk: Survival Guide for Scientists. Amsterdam University Press, 2008.

37 Lagendijk 2008

The reviewer’s perspective

General Do‘s and Don‘ts

Paragraphs: A paragraph containing more than 10 sentences is too long, 2 sentences too short Spaghetti:

Do not continuously refer to earlier pages Structure:

Do not surprise reader with original structure Length of Sentences:

Try to keep sentences short. Replace dependent clause (which, that) with sentence.

39 Lagendijk 2008

General Do‘s and Don‘ts II

Abstract: Write the abstract last Introduction:

Use the intro to describe the field, your specific question and the outline Conclusion:

A conclusion is not a summary. Sum up what you have found, not what you have done. References:

Citing papers that are not English is futile

40 Lagendijk 2008

General Do‘s and Don‘ts III

Implications: Do not use „this means“, rather „this observation implies“ That and which:

If you can put a comma before that, it must be which Absolute statements:

Always relate to units Highlighting:

no exclamation mark, use italic Abbreviations:

Do not introduce new abbreviations

41 Lagendijk 2008

Stick strickly to the template

LNCS Templates and Instructions: http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-7-72376-0

Templates for Word Latex FrameMaker

Ignore at your peril: Convey that you do not really care Convey that you are a lousy planner Convey that the paper is sent out

everywhere

On writing

“Almost without exception, good writers read widely and frequently. By osmosis, they learn from the reading an incalcuble amount about vocabulary, spelling, punctuation, style, rhythm, tone, and other crucial writing matters.”

Final words

Keep on sending in your good work There is an element of randomness

Nonetheless, you can improve your chances: Select a good topic Position your work well Evaluate, evaluate, evaluate (substantiate your claims) Write clearly

References

Bala, S., Cabanillas, C., Mendling, J., Rogge-Solti, A., Polleres, A. (2015): Mining Project-Oriented Business Processes. BPM 2015: pp.425-440.

Dumas, M., La Rosa, M., Mendling, J., Reijers, H.A. (2013): Fundamentals of Business Process Management. Springer-Verlag.

Gauch, H.G. (2002): The Scientific Method in Practice. Cambridge University Press. Gregor, S., Hevner, A. (2013): Positioning and Presenting Design Science Research

for Maximum Impact, MIS Quarterly 37(2), pp.337-355. Lagendijk, A. (2008): Survival Guide for Scientists: Writing-Presentation-E-mail.

Amsterdam University Press. Recker, J., Mendling, J. (2015): The State-of-the-Art of Business Process

Management Research as Published in the BPM conference: Recommendations for Progressing the Field. Business & Information Systems Engineering, accepted for publication.

Sanders, P. (2009): Algorithm engineering–an attempt at a definition. Efficient Algorithms. Springer-Verlag. pp.321-340.

Wikipedia (2015): AIDA (Marketing). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIDA_%28marketing%29.

Yagoda, B. (2013): How to Not Write Bad: The Most Common Writing Problems and the Best Ways to Avoid Them. Riverhead Books.