Writing and Publishing Scientific Literature

ID 578 Subject & Catalog Number

Description

This course covers the principles and practices of scientific writing as applied to public health research. Major topics include inductive and deductive reasoning, generating and refining a research question, constructing a logical outline, literature synthesis, and the sequential development of a manuscript using the IMRAD framework. The course also addresses research proposals and science communication for non-specialist audiences. No prior research experience is required; however, you are expected to identify a public health topic of interest early in the semester.

Your ability to write effectively will determine how your research is evaluated by your peers, understood by your audiences, and used by other public health professionals and policy makers. In this course, you will develop your scientific writing ability systematically as you draft a scientific manuscript. Starting with the foundations of how to structure sentences and paragraphs most effectively, we will move sequentially through the logical steps of the Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion (IMRAD) framework. Weekly practice, collaborative discussions, and supportive feedback will leave you with a draft manuscript as well as a set of writing habits that will serve you throughout your career. 

Scientific writing is a tool for both communicating scientific ideas and for refining them. As you work through the individual sections of a scientific manuscript, you will make new logical connections and identify flaws in your own ways of thinking. This will deepen your understanding of your research and improve how you build arguments and defend them. Scientific thinking is an emergent property of good scientific writing.