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<p>This thread has generated a multitude of suggestions regarding how to become a first (or at least a ‘relatively prominent’) author on a research pub. You could certainly follow the suggestions put forth; I am not arguing otherwise. </p>
<p>However, I would say that a far more interesting question would be how you might become sole author on a research pub. That would obviously entail - if the work is empirical - collecting the entire dataset yourself, cleaning and analyzing that data (which would obviously require learning how to do so), and perusing the contents of target journals to understand the type of format and writing-style they prefer so that you can properly submit your manuscript. If rejected by that journal, learn the format of another journal to submit there, etc.</p>
<p>Practically speaking, the procedure likely requires pursuing a topic that you personally enjoy, such that you would be personally interested in the outcome. {Trust me, it’s excruciatingly difficult to produce a publication regarding a research project that you don’t care about. If you don’t care, then you simply won’t do the work.} For example, one could simply imagine devising a research question purely from your personal hobbies, such as which rappers actually exhibit the greatest ‘centrality’ within the social-networking graph as exhibited by lyrical collaboration. {For example, ‘the most central rapper’ would be whoever collaborates on lyrics with the most other rappers who themselves also collaborate with the most other rappers, or in other words, which rapper would have the shortest lyrical pathway of a game of ‘6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon’ .} You could then pull the necessary data for free from various rapper-lyrics websites (for example, you could write a web-spider program using Perl to extract the data from the websites). Then analyze the data using various freeware social networking analysis software such as Pajek, StocNet, R Statnet/Igraph, or Python Netminer (a simple graphical tool such as basic Pajek probably would only take you a couple of days to learn). Then just write it and publish it in an academic science journal.</p>
<p>Ridiculous, some of you might say? An outlandish fantasy? Oh wait, [that</a> already happened](<a href=“http://arxiv.org/pdf/physics/0511215v4.pdf]that”>http://arxiv.org/pdf/physics/0511215v4.pdf) having been published in an[academic</a> journal](<a href=“IOPscience::.. Error!”>The network of collaboration among rappers and its community structure - IOPscience). Apparently 2Pac and the Wu-Tang Clan are highly central rappers.* </p>
<p>Heck, you may even be able to dispense with the entire data collection step entirely and - with proper attribution natch- simply use data that somebody else has already compiled and is offering. For example, one could imagine analyzing the social network of comic book superheroes by taking social networking data that somebody else had collected regarding the Marvel Universe, and then examining the closest social networking connections amongst the various characters. You could then publish that. </p>
<p>Oh wait, [somebody</a> did that too.](<a href=“http://arxiv.org/pdf/0708.2410v1.pdf]somebody”>http://arxiv.org/pdf/0708.2410v1.pdf) And that paper also was published in [an academic journal](<a href=“Radware Bot Manager Captcha”>Radware Bot Manager Captcha). Apparently while important social networking jumps characterize the links amongst individual members of The Avengers (i.e. Captain America & Beast, Captain America & Thing, Hulk & Namor McKenzie/SubMariner), the deepest link is between Spiderman and Mary Jane. </p>
<p>Or if hands-on work is more your cup of tea, you could join the myriad technology ‘hacking’ communities that have bloomed around. For example, consider the snazzy technology projects that hobbyists have built around the [Microsoft</a> Kinect](<a href=“http://www.popsci.com/diy/article/2010-11/five-hacks-free-microsofts-kinect-xbox]Microsoft”>Hacking Microsoft's Kinect: Two Weeks In, Six Amazing Projects) or the [Nintendo</a> Wii](<a href=“http://hacknmod.com/hack/top-30-wiimote-hacks-of-the-web/]Nintendo”>http://hacknmod.com/hack/top-30-wiimote-hacks-of-the-web/), which you can obtain for less than a few hundred dollars. Heck, Microsoft even [launched[/url</a>] an official Kinect SDK available for free (as long as you don’t attempt to generate profit from your project, otherwise, you can purchase a commercial SDK license, which still isn’t that much: just another few hundred dollars}. Heck, you might even be able to [url=<a href=“http://arxiv.org/pdf/1108.5022.pdf]publish[/url”>http://arxiv.org/pdf/1108.5022.pdf]publish[/url</a>] a project you build around the Kinect/Wii. </p>
<p>So to reiterate, while you could obviously follow the traditional pathway of joining an established university lab and hoping to impress the professor sufficiently to head your own project and become first author of a collaborative piece (and I’m not saying that there’s anything wrong with that), there is also substantial opportunity to become sole author on a project that you design and publish yourself, using gear that is either freeware or can be bought for just a few hundred dollars. Even if it never becomes a publication, at least you were able to pursue a personal hobby of yours while also surely boosting your own resume. For example, I’d be most impressed with an engineering undergraduate who has actually built his own [url=<a href=“http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-03/31/kinect-drone]Kinect-enabled”>Kinect-carrying drone automatically builds 3D maps of rooms | WIRED UK]Kinect-enabled</a> unmanned surveillance flying drone](<a href=“Microsoft Research – Emerging Technology, Computer, and Software Research”>Microsoft Research – Emerging Technology, Computer, and Software Research). </p>
<p>*Also note, you ought not to be intimidated by the author’s references to the ‘Bouchet-Franklin Research Institute’, as that’s just the working name of a one-man ‘research institute’ that he personally launched and runs and is nothing more than a PO Box. Indeed, he completed this paper in his spare time while an MBA student at MIT.</p>