General

Objectives

This course provides practical training in writing scientific papers (in English) and submitting them to international peer-reviewed journals. The aim is to provide practical tools for producing a coherent, well-structured, illustrated and documented text. The course will be accompanied by practical exercises and computer sessions. The course is taught in English.

Prerequisites

This course is specifically designed for PhD students in the natural sciences (EMSTU, MIPTIS and SSBCV graduate schools) who are writing or about to write their first article. We do NOT recommend this course for PhD students in the humanities (S&L and SSTED graduate schools) as some of their criteria for writing a good article are not the same.

Contents

This course will address different aspects of scientific writing:

• The basics of writing a good scientific document: preparing and structuring a document, the criteria for good scientific writing, etc.
• The different types of documents and what to pay attention to: article, thesis manuscript, funding proposal, etc.
• A brief reminder about typography, styles, layout, etc. Differences between French and English (emphasis will be placed on English).
• Literature search and how to organise references. Examples will be given with Zotero and LaTeX.
• Ethical aspects (fraud, conflicts of interest, funding, etc.) and predatory publishers. How to use AI.
• Open science and open publishing.
• The choice of the journal and what to pay attention to.
• The submission process, including revision and refereeing.