Post Graduate Diploma in Medical and Scientific Content Writing

Overview

Starting your research, and starting your writing (how to overcome writer’s block)

1.) Getting ideas

• Designing your research
• Ensuring validity
• Writer’s block: short practice session 

2.) Literature search

• Databases (Medline, Google Scholar and others)
• Search interfaces, their pros and cons (Pubmed, Google Scholar and others)
• Building a search
• Literature search for a systematic review
• Getting what you want

3,4) Basic Statistics

• Standard deviation, standard error, and when to use which.
• Calculating sample sizes
• Setting the alpha. Type I and type II errors
• “p” values and confidence intervals
• Parametric and nonparametric tests
• Correlation and beta coefficients
• Which test of significance should I use?
• Common statistical errors that may lead to rejection

5.) Structure of a manuscript, and writing the introduction

• Types of papers
• Structure of a typical paper
• Purpose of the Introduction
• How to write an introduction

6.) Methods

• Purpose of the Methods section
• How to write the methods 

7.) Results

• Purpose of the Results
• How to write the results 

8.) Discussion

• Purpose of the Discussion
• How to write the discussion

9.) The rest of the paper:

• Title, abstract, and keywords, cover letter, acknowledgments,
• conflicts
• Purpose of an abstract
• How to write an abstract and title, and how to choose keywords
• Discussion on miscellaneous components of a paper

10.) Referencing

• Referencing styles: Vancouver, others
• Referencing software: EndNote, Zotero

11.) Tables, graphs, figures

• Conventions regarding style
• Designing and labeling tables
• How to use Excel for graphs
• How to use Pivot Tables in Excel 

12.) Reviews, Systematic reviews and meta-analyses

• Introduction to writing a review
• Introduction to systematic reviews and meta-analyses
• Rev Man software
• PRISMA
• QADAS
• Protocols
• Components of data analysis

13.) Miscellaneous: Ethics and paper submission 

• Copyright Plagiarism
• Publication and authorship
• Scientific misconduct (e.g. Violations, Premature publication, Duplicate publication, Research misconduct)
• Conflict of interest and disclosure
• What editors want
• Choosing a journal
• Managing requests for revision, handling rejection
• Introduction to bibliometrics

14.) Writing Better

• Errors in grammar and syntax
• How to ensure that your writing is better understood
• Flow
• Punctuation
• Abstracting
• Organization

15.) Data Visualization

• How to present your data
• Making your text and graphs presentable

16.) Specialized Writing – choose 1 specialization

• Regulatory Writing
• Writing for Pharmaceutical or Medical Writing Companies Option Avail only in E learning

17.) Assessment

In this session, participants will be provided an assignment and assessed on their writing

Eligibility

We have designed this course for doctors who are relatively new to research and publication and have published no or very few papers. Professionals involved in medical affairs, pharmaceutical research and development, clinical trials, pharmaceutical marketing and branding professionals, and academicians from pharmacy colleges will also find the program beneficial. The typical participant will be one who wishes to plan research, or write a paper or any other scientific publication.