Authorship Workshop: Translating your thesis into a publication

Authorship Workshop: Translating your thesis into a publication

Aim of the course

The workshop held at Pride inn Hotel, Mombasa, Kenya was organised by the Annals of African Surgery aimed at helping investigators acquire skills and develop strategic means to communicate with the broad scientific community and, in particular, to publish scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals. A team of surgeon scientists/educators led discussions on scientific publishing policies, statistical evaluation of data, ethical requirements, and organisation of a manuscript.

Who attended

In attendance were medical students, residents and surgeons who had done some research (dissertation/thesis), and still had difficulties writing up their findings in a publishable manuscript format.

Manuscript editing in groups, aided by EIC Prof. Hassan and Dr. Mwachaka, one of the assistant editors

Course outline

The workshop was kicked off by remarks from the Editor-in-Chief, Prof. Hassan Saidi. He introduced the faculty and outlined the course content. Sessions included:

Why and what do i want to publish? What do journals publish? Prof. John Tarpley PPT

The anatomy of the scientific article: IMRAD format. Dr. Peter Nthumba PPT

The abstract as a marketing tool and how to spin the best title for your paper Prof. Russel white PPT

Making statistical sense of your data. Prof. Moses Galukande PPT

Writing an effective conclusion and the reference list Dr. James Kigera PPT

Ethical issues in writing: plagiarism, authorship, use of animals/patients, disclosure Prof. Joseph S. Solomkin PPT

Dealing with review decisions; ethical issues in the review process Margaret Tarpley PPT

What do editors and reviewers look for? Edward van Lanen PPT

The participants also engaged in group discussions where editing and transformation of the manuscripts was done. The participants expressed their gratitude. They acknowledged that the workshop was a huge success with some who had manuscripts of up to 100 pages managing to edit them to manuscripts which they submitted to the Annals of Surgery (AAS) editorial team for peer-review and consideration for publication.

Discussion in groups

The workshop came to a close with words from the associate editor, Dr. Kigera who thanked the participants and instructors.He added that the AAS was going to continue encouraging medical professionals to publish their research findings. He concluded by insisting that failure to share your findings (publish) as a medical professional denies others the chance to learn from your work and better their practice. Not to forget that publication is the only valid scientific currency.