Name of course:
Journal Club on Scientific Writing in Engineering

ECTS credits:
3 ECTS (1 ECTS is 25-30 hours of work)
 

Course parameters:
Language: English
Level of course: PhD course
Time of year: Spring 2019
No. of contact hours: 7 sessions of 3 hours
Capacity limits: Max 6 participants

Objectives of the course:
The objective is to improve the participants' competences in writing and reviewing scientific journal, conference, and workshop articles.

Learning outcomes and competences:
At the end of the course, the student should be able to:

• differentiate between common article types;
• differentiate between common publication forums;
• understand the point of scientific dissemination;
• structure a scientific article;
• critically read scientific articles;
• present, interpret, and discuss scientific articles;
• explain a technical paper to a broader technical, but non-expert, audience;
• understand the scientific peer review process.
  
  

Compulsory programme:

• Attend and participate actively in the sessions;
• Study the required background material;
• Select and present at least one scientific paper (depending on the number of participants);
• Act as moderator for at least one session and introduce a discussion topic;
• Fill in and submit the course questionnaire.
  
  

Course contents:
The course focuses on scientific writing and reviewing craftsmanship. PhD students from all areas of engineering and natural sciences can benefit from attending the course as we will address general issues related to scientific writing and reviewing. The course is organized in the following sessions (subject to change):

• Session 1: Seminar with introduction and background of scientific writing and reviewing;
• Session 2-7: Presentation, review and discussion of selected papers - including students' own (draft) papers.

In each session, one student presents a paper, all students participate in the discussion and one student is the moderator. Each session will have a specific focus, highlighting various aspects of scientific writing, e.g. the structure, the logic and reasoning, references and citations, etc. The focus will be introduced by the moderator one week in advance.

Prerequisites:
Participants need to have written at least one scientific paper, or be in a stage of their research where they are ready to publish.

Participants need to be enrolled in a PhD program.

Name of lecturers:
Martijn Heck and Christian Fischer Pedersen
 

Type of course/teaching methods:
Journal club with meetings, presentations, and discussions. Participants are expected to contribute actively to the presentations and discussions.
    

Literature:
A collection of articles and books including:

• "Scientific Writing and Communication" by Angelika Hofmann
• "The Elements of Style" by William Strunk
• "Science Research Writing For Non-Native Speakers Of English" by Hilary Glasman-Deal
• "How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper" by Barbara Gastel
  
  

Course homepage:
Via BlackBoard
   

Course assessment:
Active participation and adherence to the bullets under the "Compulsory programme" heading.

Provider:
Aarhus University, Department of Engineering, Section of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Special comments on this course:
The lecturers will use BlackBoard to send out course related emails. Therefore, once registered for the course, please check your BlackBoard associated email address regularly.

Time:
A total of 7 sessions over the period April – May, 2019.

Preliminary date and time: Wednesdays at 09.00-12.00 AM.

Place:
Finlandsgade 22, Edison building, 8200 Aarhus N., Denmark.
Room number to be announced.
 

Registration:
Deadline for registration is March 1, 2019.

Seats are based on a first-come first-served basis.

Register by sending an email to Christian Fischer Pedersen at cfp@eng.au.dk.
- In the mail, please state your full name, AU-ID, AU-Email, and Study Number.