Countdown before submitting a paper

Common English mistakes

• Common punctuation mistakes
  • et al. (notice '.' after al, no period after et)
  • , i.e.,
  • , e.g.,
  • , respectivily
  • Fig. - Anywhere in the text we refer a figure by 'Fig.' except in starting of a line.
  • running comma before 'and', if items are more than two.
• Table/Section - first letter is capital wherever they will appear
• Usage of then and than
• Period after figure caption and no period after table caption
• Usage of optimum and optimal
• Usage of - dash, -- en-dash and --- em-dash
• Usage of later and latter - latter is used for selection among two, while later is in time reference
• ispell

Common latex error

• Bibliography related
  • Bibliography - in proper format - Caps letter should be in caps - e.g., VLSI
  • Look for missing citation and reference - easy way is to look for warnings in comments while compilation
  • formats of citations in text and in the end - square bracket or paranthesis
• Space and '.' related
  • When '.' does not mean period, e.g., et al., Fig. and latex assume it as period Use et al.\
  • When '.' is period but latex does not take it as period - it happens when . appear after a capital, e.g., VLSI. Use: VLSI\@.
• Putting a tilde before references and citations (e.g. Blorple~\cite{Blorp88}) prevents LaTeX from putting a line break in an inopportune location.
• Look for question marks (missing reference or citation) by removing all warnings from the compilation log.
• Compile with proper fonts : so can be open anywhere

Before starting a paper

Important components of introduction

1. What is the problem?
2. Why is it interesting and important?
3. Why is it hard? (E.g., why do naive approaches fail?)
4. Why hasn't it been solved before? (Or, what's wrong with previous proposed solutions? How does mine differ?)
5. What are the key components of my approach and results? Also include any specific limitations.