FSK-8002 Scientific writing - why and how? (3 ECTS)
FSK-8002 Scientific writing - why and how? (3 ECTS)
Writing and publishing scientific papers requires a lot of practice. What are the best practices in your field of science, and why do journals reject papers? What about your English grammar, is there room for improvement? This course is recommended for PhD candidates in their second year or once students have a manuscript draft ready that they want to work on.
This course is designed to help students during the article writing process both regarding hands-on support with the manuscript, as well as giving students a motivation boost for making progress in their writing. Through lectures and assignments, the course will give basic skills in writing, reviewing and publishing scientific articles. Course participants will learn more about the guidelines and practices behind authorship, the general process of publishing, how to use sources and open research data. During group work, participants will practice their skills in how to structure and edit scientific text, as well as to practice the process of peer-reviewing.
Pre-work
All participants have to submit a draft of one of their own manuscripts prior to course start with a deadline in the middle of September. This manuscript will be the basis for many of the assignments and group work during the course, hence the submission of the manuscript is a prerequisite for the participation in this course. The manuscript may be at an early or late stage but should be more than just a collection of bullet points. This is a great opportunity for PhD candidates to progress in their writing process and significantly improve the manuscripts throughout the course. Each student´s manuscript will be constructively reviewed by a mentor of their research field and get feedback during group work with their fellow PhD students. More details will be announced on Canvas.
Course schedule
This course is an intensive 5 days-course and is offered every autumn semester. Please check the UiT course catalogue for the exact dates.
The course contains of lectures on publishing, the peer-review process, and how to present scientific data in figures. Another focus of the course is on scientific English and grammar. After one week of course lecture, participants with similar scientific background are grouped together to work on their manuscripts over an one month period. The improvement of the manuscript, active participation during group meetings and input to the other group participants' manuscripts makes the participants eligible for the exam.
Exam
We are currently revising the format of the exam and more information will follow.
