Learning good practices in scientific communication

This week, the Ph.D. student Xochitl Elias from the Do*Mar doctoral program and member of the FOL, took part in the Seminar on Scientific Writing imparted by Prof. Dr. Henrique Queiroga from  Universidade de Aveiro. The seminar was imparted virtually and covered a broad range of topics including philosophical currents on how to conduct science, how to develop and structure IMRAD (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion) research articles, and ethical issues in current science writing and publishing.

After each day’s lecture, the participants had the chance to discuss the content of the lecture which lead to exciting discussions about the need and use of perspective/opinion papers for the development of science, good ethical writing practices such as avoiding over-interpretation of findings and avoiding plagiarism, and appropriate publishing practices.

The participants were also asked to do three exercises. During these exercises, Xochitl practiced how to orally present her research and how to structure a scientific abstract in a useful way. In the last exercise, Xochitl wrote a short paper following the advice and structure provided in the seminar. The skills and knowledge learned from this seminar will be valuable for Xochitl’s Ph.D. and future career as a scientist.