Scientific Writing Seminar

Code:

PDSH14

Acronym:

SEC

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
OFICIAL	Scientific Research Methodology

Instance: 2023/2024 - 1S

Active?	Yes
Responsible unit:	Psychology
Course/CS Responsible:	Doctoral Programme in Human Sexuality

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
PDSH	10	Plano de Estudos em vigor	2	-	12	48	324

Teaching language

Suitable for English-speaking students
Obs.: Português e inglês

Objectives

1. To identify scientific writing as a specific writing style.

2. To be familiar with the main characteristics of scientific writing, peer review, and the Open Science framework.

3. To know the main conventions of scientific writing, particularly those promoted by the American Psychological Association, APA.

4. To be able to use the main conventions of scientific writing in Psychology by creating a manuscript in APA-style.

5. To be familiar with the steps involved in submitting a manuscript to publication in peer-reviewed journals, and to be able to conduct them (e.g., preparing letters to the Editor and response to Reviewers).

Learning outcomes and competences

The objectives above were defined as learning outcomes. Please see above.

Working method

Presencial

Program

Science writing and the value of clarity.
Comparison with other writing styles (e.g., creative writing).

The peer-review system and the scientific editorial procedure. Open science and open data.

Types of scientific communication. Special emphasis on empirical articles.

Detailed analysis, with text production by the students, of the following:
- general scheme and plan or draft of contents
- abstract
- main sections of a scientific article: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, and References
- submission, revision, and resubmission.

Mandatory literature

American Psychological Association; Publication manual of the American Psychological Association. ISBN: 1-4338-0561-8

Complementary Bibliography

Steven Pinker; The sense of style. The thinking person’s guide to writing in the 21st century, Penguin, 2014

Comments from the literature

https://apastyle.apa.org/instructional-aids/tutorials-webinars

The following classic books are also interesting sources: 

Ramón y Cajal, S. (1998). Advice for a young investigator. MIT Press. (Original publicado em 1897)

Strunk, W. & White, E. B. (1979). The elements of style (3rd ed.). Macmillan

Teaching methods and learning activities

Weekly group sessions and tutorial one-to-one sessions (at least, three). The weekly sessions consist of lectures (about 50%) and workshops o writing production with detailed feedback.

E-learning component available at the University of Porto Moodle platform, a course titled SEC Online. There, students can find all the materials used in the course: handouts of lectures, recommended readings, and useful links or tools.

Visitor access is possible using the password “ visitaSEC “.

Software

Socrative Student
Moodle

keywords

Social sciences > Psychological sciences

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation without final exam

Assessment Components

designation	Weight (%)
Participação presencial	10,00
Trabalho escrito	90,00
Total:	100,00

Amount of time allocated to each course unit

designation	Time (hours)
Estudo autónomo	108,00
Frequência das aulas	48,00
Trabalho escrito	108,00
Total:	264,00

Eligibility for exams

(1) Attendance of 75% of seminars, and (2) Drafts of written reports concerning the sections of a scientific article; at least 2 reports to be delivered.

Calculation formula of final grade

Assessment is done through writing assignments. There is no final exam.


Students are required to deliver at least two written reports, each corresponding to one manuscript section, for feedback and revision, and a final, complete version of a manuscript, for grading.

In order to be admitted to final grading, students are required to attend at least 75% of the weekly sessions.

Final grading takes into account the submitted complete manuscript (90%) and the participation and attendance to seminars (10%).

There is no provision for additional assessment to improve the final classification.

Classification improvement

Not available.

Observations

Special situations are to be discussed with the professor on a case-by-case basis.