Scholarly Communication

Listen to this interview of Darja Smite, Professor, and Eriks Klotins, Senior Researcher — both at Software Engineering Research Lab (SERL), Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden. We talk about the paper From Collaboration to Solitude and Back: Remote Pair Programming During COVID-19 (Agile Processes in Software Engineering and Extreme Programming 2021).Eriks Klotins : "In research paper publishing, it’s been my experience that especially junior researchers will misunderstand what is expected and what is required. And I can say personally, I enjoy reading papers where the authors have stepped away, in a good direction, from the accepted practice in paper writing — certainly much more than when reading a paper where someone has just tried to fill in a template of sorts, but the product of that effort makes no good sense.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen to this interview of Clemens Dubslaff, Assistant Professor, Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands. We talk about the cultural dividing lines between researcher communities, and of course, how to cross those lines into whole new areas of research.Clemens Dubslaff : "One particular thing I would like to see eXplainable Formal Methods (XFM) do is to revisit the many papers from the early 1990s and so on — papers from logic and programming, where we have many things ready already. I mean, these papers have, in many cases, already discussed explanation, even from the standpoint of philosophy. So, these are just really good papers, but unfortunately more on the forgotten side. That’s why I think that connecting that knowledge from the past — say, about causality, for instance — to this new field of XFM will certainly help and advance the research." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Javier Cámara, an Associate Professor in Computer Science at the University of Málaga, shares insights on integrating machine learning with quantitative verification for self-adaptive IoT systems. He discusses the evolution of his work and emphasizes the importance of collaborative research. Cámara also addresses the challenges of managing IoT during real-world events, highlighting the need for effective decision-making frameworks. Additionally, he provides advice on structuring research papers to enhance clarity and comprehension, advocating for thoughtful placement of sections to aid reader understanding.

Listen to this interview of Rick Rabiser, Professor for Software Engineering in Cyber-Physical Systems, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria. We talk about the relationship of researchers in academia and industry, focusing particularly on the community researching into systems and software product lines (SPL).Rick Rabiser : "When you write your paper, imagine you're explaining what you want to write down to someone in a meeting room on the whiteboard. Because this is what we do in research a lot — we try to communicate our ideas to our peers and collaborators, and we very often just do this on a whiteboard. So, if you can tell your research to someone in just this same way, but through text, then you'll enable yourself to tell it, too, to a reviewer, and eventually to a reader."Link to Rabiser et al. A Study and Comparison of Industrial vs Academic Software Product Line Research Published at SPLCLink to Rabiser et al. Industrial and Academic Software Product Line Research at SPLC: Perception of the CommunityLink to Schmid et al. Bridging the Gap: Voices from Industry and Research on Industrial Relevance of SPLCLink to Becker et al. Not Quite There Yet: Remaining Challenges in Systems and Software Product Line Engineering as Perceived by Industry Practitioners Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about publishing but were too afraid to ask.Before and After the Book Deal: A Writer’s Guide to Finishing, Publishing, Promoting, and Surviving Your First Book (Catapult, 2020) by Courtney Maum is a funny, candid guide about breaking into the marketplace. Cutting through the noise, dispelling rumors and remaining positive, Before and After the Book Deal answers questions like: are MFA programs worth the time and money, and how do people actually sit down and finish a novel? Should you expect a good advance, and why aren’t your friends saying anything about your book? Before and After the Book Deal has over 150 contributors from all walks of the industry, including international bestselling authors, agents, editors, film scouts, translators, disability and minority activists, offering advice and sharing anecdotes about even the most taboo topics in the industry. Their wisdom will help aspiring authors find a foothold in the publishing world and navigate the challenges of life before and after publication with sanity and grace. Covering questions ranging from the logistical to the existential, Before and After the Book Deal is the definitive guide for anyone who has ever wanted to know what it’s really like to be an author.Our guest is: Courtney Maum, who is the author of five books, including Before and After the Book Deal, which Vanity Fair named one of the ten best books for writers, and The Year of the Horses, chosen by The Today Show as the best read for mental health awareness. A writing coach, director of the writing workshop “Turning Points,” and educator, her mission is to help people hold on to the joy of art-making in a culture obsessed with turning artists into brands. Passionate about literary citizenship, she sits on the advisory councils of The Authors Guild and The Rumpus.Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the producer of the Academic Life podcast. She holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell.Listeners may also enjoy this playlist: The Artists Joy: A Guide to Getting Unstuck Becoming the Writer You Already Are The DIY Writing Retreat The Top Ten Struggles in Writing a Book Manuscript & What to Do About It Make Your Art No Matter What The Emotional Arc of Turning A Dissertation Into A Book Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You can help support the show by posting, assigning or sharing episodes. Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 200+ Academic Life episodes? Find them all here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen to this interview of Marcos Kalinowski, Professor, Department of Informatics, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and also, of Daniel Mendez, Full Professor, Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden, and head of Requirements Engineering at fortiss, Germany. We talk about starting a new track at a prestigious journal, with all the challenges and triumphs such a venture brings.Daniel Mendez : "The reviewing and publishing of research is also a social process. And I know that Marcos and me edit looking for reasons to accept, instead of to reject a submission. And we are privileged to work with reviewers who share our approach to research publishing." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen to this interview of Dietmar Pfahl, Professor of Software Engineering, University of Tartu, Estonia. We talk about the interconnections between research and the communication of the research.Dietmar Pfahl : "Reviewers need to be told — and told plainly — the actual relevance of the study. That is why authors will publish better when they really understand how, say, a new approach or technology or method, first off, changes how software is being done, but also how those changes open up new questions about, let's say, the quality of software. So, these authors understand all this, and crucially as well, they explain to the reviewer — that is, they explain why they are doing what they report on there in the manuscript, for example, why they know that their results will help software get developed faster, better, easier, or what have you." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen to this interview of Junhua Ding, Professor of Data Science in the Department of Information Science, University of North Texas. We talk about the part that creativity has to play in the publication of impactful research.Junhua Ding : "Engineering research is different from the sort of pure formal sciences of, say, mathematics, where there may be a theorem to be proved, and then researchers attempt to prove it, and in the process, they provide new methods or directions or even solve the problem. But in software engineering — well, of course, we can work formally, a bit like that, but really, from the engineering point of view, researchers work on applying methods to new domains. And so, our publications in software engineering will often attempt to demonstrate the effectiveness or the drawbacks of a method — so, for example, like the method of GenAI for software testing, but applied to the issue of concurrency. A paper like that is going to be about the application more than it will be specifically about concurrency, you see." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Creating a Person-Centered Library: Best Practices for Supporting High-Needs Patrons (Bloomsbury, 2023) provides a comprehensive overview of various services, programs, and collaborations to help libraries serve high-needs patrons as well as strategies for supporting staff working with these individuals. While public libraries are struggling to address growing numbers of high-needs patrons experiencing homelessness, food insecurity, mental health problems, substance abuse, and poverty-related needs, this book will help librarians build or contribute to library services that will best address patrons' psychosocial needs. Beth Wahler and Sarah C. Johnson, experienced in both library and social work, begin by providing an overview of patrons' psychosocial needs, structural and societal reasons for the shift in these needs, and how these changes impact libraries and library staff. Chapters focus on best practices for libraries providing person-centered services and share lessons learned, including information about special considerations for certain patron populations that might be served by individual libraries. The book concludes with information about how library organizations can support public library staff. Librarians and library students who are concerned about both patrons and library staff will find the practical advice in this book invaluable.NBN can get 20% off Creating a Person-Centered Library by using the discount code NBN20 on the Blooomsbury.com US website.Beth Wahler, PhD, MSW is founder and principal consultant at Beth Wahler Consulting, LLC and affiliated research faculty and previous director of the School of Social Work at the University of North Carolina- Charlotte. Dr. Wahler is a social work consultant, researcher, and experienced administrator whose primary focus is trauma-informed librarianship, library strategies for addressing patrons’ or community psychosocial needs, supporting library staff with serving high-needs patrons and reducing work-related stress/trauma, and various kinds of collaborations, services, and programs to meet patron, staff, or community needs. She has also published and presented internationally on library patron and staff needs, trauma-informed librarianship, and library/social work collaborations. Sarah C. Johnson, MLIS, LMSW, is an Adjunct Lecturer at the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she teaches a graduate course on Library Social Work. As a researcher and educator, Sarah is the creator and host of the Library Social Work podcast which aims to inform the public about interdisciplinary collaborations between social service providers and public libraries.Dr. Michael LaMagna is the Information Literacy Program & Library Services Coordinator and Professor of Library Services at Delaware County Community College. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen to this interview of Bram Adams, Professor at the School of Computing, Queen's University, Canada. We talk about current developments in peer review, as it is practised in software engineering research.Bram Adams : "As an editor, one thing you want to see in a review is a summary that clearly says, 'Okay, my overall scoring is this, and my reasons for that are (a) these few negative points but also (b) these few positive points.' But that, in my experience, is missing from reviews much more often than before. Now it is common for editors to get very long and detailed reviews — very well done, in fact — but the major turning-point-reasons for the reviewer’s final recommendation are really spread all throughout the review. And the problem here is that the editor is now put in the difficult position of having to sift through and to locate and in the end really interpret so that those reasons can be made clear to the authors but also to the presiding editor too.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices