Goals

To provide participants with fundamental skills and knowledge required for scientific writing.
To help participants enhance their writing skills to create clear and concise scientific documents.
To provide participants with skills to recognize and overcome common pitfalls in scientific writing.

Format

The two-day workshop will be structured to focus on both fundamentals of writing, and advanced techniques in creating a scientific document. Different types of documents will be discussed, including grants and a range of manuscripts from original studies to case reports. The skills discussed in this workshop will broadly apply to any scientific document. 

Participants will be introduced to the fundamentals of scientific writing, the structure of a manuscript, common pitfalls and errors, perspectives of different types of readers including reviewers and editors, and how to pick a journal.

The format will include didactics, demonstrations, and interactive constructive reviews of participant work.

Agenda

Learning Objectives: at the conclusion of this workshop, participants will be able to:

  1. Review principles and importance of scientific writing.
  2. Recognize the structure and content of different scientific documents.
  3. Apply principles of clear and concise writing to medical documents.
Time Topic Description
8:00 am to 8:10 am Introduction to Session 1 and overview of goals - Dr. Swaminathan Brief overview of workshop rationale, goals and objectives; introduction of format of the day, and speakers.
8:10 am to 8:30 am What makes this writing great? - Dr. Kharasch Participants will be introduced to examples of scientific writing with the goal of identifying good writing that conveys information well and writing that does not achieve that goal.
8:30 am to 8:50 am Types and targets - Dr. Podgoreanu A review of the various types of manuscripts, intended audiences and targets (journals) for submission, writing “fit for purpose”, manuscript guidelines, and generalized resources.
8:50 am to 9:20 am Posters, Meetings and Manuscripts: How to write an abstract - Dr. Cherry Discussion of how to structure an abstract for a poster or a manuscript.
9:20 am to 9:40 am Research reports: Writing the introduction section - Dr. Kharasch Participants will be guided through elements of a well-written introduction section. Emphasis will be placed on clarity, brevity, structure and flow.
9:40 am to 10:00 am Research reports: Writing the methods section - Dr. Martucci Participants will be guided through elements of a well-written methods section. Emphasis will be placed on clarity, structure, appropriate detail and flow.
10:00 am to 10:20 am Research reports: Statistics – who needs it? - Dr. Fuller Participants will be guided through elements of the presentation of statistical methods.

10:20 am to 10:30 am: Break

Time Topic Description
10:30 am to 10:50 am How to present your results. When to use tables and figures - Dr. Raghunathan This section will focus on the essential elements of the results section, and how to dovetail the text with tables and figures.
10:50 am to 11:20 am The visual display of quantitative information: graphs and figures - Dr. Podgoreanu How to visually present information efficiently, clearly, and for maximum comprehension. Concepts, tips, and software tools.
11:20 am to 11:50 am Creating a great discussion section - Dr. Kharasch Participants will be guided through the essential elements of a discussion section. Common mistakes will be identified with strategies to avoid them and creating a coherent and cohesive section. What are P-hacking, HARKing, Hype, and Spin, and how to avoid them.
11:50 am to 12:20 pm You be the judge: What would you do to these examples? - Dr. Treggiari Participants will play the role of editor/reviewer and critique writing examples as a group. The goal is to be able to identify common errors based on previous discussions.
12:20 pm to 12:30 pm Overview and wrap-up - Dr. Swaminathan  

12:30 pm: Adjorn and Lunch

Learning Objectives: at the conclusion of this workshop, participants will be able to:

  1. Review ethical principles in scientific writing.
  2. Discuss authorship criteria, roles, and responsibilities.
  3. Describe writing from a reviewer’s perspective.
Time Topic Description
8:00 am to 8:10 am Introduction and review of Session 1 - Dr. Swaminathan Brief overview of workshop rationale, goals and objectives; introduction of format of the day, and speakers. Session 1 will be reviewed.
8:10 am to 8:40 am Proper citation practices and managing references - Dr. Nackley How to properly use citations in scientific writing. Live demonstration of how to use a reference manager (EndNote) for incorporating and formatting citations and references in a manuscript. Participants will use their laptops during this guided demonstration.
8:40 am to 9:10 am How to pick the right journal, and how to identify predatory ones. - Dr. Podgoreanu Participants will be guided through the various types of journals, process for selecting the right journal for your paper, how to identify and avoid predatory journals, publication fees (page charges, article processing fees). Anesthesiology department policy on paying for article processing fees.
9:10 am to 9:40 am Integrity: Avoiding misconduct and questionable practices - Dr. James Ethical considerations in writing. How to detect and avoid fabrication, falsification and plagiarism and the role of artificial intelligence tools in writing. How to detect and avoid questionable research practices.
9:40 am to 10:00 am Integrity: Authorship - Dr. James What are the roles, responsibilities, and criteria for authorship? Credit or responsibility? Authorship criteria – domain and journal-specific. Who is the first author? Co-author(s)? “Senior” author? Roles and responsibilities of a corresponding author? How to avoid authorship disputes.
10:00 am to 10:30 am You be the judge: What would you do to these examples? - Dr. Raghunathan Participants will play the role of editor/reviewer and critique writing examples as a group. The goal is to be able to identify common errors based on previous discussions.

10:30 am to 10:45 am: Break

Time Topic Description
10:45 am to 11:10 am Writing reports of observational and data studies - Dr. Raghunathan Retrospective studies, systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and their reports may have different content, structure, and considerations than those of hypothesis-driven research. This section will review the special considerations for these types of manuscripts.
11:10 am to 11:30 am Writing summative articles - Dr. Kharasch Who should do this? Types of summative articles. Common pitfalls.
11:30 am to 12:00 pm Peer review and manuscript revision - Dr. Martucci Brief overview of the peer review process, and how to successfully revise a manuscript in order to maximize the likelihood of acceptance
12:00 pm to 12:20 pm Your questions answered - All faculty Panelists will review audience questions submitted prior to the session and review some common issues encountered in writing.
12:20 pm to 12:30 pm Overview and wrap-up - Dr. Swaminathan  

12:30 pm: Adjorn and Lunch