Scientific Writing
NIH Public Access Policy Workshop
On October 20 from 10am to 12pm in the LHL Electronic Classroom (LHL G-40) there will be a “how-to” workshop on the NIH Public Access Policy and manuscript deposit requirements. Attendees who bring manuscripts can receive assistance with submission during the second half of the workshop. No registration is required. For more information, please contact me at lvucovi@uab.edu
The Good, Bad and Ugly on Developing Scientific Presentations by Dale Benos
Dr. Dale Benos gave a seminar today on how to develop a good scientific presentations, speaking to an audience of over 150 people from across campus. A big Clint Eastwood fan, Benos used clips and references from some of Eastwood’s best movies to show the participants how to improve their presentation skills.
The Good: The outcome of good presentation according to Benos is stimulate further self-directed learning among the participants. The best thing your presentation can do is to motivate someone to go out and learn more on their own about your topic. A good presenter will be able to this while being enthusiastic, confident, and sincere.
The Bad: Benos recommends using simple, clear wording during a presentation and limit the use of jargon. If you know your topic well, you can describe it without complex words or techinical concepts. Someone who understands your topic well will not be offended, and someone who doesn’t know your topic well will be grateful. Also try not to be offensive, arrogant, or argumentative with audience members when giving a presentation. This will just offend people and ruin the impact of your presentation.
The Ugly: Be careful how you design your PowerPoint slides. Think about colors, fonts, and graphics when creating your slides. Benos suggests keeping your slides simple. If you add a lot of content on your slide, it will be distracting and will encourage your audience to ask questions about things you are not prepared to answer or are distracting to your talk. Remember to that some people are color- blind so never use red font.
To see the Dr. Benos’ PowerPoint Slides from the presentation, visit the CCTS website: http://www.ccts.uab.edu/pages/pres_dev.aspx
How to develop a Scientific Manuscript
Today in the UAB Spain Auditorium, Dr. Dale Benos, UAHSF Endowed Chair in Biomedical Research & Chair of the UAB Department of Physiology and Biophysics, presented his well-known seminar on Developing Scientific Manuscripts. Dr. Benos has been presenting this information on the UAB Campus for over five years. In explaining to today’s participants why a seminar on how to develop scientific publications is important, Benos said, “I know some of this information sounds so obvious, but if it was obvious we would all do it, and we don’t!”
Given that most scientific research is multi-disciplinary, most publications have an average of six authors. Benos’ biggest piece of advice to new investigators is to establish work assignments among all potential authors of a manuscript up-front and to keep lines of communication open among all authors. “This will prevent a lot of problems in the future and increase the chances that your manuscript will be accepted for publication,” he said.
His presentation covered the following topics: the overall process of scientific publication, issues to conisder before you start to write, elements of a journal article, the review/revision process, tips to enhance your chances of acceptance, and ethical issues.
Developing Scientific Manuscripts is one of several seminars offered by the UAB CCTS Scientific Writing Seminars. To learn more about these Seminars, visit the UAB CCTS web site at: http://www.ccts.uab.edu/pages/sws.aspx
The NIH Public Access Policy and You
Fact: Only 20% of all electronic articles in the scientific literature are free and available to everyone.
In 2003, Congress asked the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop a way to provide the public with free access to all NIH-sponosered research. The result is the NIH Public Access Policy which is a federal law that requires all researchers to submit all final peer-reviewed journal manuscripts that are accepted for publication and result from NIH funding. This policy applies to all manuscripts that are:
- peer-reviewed;
- accepted for publication in a journal on or after April 7, 2008;
- result from the following funding: an NIH grant or cooperative agreement active in Fiscal Year 2008; an NIH contract signed on or after April 7, 2008; or any direct funding from the NIH Intramural Program.
NIH wants the final manuscript, not the final journal article, because the author holds the rights to the manuscript while the publisher holds the rights to the article. These manuscripts are deposited into PubMed Central and will be made available for free public access no later than 12 months from publication.
To help UAB researchers, UAB’s Lister Hill Library offers a service to help submit manuscripts to NIH.
Click here to learn more about the Open Access movement.
Scientific Writing Seminars (SWS)
For over four years, the Scientific Writing Seminar Series (SWSS) has been providing the UAB community with practical knowledge and skills needed to produce quality scientific writing for a successful career in biomedical and health sciences research. Now sponsored by the UAB Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS), the new and improved Scientific Writing Seminars (SWS) continue to provide practical assistance in three areas: 1) the development of scientific manuscripts, 2) grants, and 3) scientific presentations. Learn more about the current seminars that we are offering in 2009:
Developing Scientific Manuscripts
The goal of this session is to develop practical skills for writing a scientific, peer-reviewed article. Information will include introductory material on types of scientific writing, where to submit articles, the elements of a journal article, and how to respond to critiques and correspond with editors. (2 hours total)
Developing Career Plans for NIH K awards
This session includes information on assessing individual readiness for an application, gathering information from the NIH and UAB resources, learning about specific funding mechanisms such as K01s, K08s, and K23s and how to prepare the career development portion of a K award. Information covered will include planning and preparation of the candidate description, scientific biography, and career development plan. This session uses a small group format to allow time for discussion and Q & A. (2 hours total)
Future two-hour sessions are in the works for the following topics: Developing Scientific Presentations, Revising Grant Applications and Responding to Pink Sheets and Developing Research Plans for Grant Applications. For more information and upcoming sessions, visit the UAB CCTS web site.
