FAQ

  • For how long do I have access to the course after I sign up?

    The complete course is available for free for 30 days after enrollment.

    I do not offer a paid version of the course, or a shorter or longer version. You have access to the full course. The purpose is to entice students to finish the complete course.

  • Course Certificates and cost

    At this moment, there are no certificates of completion of the course.

    Only by request from users, I offer special workshops and courses for groups, at a cost, organized as online classes, or by traveling and visiting your University in person. The group can be students, faculty or researchers. Contact me if your Department of University is interested in this option or if you have any other request.

  • What's the duration of the course?

    There are more than 12 hours of video lessons. But the time to actually follow the content is much longer because you will need to visit websites and do activities.

  • Are these courses only for students?

    No. Any scientist in academic settings or industry that require access to literature or needs to publish will benefit from the course. The online course will improve your science writing skills, to produce better research papers.

  • Is this training mainly for natural sciences researchers?

    Yes, the training is mostly for publication in the natural sciences.

  • Is this a self-paced course?

    Yes, this is a completely self-paced, online course that will help you with your publishing skills.

  • Can we set up the training for a group?

    Yes, but there is a cost for this option. A professor, department or School can set up the course to be taken by groups of people. Contact us for this option.

  • What is the level of experience necessary to follow the course?

    The course is recommended for any researcher. People with less experience -or who want to get more involved in the publishing process to get ahead of the rest- will benefit more from the course.

    The course is divided into five modules, of interest to varied researchers. See course curriculum in detail.

  • Are there exams or grading?

    No

Course curriculum

  • 1

    Section 0. Introduction to the course

    • Read this first

    • Syllabus and other Documents Download

    • Course Content
  • 2

    Section 1. Authors and Publishers

    • Intro to Section 1

    • Section 1 Links

    • Manuscript Authors Overview

    • More about Manuscript Authors

    • Authors: Evaluation and Metrics 1

    • Authors: Evaluation and Metrics 2

    • Authors: Suggested Activity Lesson

    • Authors Exercise: why do people cite my papers?

    • Publishers: Overview

    • Publishers: Business Overview

    • Publishers: Business Models and Revenues

    • Summary of Section 1

    • Section 1 Quiz

  • 3

    Section 2. The Journals

    • Intro to Section 2

    • Section 2 Links

    • Journals' Metrics Lecture 1

    • Journals' Metrics Lecture 2

    • Search for your Journal: Overview

    • Search for your Journal: How and Where

    • Manuscript Submission Preparation

    • Manuscript Submission Workflow - Overview

    • Manuscript Submission Workflow - Recommendations

    • Journal Search Comparison Exercise

    • Open Access and Copyrights Lecture 1

    • Open Access and Copyrights Lecture 2

    • Reuse and Self-Archive

    • Self-Archive and Sharing Exercise

    • Get Access to "Free" Articles

    • Deciding Where NOT to Publish - Intro 1

    • Deciding Where NOT to Publish - Intro 2

    • Deciding Where NOT to Publish - Warning Signs 1

    • Deciding Where NOT to Publish - Warning Signs 2

    • Summary of Section 2

    • Section 2 Quiz
  • 4

    Section 3. The Manuscript

    • Intro to Section 3

    • Section 3 Links

    • The Manuscript - Intro

    • Reading Papers Effectively

    • Annotated Paper Lecture

    • Simple Blueprint

    • The Title

    • The Abstract

    • The Introduction and Methods

    • The Results

    • Splitting Results and Reproducibility Problems

    • The Discussion

    • Other Sections

    • Writing Recommendations

    • Writing Recommendations pdf

    • Common Writing Errors

    • Common writing errors pdf

    • Summary Section 3

    • Section 3 Quiz
  • 5

    Section 4. The Review Process

    • Intro to Section 4

    • Section 4 Links

    • Scientific Industry Participants - The Editors

    • Models of peer review

    • Cover Letter

    • Selecting Reviewers

    • Rejections, Resubmissions and Withdrawals

    • The Response Letter

    • The Response Letter - Example

    • Becoming and Acting as Reviewer

    • How do you do a review?. Analyzing the Paper

    • Research Misconduct

    • Retractions and Erratum

    • Review Process Activity

    • Who Evaluates the Reviewers?

    • Summary Section 4

    • Section 4 Quiz
  • 6

    Section 5. The Dissemination of Your Research

    • Intro to Section 5

    • Section 5 Links

    • Introduction to Research Dissemination

    • Data Repositories and Peer Review Credit

    • Preprints

    • Publishing in High-Impact Journals

    • Publishing in High-Impact Journals - Methods Part 1

    • Publishing in High-Impact Journals Methods Part 2

    • Dissemination - Other Apps

    • Dissemination - Additional Apps

    • Future Aspects of Scientific Manuscript Publishing
  • 7

    Summary and Recommendations

    • Final Comments

    • Before you go...Survey

What you will learn

The long-term goal of this online course is to help you increase the number and quality of your publications in scientific journals by providing training in both scientific writing and scientific publishing techniques.

Writing well is necessary but not sufficient.

With 75 video lectures, exercises, and multiple documents useful to help you in your future manuscript writing skills

  • Draft and structure your manuscript appropriately

  • Avoid publishing in "predatory" journals

  • Peer review process

  • Avoid most common writing errors

  • Rejections, revisions and interact with reviewers and editors

  • Tools for the "dissemination" of published work

  • Novel trends in journals including the use of Artificial Intelligence methods

  • Improve your academic writing

  • Practical examples and exercises

  • and more...

Divided in five modules

  • Authors and Publishers

    Understand authorship, use metrics for authors, analyze why people cite your papers and learn about publishers' business models

  • Journals

    Use to your advantage additional knowledge on journal selection, repositories, avoiding “predatory journals” and copyrights

  • Manuscript writing

    Critically analyze manuscripts and then use that to prepare your own blueprint. Grammar tricks that will prevent most writing errors

  • Publication and review process

    Interact better with reviewers and editors, and write proper response and cover letters, so you can publish faster

  • Dissemination

    Dissemination of your research. Get involved and use new publishing models, tools and applications