Course content

The course is compulsory for all PhD students at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at NTNU. The focus of the course is scientific publication and communication of research in general.

Learning outcome

Knowledge

After completed course, the student has knowledge regarding guidelines, central principles, and methodical aspects in relation to scientific publishing, open science, and research communication.

Skills

After completed course the student can: Quickly identify existing research of relevance to a research question through transparent and reproducible structured literature searches in relevant databases. Conduct a critical and objective assessment of the quality of relevant research using suitable checklists. Sum up the knowledge status through a critical and balanced literature review. Author academic text in line with the central principles for clear and effective writing. Cite sources in line with the principles for proper citation convention. Reuse former published illustrations and graphic elements in line with the principles for copyright. Publish and share research in line with current policy for open science. Peer review scientific work within own field of research. Perform general communication of research through relevant media and channels.

General competence

After completed course, the student has attained transferable skills related to quickly identifying the relevant literature within an area, assess the quality of relevant sources and producing a critical summary of the knowledge status. Furthermore, the student has insight into the principles for clear and effective writing and overview of rules, conventions, and practices best practices within academic publishing, open science and research communication.

Learning methods and activities

The course consists of a four day long on-campus session (28h), and a subsequent period for individual work, prior to the home exam. During the on-campus session, the teaching will be arranged as lectures, online courses, seminars, group work and presentations. After the on-campus session, the participants must deliver a thematic literature search for approval. The literature search will form the basis of a self-chosen curriculum within the field of the candidates own PhD-topic. Following a round of anonymous peer-to-peer review from fellow-students, focusing on the practical skills taught in the course, a final draft of the literature review must be submitted for approval as final exam. It is an opening to later use the literature review in the extended summary/ introduction for the PhD-thesis. Assignments and the exam will be in English. The course will be taught with physical attendance. All lectures and problem solving activities are mandatory. The course coordinator may approve up to 20% absence from mandatory lectures/activities. Absence may not be approved if the activity is considered to be critical to the learning outcomes of the course.

Teaching language

• in the fall semester the teaching language is Norwegian
• in the spring semester the teaching language is English

Compulsory assignments

• Hand in a draft of a litterature review for your topic and peer-reveiw the litterature review by a fellow student
• Minimum 80% attendance to on campus session and 3 nett courses
• Documentation of tematic litterature search in chosen topic

Recommended previous knowledge

Enrollment to the PhD-programme at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, NTNU. The participants are ideally at an early stage of their PhD.

Required previous knowledge

Completed master's degree. Medical students enrolled in The Student Research Programme.

Course materials

The curriculum will consist of a self-chosen literature that will form the basis of a literature review within the topic of the participants' own PhD-project. The curriculum should consist of a minimum of 14 different sources and involve a minimum of 140 pages in total (contribution from books, book-chapters, reports, and similar should not exceed 25 pages in total). Material shared during the course the will also form part of the curriculum. Recommended reading: Helen Aveyard. Doing a literature review in health and social care: a practical guide. 4th ed., 2019. Web. Zeiger, Mimi: Essentials of writing biomedical research papers. Second edition. McGraw Hill Companies 2000. Strunk, William. The Elements of Style. 2011. Web.

Credit reductions