Rationale
Science is not finished until it is communicated. This quote has been attributed to Mark Walport, the UK Government's Chief Scientific Adviser from 2013-2017. He also said that to maximize the impact of research findings, they must be distributed as widely as possible.
While there are other avenues to share one's research, publishing research in a reputable refereed journal and presenting results in a scientific conference are the two main avenues by which researchers heed the call for science communication. Moreover, publishing in refereed journals is a proven way of subjecting one's science to the scrutiny of peers. To survive and flourish in the academic or research community, researchers must publish their work to keep their job, further their careers, and attract research funding. Therefore, researchers must enhance their skills in writing publication-ready manuscripts for local or international refereed journals.
Fortunately, the skill of scientific writing can be learned and can be sharpened. There are also available tools that author can use to make scientific writing more efficient and productive.
The course aims to improve competence in scholarly communications by deepening knowledge of the core features of the scientific writing style. The course will enable the participants to write clear, detailed, and well-structured scientific texts appropriate to a suitable academic journal. In addition, they will develop skills for self-editing and revision techniques, including editing for precision and clarity. They will also gain a deeper understanding of how to prepare a scientific paper using IMRAD (introduction, methods, results and discussion) format. Finally, the participants will develop an enhanced understanding of the concept of academic integrity and the ethics of scientific writing to overcome anxiety about academic publishing and get their research papers published in international journals.
Course Description
Designed as a project-centered training course, learners will write a complete scientific paper, choose an appropriate journal to which they will submit the finished paper for publication, and prepare a video presentation of their research for a conference. A project-centered course is designed to help learners complete a personally meaningful real-world project. The course instructor and co-learners with similar goals provide guidance and suggestions along the way. By actively applying new concepts to learn, participants can master the course content more efficiently. At the end of the course, learners would have a finished project that they can use and share.
The topics in the course will be anchored on a Journal Article Submission Checklist that will help them to independently judge whether their article is ready for submission to a journal. The checklist will let participants assess how well their work aligns with journal guidelines and whether their manuscript is complete in terms of recommended format and structure, authorship details, written permissions, etc. Particularly when articles report large amounts of data, different information sources, and multiple authors, the checklist will help authors to ensure they are accurate and consistent with the data, facts, numbers, tables, figures, symbols, and measurement units used in the manuscript. The course also presents a range of self-editing strategies and approaches several language, structure, style, and content issues that researchers can encounter while writing and revisiting their articles. Furthermore, the checklist will give authors the chance to identify any missing or incorrect citations and references, which may be flagged as plagiarism by journals.
This course is designed for participants who have previous experience with academic research. That is why all participants must have a draft write-up of their study results. They should be eager to adapt the knowledge and skills they will learn in the training to their scientific writing project.
Objectives
The training mainly aims to introduce principles and practical techniques for communicating scientific information to an academic audience. Specifically, at the end of the training, the participants should be able to:
- Plan the submission of a journal article;
- Write a journal article applying the principles of clear and effective writing;
- Edit and revise a journal article by addressing reviewer comments and applying editing techniques; and
- Create a video presentation about their journal article for presentation at a virtual conference.
Participants and Training Approach
The training will have 35-40 participants. The organizers will ensure that, despite the online platform and its limitations, interaction is still dynamic and feedback on the outputs of all participants is feasible.
Synchronous sessions will have lectures, learning-application workshops, and a mock presentation of their conference paper. There will be five learning-application workshops devoted to practical applications of the techniques learned to develop a writing plan, produce a draft scientific article, and revise the article for publication. Participants will be individually coached in the workshops, during which they apply what they learned from the lectures. Participants will also have the chance to do peer reviews of their co-learners' abstracts and journal article. During the presentation of outputs, co-learners will also provide comments, and the lecturer will give the synthesis.
The topics that will be covered are:
- The peer-review process and the journal article's journey from draft to publication
- Developing a journal article publication plan and targeting journals to publish in
- Following the Journal Article Submission Checklist and applying the principles of clear and effective writing
- Addressing reviewer comments and applying basic technical editing techniques to improve the article
- Tips in presenting research results in a conference, both face-to-face and virtual
Program Duration and Platform
The Program will be conducted online via the SEARCA Online Learning and Virtual Engagements (SOLVE) Platform with five synchronous sessions (19&22 April; 3,6, &17 May 2022).
In addition to attending the synchronous sessions, the learners should also be prepared to devote extra hours beyond the usual synchronous meetings to work on their draft article.
Program Fees
Applicants should come from invited SUC-ACAP members and are to apply via the Commission on Higher Education (CHED)-funded project of SEARCA titled Leveling-Up Philippine Higher Education Institutions in Agriculture, Fisheries, and Natural Resources (LevelUPHEI AFAR). Successful applicants will be awarded a grant to participate in this Training on Scientific Writing and Presentation for Higher Education Institutions in the Philippines (SciWriting4HEIs).
