Guest Post: “Scientific Writing Made Easy”—A Workshop in Sri Lanka

[This post is from Dr. Anuruddha Abeygunasekera, who coordinated the workshop described in this post. Thanks very much, Abey! —Barbara]

Our first interactive workshop titled ‘’Scientific Writing Made Easy‘’ was held 28 November 2013 in Colombo, Sri Lanka. This workshop was a collaboration of the Sri Lanka Medical Association, the Ceylon Medical Journal, and INASP.

Attendance was limited to 25 participants. Within 24 hours after registration was opened, the workshop was oversubscribed.

Four weeks before the workshop, the registrants received an interactive online course using Moodle. This course was kindly prepared by Mr. Ravi Murugesan, INASP associate. All registrants admired the Moodle course immensely, as it was enjoyable as well as educational.

The workshop focused on writing research articles for health sciences journals. It featured presentations by 3 editors from the Ceylon Medical Journal: Prof. Janaka De Silva, Prof. Varuni De Silva, and me. Hands-on activities were included.

Participants included a cross section of Sri Lankan physicians, ranging from junior to specialist doctors. Most had done research projects, and some hoped to do so soon. Some had already published papers.

During every segment of the workshop, audience participation was encouraged. Because many participants had already done research, there was fruitful discussion.

The course material was mainly from the book How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper by Robert A. Day and Barbara Gastel and from the AuthorAID website. Participants were encouraged to use the resources on the AuthorAID website.

According to oral feedback and written evaluations, participants were pleased with the workshop. They especially appreciated the Moodle course and hands-on workshop components.