Please note that this course includes a pre-meeting assignment. The estimated work load for pre-meeting assignment is one person week. Therefore, it is recommended to start to prepare the pre-meeting assignment before the registration period.

Course information

Learning outcomes: This course provides doctoral students with understanding over writing scientific journal articles. The lecture will motivate students to start writing sooner. After the lecture the student will understand what is required from a scientific article and what the related publishing processes entail. The student will know how to approach and write a scientific journal article effectively.

Contents: The course consists of open lecture (4 hours), pre-assignment and seminar work (7 hours).

Target audience: The lecture aims at providing tips to researchers in all fields. Especially starting researchers have experienced the lecture as very beneficial. Also researchers that have written multiple articles have given positive feedback. Seminar will deepen issues discussed on the lecture.

Schedule:

14.1.2014 open lecture at 12-16, Lecture hall D11 (Main building)

Seminar on the 15.1. and 16.1.2014 (two groups)

14.1.2014 - Lecture

Contents:
 - Practical tips for writing scientific articles
 - Improving chances for acceptance
 - Article logic, beginning and end
 - Editor's viewpoints
 - Group dynamics for writing articles
 - Discussion

Seminar

Group 1: 15.1. at 9-16 o'clock (K109 Linna building)

Group 2: 16.1. at 9-16 o'clock (Room C7 Main building))

Voluntary reference material: Tips for writing scientific journal articles

Lecturer: Dr Pekka Belt, University of Oulu

More information about the lecturer: www.tinyurl.com/efficient-doctoral-studies

Pre-meeting assignment:

•             Read the guidebook "Tips for writing scientific journal articles" (http://herkules.oulu.fi/isbn9789514293801/isbn9789514293801.pdf). Choose a potential target journal where you wish to publish in the future. Analyse the structure, not substance, of 2-3 articles recently published in this journal by comparing them against the structure presented in the guidebook. Write a report in text format (e.g. MSWord) of your observations, pay attention to any deviations in structure. 

•             Prepare a short presentation of your observations, for instance, using 3-4 PowerPoint slides. This presentation will be publicly shown.
•             In the report, include your reflections about the issues you consider as bottlenecks in your scientific writing. These will be discussed in the workshop anonymously.
•             In the report, include the topics you wish to be discussed during the workshop
•             Please, remember to include your name, academic field, and your research topic

• Please, submit your pre-meeting assignment (only the report, no Power Point) by email by noon of Monday 13 January. (to olli.nuutinen(a)uta.fi)

Enrolment: Enrolment in NettiOpsu either to group 1 or 2. Students are selected on first come-first-served principle. The student has to check the selection from NettiOpsu after the enrolment period. Maximum 18 students per seminar group can be accepted.

Evaluation: Pass/fail.