How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper (Project-Centered Course)

2019/2020

Academic Year

ENG

Instruction in English

3

ECTS credits

Delivered at:

School of Politics and Governance

Course type:

Elective course

When:

1 year, 4 module

Course Syllabus

Abstract

The course “How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper” is taught on educational online platform “Coursera.org”. Discipline studies are carried out by students independently on the basis of an online course “How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper", https://www.coursera.org/learn/how-to-write-a-scientific-paper, l’École polytechnique. In this project-based course, you will outline a complete scientific paper, choose an appropriate journal to which you'll submit the finished paper for publication, and prepare a checklist that will allow you to independently judge whether your paper is ready to submit.

Learning Objectives

• learn how to write a scientific paper
• know how to choose an appropriate journal

Expected Learning Outcomes

• learn how to know your own community, through different exemples
• learn how to do the literature review
• know the structure of the paper, learn how to use bibliographical tools and to write abstract

Course Contents

• Before writing: delimiting your scientific paper
  good paper do not loose focus throughout the entirety of its form. As such, we are going to give you a more detailed view on how to delimit your paper. We are going to lead you through your paper by taking a closer look at the paper definition which will ensure you don't loose focus. Then we will explain why the literature review is important and how to actually do it. And then we will guide you with advices as to how to find the so-what of your paper! This is important as research is all about so-what!
• Writing the paper: things you need to know
  In this part of the MOOC, you will learn how to write your paper. In a first part, we will focus on the structure of the paper, and then you will be able to see how to use bibliographical tools such as zotero. Finally you will be required to write your own abstract and to do a peer review for the abstract of the others, as in real academic life!
• Understanding academia
  In this section of the MOOC, you will learn what is necessary before writing a paper: the context in which the scientist is publishing. You will learn how to know your own community, through different exemples, and then we will present you how scientific journal and publication works. We will finish with a couple of ethical values that the academic world is sharing!

Assessment Elements

• Online tests
• Final interview
  Students provide online course results. Grade for the course is set by the program supervisor after the students pass the final interview.

Interim Assessment

• Interim assessment (4 module)
  0.3 * Final interview + 0.7 * Online tests

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

• Davis, M. (2005). Scientific Papers and Presentations : Navigating Scientific Communication in Today’s World (Vol. Rev. ed). Burlington, Mass: Academic Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=195986
• Hartley, J. (2008). Academic Writing and Publishing : A Practical Handbook. New York: Routledge. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=224109

Recommended Additional Bibliography

• Murray, R., & Moore, S. (2006). The Handbook of Academic Writing : A Fresh Approach. Maidenhead, England: McGraw-Hill Education. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=234234
• Susan B. Smith. (2012). A Guide for Writing APA Style Research Papers. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsbas&AN=edsbas.BCE37201