MEWE40200 - Preparing Scientific Publications

Course Description

In this interactive course, a brief overview of trial types and design will be given (including a refresher on basic concepts of biostatistics), after which each section of a standard medical manuscript will be dissected and discussed from various aspects and in a considerable detail, using examples from published literature. In addition, the students will be asked to come up with their own “trials,” to offer critical input on their colleagues’ thinking, and to take turns in a “hot seat,” where they will edit parts of a manuscript provided by the instructor (word by word, punctuation mark by punctuation mark) and explain each of their decisions. At the end of the course, students will be able to understand the interplay between critical reading and writing, and the ways in which various components of a manuscript come together. Students will learn the basics of a successful treatment of biomedical research articles: critical appraisal, substantive editing, composition of an abstract, and composition of an outline.