SCIENTIFIC WRITING

Academic year
2020/2021 Syllabus of previous years
Official course title
SCIENTIFIC WRITING
Course code
PHD114 (AF:338310 AR:179512)
Modality
On campus classes
ECTS credits
8
Degree level
Corso di Dottorato (D.M.45)
Educational sector code
NN
Period
2nd Semester
Course year
1
Where
VENEZIA
The inter-doctoral course in scientific writing aims to familiarize PhD students of different disciplines including humanities on the structure and drafting of scientific articles highlighting how, regardless of the specific scientific discipline, scientific publications show common characters and a common writing strategy . A second objective of the course is to convince the PhD students to write the scientific articles concerning the results of their research firsthand, making them understand how striking results but also others less impactful but characterized by a certain degree of novelty compared to the state still deserve to be published, for the benefit of the students themselves and therefore of the research groups in which they operate.

STRUCTURE AND CONTENT OF THE COURSE COULD CHANGE AS A CONSEQUENCE OF COVID-19.
The expected learning outcomes can be divided into the following specific aspects:
1. Knowledge and understanding
i) knowledge of the different types of scientific publications, ii) understanding of the peer review process and the role of the editor of the scientific journal, iii) knowledge of the sections of an article and their preparation.
2. Ability to apply knowledge and understanding
i) Ability to draft a real scientific article is technically complete based on real or fictitious data, with a clear well-structured and convincing introduction.
3. Ability to judge
i) ability to evaluate the experimental results in the context of the state of the art for the choice of the appropriate scientific journal, ii) ability to organize experimental data for the preparation of a manuscript for a scientific paper.
4. Communication skills
i) Ability to appropriately highlight strengths of research results, without omitting weaknesses but discussing them in a context of the literature, ii) ability to describe the state of the art in a particular research sector when drafting the introduction of scientific articles, iii) ability to prepare graphical material (diagrams, tables, figures) of high quality and clarity.
5. Learning skills
i) ability to evaluate the quality and prestige of a scientific journal; ii) ability to draft scientific articles and scientific reports (including oral ones).
In order to fully understand the teaching, no particular prerequisites are required, it is only recommended a certain confidence with scientific publications regardless of the field of research.
The course treats the following topics in order:
-description of what is meant by scientific publication, experimental scientific method, research guided by curiosity or by problem solving
- peer review process, role of the editor of the scientific journal
-descriptions of the different types of scientific journals and comparison, impact factor, green, gold and diamond open access
-preparation of the title
- preparation of the abstract
-affiliation and list of authors, common criteria to choose the co-authors of a scientific work
- preparation of the introduction, typical structure and key steps towards the presentation of the results
- results and discussion, in which order to report them and following which criteria
- fundamental importance of the meticulous preparation of figures, scheme and tables
-conclusions and future outlook of the paper
- preparation of the bibliography
- preparation of the cover letter and graphical abstract
- preparation of a poster communication
-preparation of an oral communication, strategies, mistakes to avoid and suggestions
-examples of scientific publications and critical discussion of the structure, positive and negative contents
Written multiple choice test (10-12 questions) on the course topics and preparation of a scientific article written on a topic chosen by the student (also based on imaginative data) of the length of a couple of pages following a model provided by the teacher. In the article, all parts of the publication must be prepared by following the instructions given in class. The article will not go into the merits of the data and results reported, as on how these data are presented, on the effectiveness of the title, on the clarity of the abstract, on the ability of the introduction to be concise nevertheless to bring the reader to the heart of the results reported in the next section results and discussion, on the clarity of the figures, tables and diagrams. The cover letter and / or a graphical abstract to be added as material to the scientific article will also be assessed. The final mark will be the average between the test mark and the mark attributed to the scientific article plus cover letter or graphical abstract.
The course is organized in lectures (2 hours each) in the classroom with the aid of a projector and PowerPoint slides that will be provided to students and possibly uploaded to the moodle platform.
In order to stimulate the attention of students, the lecturer at the beginning of each lesson will recapitulate what was discussed in the previous lesson through some short questions aimed at ascertaining students' understanding of the topics (5-10 min).
On the University's "moodle" platform there are pdf files relating to the slides of the presentations projected during the lessons.
The lecturer is available for discussion with the students on the topics of the course, Please, get in contact by email: alesca@unive.it
Accessibility, Disability and Inclusion
Accommodation and support services for students with disabilities and students with specific learning impairments:
Ca’ Foscari abides by Italian Law (Law 17/1999; Law 170/2010) regarding support
services and accommodation available to students with disabilities. This includes students with mobility, visual, hearing and other disabilities (Law 17/1999), and specific learning impairments (Law 170/2010). In the case of disability or impairment that requires accommodations (i.e., alternate testing, readers, note takers or interpreters) please contact the Disability and Accessibility Offices in Student Services: disabilita@unive.it
written
Definitive programme.
Last update of the programme: 14/09/2020