The course is designed for researchers in developing countries working in a scientific field (life sciences / natural sciences / other related fields). It is particularly suitable for early career researchers, or those with limited experience in publishing papers in reputable peer-reviewed journals.
This course is free of cost to participants. This is because the funding to run this course is provided by Sida, through INASP, which is AuthorAID’s parent organisation.
The course runs for 8 weeks and should take approximately 5 hours per week. The course is largely for you to study in your own time and engage on forums when you wish to. Unless you are notified about live video sessions, assume that there will be none. However, there will be firm deadlines for the writing activities, which you will be notified about well in advance of the deadline.
What will you learn?
Participants who complete the course will be able to:
- Use appropriate pathways to access published research literature
- Describe the key issues in research and publication ethics
- Identify suitable target journals for publishing their research
- Draft a research manuscript by following journal guidelines
- Deal with the peer review process
- Carry out the preliminary steps in preparing a grant proposal
- Draft a grant proposal
Topics covered in the course include:
- Understanding previous research – Unit 1 / Week 1
- Doing and reporting research ethically – Unit 2 / Week 2
- Preparing to write your research paper – Unit 3 / Week 3
- Writing your research paper – Unit 4 / Week 4
- Publishing your paper in a peer-reviewed journal – Unit 5 / Week 5
- Writing a grant proposal – The basics – Unit 6 / Weeks 6 and 7
(The eighth week will be for wrap-up activities)
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