Cluster

Communication skills

Target group

PhD students and beginning postdocs of all faculties taking their first steps in international academic publishing.

Aim

The aim of this workshop is to guide young researchers through all stages of the publication process, allowing them to plan their writing and publication methods, and ultimately their career, with much greater care.
Firstly, academic publications have become a vital part of scientific evaluation. They are no longer merely a means of communication, but are increasingly used as a criterion for quality control. As a result, publishing has become a vital part of scientific research: to be a (good) scientist is to publish.

Secondly, academic careers are short and precarious: the majority of PhD students move on to a different kind of employment, which means they have less time to get their results into the open. The result of this twofold situation is the following: publishing has become vitally important, but people have less and less time to learn how to do it.
This workshop is meant to help them overcome this problem. It offers a guide through all principles of publication, using a broad variety of tools and principles which can be used to take control of one’s publication strategies. This allows PhD students to take off on a flying start: knowledge and skills that would otherwise be the result of a long process of trial and error are now ready-at-hand for them to use at the very beginnings of their academic career.

Programme

1) How to pick a journal
In this part, we tackle the subject of how to pick the right journal for a given paper. The students are introduced to the different factors that determine journal choice (such as journal rankings, subject matter, acceptance rate, review time, ...). One by one, these factors are analyzed, after which a number of online tools are presented to help the students select a journal. The result is a general method or algorithm which can be used to pick the best journal for their publication..
The students then apply this method as an assignment, after which they will get personalised feedback from the teacher of the course.

Tool: Google sheets

2) How to Write Your Paper
This part addresses the actual writing of the paper. It offers a large number of tips on how to write clearly and concisely, and how to avoid being misunderstood. The approach to writing is top-down, starting from the general explanatory structure of the paper, before moving on to explain how this structure can be translated into concise and consistent writing. All writing tips are illustrated with examples of real research papers.
The students will then apply these tips to a writing sample of their own: they will proofread 500 -1000 words from their own paper, and then compare this with the same text proofread by the teacher of the course in a live session of about 30 -45 mins.

Tool: Google Docs & Google Meet

3) How to write an abstract
In this part, we take a look at the writing of your abstract. We discuss why it is important to have a good abstract. The focus is on the relation between the structure of an abstract, a paper, the research presented there. And the difference in writing style between an abstract and the paper itself.
Again, the students apply these tips and (re)write their own abstract. They are then paired for a peer evaluation of each other’s abstract.

Tool: Google Sheets

4) Paper written, what now?This part treats the process and events between the stage of the writing process and the eventual acceptance of a paper by a journal. It offers advice on how to get quality feedback, and how to integrate this feedback in your paper. It also focuses on the review process itself, with particular emphasis on the ‘decoding’ of rejection letters, the importance of which is often underestimated.

5) Paper published, what now?At this stage of the workshop, we focus on the afterlife of the research paper. The students are introduced to the general academic context, the essential role of citations (including a discussion on the H-Index), why it is important to get cited, and how to track your citations. It also offers a number of different tips and tricks on how to get cited more.

Parts 4 and 5 do not contain assignments.

Dates and Venue

Teacher

dr Anton Froeyman, Department of Philosophy and moral sciences. Contact: Anton.froeyman@gmail.com

Registration fee

Free of charge for Doctoral School members. The no show policy applies.

Registration

Follow this link to subscribe to the registration or waiting list.

Number of participants

Maximum 15 participants

Language

English

Evaluation methods and criteria (doctoral training programme)

100% active participation