IST 511: Information and Technology

   		      Fall 2008

                 Critique Assignment
____________________________________________________________

Overview
--------

Through the semester, each student will have three chances to critique
others' writings (i.e., Proj #1 and #2 reports and mid-term individual
project report).  Each critique is required to have 5-6 paragraphs
(1-2 pages) consisting of:

- Title
- Reviewer Name (I'll remove this later for double-blind)
- Summary (1 paragraph) 
- Pros (1-2 paragraphs)
- Cons (2-3 paragraphs)
- Question 
- Verdict (1-5 scale with 5 being the best and 1 being the worst)

Here are examples critiques for the paper, "Accessibility of
Information on the Web" by Steve Lawrence and C. Lee Giles.

- Critique #1
- Critique #2

Double-Blind Review Model
-------------------------

We use the double-blind review model such that names of authors as
well as reviewers are not revealed.

Score
-----

I'll evaluate the quality of each student's review critiques. At the
end, 15% of final score will be allocated for the critique assignment.

How to evaluate the critiques?
-----------------------------

In an academic world, research articles need to go through rigorous
peer-review process to appear in journals or conferences. As such,
being able to read others' research articles and critique them is very
important. In IST 511, we adopt the review model of academic
conferences. That is, each student acts on two roles: authors and PC
(program committee) members.

- As Authors: For Proj #1 and #2, a set of co-authors (i.e., team
members) submit their project reports. Or, for mid-term individual
project, individual author submit his/her report to ANGEL. All reports
must be ANONYMIZED (e.g., no author names).

- As PC (Program Committee) Members: For each assignment, each student
will be assigned to critique about 2-3 reports by others. Within a
week from the assignment, each student must turn in his/her review
critiques. I, acting as another PC member, will prepare my own reviews
too. Like conference reviews, each report will have at least ** THREE
** reviews

- As PC Chair: I'll also act as PC chair and decide the final verdict
on the report (with my reviews having higher weight). This final
verdict will be reflected on the score of projects. For instance, if a
team's report gets three verdicts like 5, 4, 5, then this team is
likely to get A on the report.