About this course: What you will achieve: In this project-based course, you will outline a complete scientific paper, choose an appropriate journal to which you'll submit the finished paper for publication, and prepare a checklist that will allow you to independently judge whether your paper is ready to submit. What you'll need to get started: This course is designed for students who have previous experience with academic research - you should be eager to adapt our writing and publishing advice to an existing personal project. If you just finished your graduate dissertation, just began your PhD, or are at a different stage of your academic journey or career and just want to publish your work, this course is for you. *About Project-Centered Courses: Project-Centered Courses are designed to help you complete a personally meaningful real-world project, with your instructor and a community of learners with similar goals providing guidance and suggestions along the way. By actively applying new concepts as you learn, you’ll master the course content more efficiently; you’ll also get a head start on using the skills you gain to make positive changes in your life and career. When you complete the course, you’ll have a finished project that you’ll be proud to use and share.
Created by: École Polytechnique
Taught by: Mathis Plapp, Assistant Professor
Physics Department
| Commitment | 7-10 hours of study, 10 hours of active project work |
| Language | English, Subtitles: Portuguese (Brazilian) |
| How To Pass | Pass all graded assignments to complete the course. |
| User Ratings |
Syllabus
WEEK 1
Understanding academia
In this section of the MOOC, you will learn what is necessary before writing a paper: the context in which the scientist is publishing. You will learn how to know your own community, through different exemples, and then we will present you how scientific journal and publication works. We will finish with a couple of ethical values that the academic world is sharing!
8 videos, 5 readings, 5 practice quizzes
- Reading: MOOCKnowledge Survey
- Video: Introduction by Mathis Plapp
- Reading: Teaching team
- Video: Let me walk you through the course
- Discussion Prompt: Your thoughts
- Video: French version of the class
- Video: Why is publishing important?
- Practice Quiz: Why is publishing important?
- Reading: Breakthroughs!
- Video: "KYC": Know Your Community
- Practice Quiz: Know your community
- Video: How journals work: the review process
- Practice Quiz: How journals work: the review process
- Reading: Additional contents
- Video: Presentation of scientific journals
- Discussion Prompt: Compatibility between paper submission and editorial board
- Practice Quiz: Communication with the editorial board
- Video: Ethical Guidelines
- Reading: Examples of guidelines
- Practice Quiz: Ethical Guidelines and intellectual property
WEEK 2
Before writing: delimiting your scientific paper
A good paper do not loose focus throughout the entirety of its form. As such, we are going to give you a more detailed view on how to delimit your paper. We are going to lead you through your paper by taking a closer look at the paper definition which will ensure you don't loose focus. Then we will explain why the literature review is important and how to actually do it. And then we will guide you with advices as to how to find the so-what of your paper! This is important as research is all about so-what!
6 videos, 1 reading, 2 practice quizzes
- Video: Paper definition "KYP", Know Your Paper
- Discussion Prompt: Compatibility between paper and journal
- Practice Quiz: So, what?
- Video: How to: the literature review 1/2: find a good literature review
- Discussion Prompt: Understanding how the literature review is structured
- Video: How to: the literature review 2/2: construction of your own literature review
- Reading: Books and tools
- Practice Quiz: Think about it
- Discussion Prompt: Finding Useful References: Difficulties & Strategies for Success.
- Video: How to: the research design
- Discussion Prompt: Comparing different research designs on the same subject
- Video: How to: the gap
- Video: Presentation of Zotero: aggregate references
Graded: Literature Review
Graded: Main ideas
Graded: The Gap?
WEEK 3
Writing the paper: things you need to know
In this part of the MOOC, you will learn how to write your paper. In a first part, we will focus on the structure of the paper, and then you will be able to see how to use bibliographical tools such as zotero. Finally you will be required to write your own abstract and to do a peer review for the abstract of the others, as in real academic life!
5 videos, 2 readings, 1 practice quiz
- Video: The structure of an academic paper
- Discussion Prompt: Comparing different constructions of papers
- Video: On writing an academic paper, preliminary tips
- Reading: Important readings before writing a paper
- Video: How to: the bibliography
- Practice Quiz: Please, try by yourself
- Video: The abstract
- Discussion Prompt: Discussing abstracts
- Reading: More detailed information on how to write your article
- Video: Zotero: online features
Graded: The bibliography
Graded: Peer reviewing of an abstract
WEEK 4
After the writing: the check list
After writing the paper comes the time of reading your paper a few times in order to get everything perfect.In this section you will learn how to remove a lot of mistakes you might have been writing. In the end, you will have to build your own checklist corresponding to your own problems you want to avoid. After this, your article can be submitted and will hopefully be accepted!!
5 videos, 4 readings
- Video: How to avoid being boring?
- Reading: Avoiding mistakes
- Video: The main mistakes to look for: format
- Reading: Format and Writing Readings
- Video: 1. The researcher
- Video: 2. The editor
- Video: Constructing your checklist
- Discussion Prompt: Several content worth taking a look at
- Reading: Tips
- Reading: Final survey
Graded: Now it is your turn: the checking list
FAQs
How It Works
Coursework
Each course is like an interactive textbook, featuring pre-recorded videos, quizzes and projects.
Help from Your Peers
Connect with thousands of other learners and debate ideas, discuss course material, and get help mastering concepts.
Certificates
Earn official recognition for your work, and share your success with friends, colleagues, and employers.
Creators
École Polytechnique
L’École polytechnique associe recherche, enseignement et innovation au meilleur niveau scientifique et technologique mondial pour répondre aux défis du XXIe siècle. En tête des écoles d’ingénieur françaises depuis plus de 200 ans, sa formation promeut une culture d’excellence scientifique pluridisciplinaire, ouverte dans une forte tradition humaniste.
Pricing
| Audit | Purchase Course | |
|---|---|---|
| Access to course materials | Available | Available |
| Access to graded materials | Not available | Available |
| Receive a final grade | Not available | Available |
| Earn a shareable Course Certificate | Not available | Available |
Ratings and Reviews
It is really a very helpful course.
I'm reading this as an undergraduate student, going into my second year. I really feel that this MOOC, despite not being aimed at me, has taken my scientific writing skills to a new level. I have a much greater understanding of the purpose of references and the literature review - something that's not so obvious, as, before now, we've been repeating older experiences with expected results to practice as our lab techniques!
Very well organised and creates new knowledge in the area of publishing for pHD students that is very useful.
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AJ
This course is excellent for start writing a scientific paper.