Academic publishing remains the bedrock for assessing scientific productivity. In recent decades, the pressure to publish has led to production of poor scientific papers that do not provide meaningful contribution to growth of knowledge. The exponential growth in academic journals, many of which are ‘predatory’ in that their only motivation is to make money, has led to lousy publication of scientific works. Such journals end up publishing almost anything submitted to them, without the usual careful checks and balances and critical peer reviewing processes that have been the foundation of the scientific process. Many academicians, given the pressure to publish, have usually fallen victim of this below par scientific publishing. Adding to the challenges is that many scientists have not learned the overarching goal of academic publishing and the processes and strategies to achieve success.

Academic publishing requires certain skills that every scientist needs to learn. Unfortunately, such skills have usually not been part of the mainstream curricula training of scientists. Many scientists then end up growing in their publishing career through trial and error or through collaborative networks, which usually are not available to all researchers

This course takes participants into the world of academic publishing, focusing primarily on journal publishing. The course covers issues around: thinking of a scientific paper, developing the structure of a scientific paper, writing a scientific paper, going through the publication process of a scientific paper, and dealing with reviewers and editorial criticisms of the scientific paper

The overarching goal of the course is to help participants become successful in their scientific publishing career, ensuring that they communicate and disseminate their scientific findings in a way that contributes to the growth of knowledge and gain positive impact on the society.

The course is suitable for postgraduate students, junior and senior researchers from any field of research.

Brief content:

• Day 1: Introduction and context
• Day 2: Writing structures
• Day 3: Writing structures continue
• Day 4: Manuscript submission, revision and publishing
• Day 5: Group presentations and conclusions