How to make scientific writing easy?

The answer to this question is obvious; there is no way to make scientific writing easy. It is often challenging and demanding even for senior researchers with decades of experience and hundreds publications!

You cannot make it easy, but one way you can make it easier is through collaborative support.

During November-December 2022, the research school “Focus on food and biomaterials” organized a course for PhD students entitled “How to write and publish a scientific paper in molecular sciences” (5 credits).

The course consisted of lectures, seminars, and group discussions. During the course, the PhD students drafted a scientific article using their own results and improved the draft based on the comments and suggestions from all participants and course leaders.

“The course was useful because we could network with experienced senior researchers, share experiences, and learn from other PhD students”, says Jaqueline Auer.

“We tried to focus on providing the students all knowledge with examples from our own experience so they can avoid mistakes and achieve better results”, adds Galia Zamaratskaia.

We also talked about plagiarism, communication with editors and referees, and ways to promote your own research after article acceptance.

The next course occasion is autumn 2024.

We thank the participants for all the enjoyable class discussions and hope that this course increased your interest in scientific writing!

Course participants:

Jacqueline Auer

Johanna Östlund

Naike Schwenner

Sunera Zulficar Nurmomade

Daniel Malnes

Andreia Massamby

Course leaders:

Tomas Linder and Galia Zamaratskaia, Department of Molecular Sciences, SLU. Research school “Focus on Food and Biomaterials”