A Case-Based Workshop on Research Communication

Greetings again. I’m writing this post just before leaving Sri Lanka to return to the United States. My week here has been busy and enjoyable. Special thanks to colleagues here for the excellent arrangements.

My main activity this week was giving a workshop at the University of Colombo Faculty of Medicine. This workshop was designed to guide faculty members in mentoring PhD students in research communication.

The workshop took a case-based approach. For each topic, participants discussed one or more cases and had some lecture material. The 28 cases dealt with various challenges in research communication. Some examples:

• a case of a PhD student seeking advice on where to publish a study
• a case of a PhD student who disagrees with a request from a peer reviewer
• several cases in which PhD students encounter problems writing sections of papers
• a case in which a non-native speaker of English worries about giving a presentation at a conference
• a case in which a PhD student will be interviewed for the first time for the popular media

The presentations and cases are now available in the AuthorAID Resource Library. Also available is a presentation, “Avoiding Plagiarism: A Few Thoughts and Resources”, that I gave the writing club at the University of Colombo Faculty of Medicine.

During this stay, I also spoke at the main University of Colombo campus and the Sri Lanka Medical Association. In addition, I enjoyed the warm weather and the ocean view. I hope you like the Sri Lankan sunset in the accompanying photo.

Until the next post—

Barbara