Paper Writing and Defense Guidelines

On this page, you will find guidelines for writing scientific papers, choosing publication venues, and defending your thesis work at the Intelligent Systems Department.

Guidelines for Writing a Scientific Paper

Choosing a Publication Venue and Submission Process

On Defending Thesis Work at the Department

(Pre-)Defense Checklist

  1. Thesis, slides, and code are in your repository under the department organization
  2. A link to your work is in the theses table

Documents Required for Defense

  1. Supervisor’s review
  2. Antiplagiat check report
  3. External reviewer’s report (for Master’s degrees)

Scope and Content of the Final Qualifying Work (FQW)

For the recommended scope, please read the MIPT Regulations on FQW Defense. A mandatory volume is not defined.

Your results, presented for defense, are important. They should be formatted as a scientific paper (two for Master’s degrees). Publication of these papers in a peer-reviewed journal signifies the acceptance of your results by the scientific community. Together with a formal introduction, they will constitute the recommended volume.

When presenting:

  1. Describe the conditions and your assumptions regarding the problem being solved: spaces, algebraic structures, statistical hypotheses.
  2. Justify the solution to the problem, indicate the properties of the solution.
  3. Formulate your results as strict statements.
  4. Analyze the obtained solution and results.

Avoid describing your solution in the style of “how I do this step by step”. It is more important to describe “why I am doing this” and “what contribution this makes to solving the problem”.

Not needed:

  1. Copying diagrams and illustrations from other papers.
  2. Automatically generated text.

Others’ material and co-authors’ material:

  1. Present it with citations, exactly to the extent required to explain your personal results.
  2. Rephrase and improve others’ text and diagrams.

Defense FAQ

  1. Can I edit the thesis text after the pre-defense? – Yes, and you should, even after the defense. The thesis results will be used primarily by you. But if the version presented at the pre-defense requires significant revision, it raises questions about the quality of the work and the assessment.
  2. Where can I find the formal requirements for the FQW? – Be sure to read the Defense Regulations.
  3. What time are the pre-defense and defense? – Pre-defenses at 10:00, defenses at 13:00.
  4. Online or offline? – Pre-defenses online, defenses offline at Vavilova st., 42, room 355. Access control by list, check this separately.
  5. Do I need to print the FQW for the defense? – Yes. It is polite towards the committee to provide a paper copy of the thesis text.
  6. What is the defense format? – 7-minute presentation + 5 minutes for questions. Keep track of time!
  7. When do I need to upload the FQW? – The department does not know when you need to upload the FQW to your personal account. But you must upload the thesis and all other links to the department page by the pre-defense.
  8. When is the supervisor’s review needed? By the defense. Bring it with you. Master’s students – same with the reviewer’s report.
  9. When is the plagiarism report needed? By the defense. Bring it with you. In case of a high percentage of borrowings, the report must be signed by the supervisor.
  10. Is a reviewer’s report needed? – No for Bachelors, yes for Masters.
  11. When do I need to upload the reviewer’s report? By the defense. Bring it with you (if the reviewer is not from MIPT, their signature must be certified at their place of work).
  12. What are the requirements for the reviewer? – See clause 5 of the Regulations.
  13. Are scanned documents sufficient? – No, originals are needed.
  14. Do I need to upload all papers to my MIPT personal account? – Only the thesis text with a Russian abstract.
    • Upload the text to Personal Account > Academic Process > FQW Upload,
    • Check it with the Plagiarism system,
    • Since your work was previously published by you, the Plagiarism system should find it (and that’s great, as it indicates the scientific community is familiar with it),
    • Ask your supervisor to mark that your work was previously published,
    • For the same reason, do not add generated text to the thesis (it’s unnecessary – we have no volume requirements, but we do have quality requirements),
    • After that, upload the Russian abstract and thesis text to the EBS (button below),
    • It is important to do this no later than two days before the defense (if defense is on the 25th, upload on the 22nd).
  15. Language of the text – We have not found any language requirements in the FQW Defense Regulations. Therefore, given that your work is published in a journal, the decision is left to you.

Standards