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Unit of study_

CEPI5215: Writing and Reviewing Medical Papers

2025 unit information

This unit of study will appeal to anyone wanting to write medical papers for conferences or journals, or to improve their paper writing skills. Students will work at their own pace through 9 modules covering research integrity, medical style, abstracts, presentations and posters, constructing a paper, data visualisation, manuscript submission, responding to reviewers' comments, post-publication research dissemination, and peer- reviewing a paper. This unit aims to teach students the principles of research integrity in writing for medical journals, typical issues they may face, and link to resources to help them maintain integrity through their publishing careers. It will guide them to reliable evidence-based resources to improve their conference abstract, presentation and poster design, and manuscript style and writing. Students will learn about reporting guidelines, common pitfalls in writing and presenting research, choosing a journal, keywords, improving tables and figures for manuscripts through open source software, copyright, writing cover letters and response letters to reviewers. Students will learn about measuring research impact and ways to improve research reach, dealing with the media and press releases, using social media in dissemination, digital archiving and basic skills needed to act as a peer-reviewer. This is an online unit, but those needing to study in block mode will do online study as well as a workshop.

Unit details and rules

Managing faculty or University school:

Medicine and Health

Study level Postgraduate
Academic unit Public Health
Credit points 6
Prerequisites:
? 
(PUBH5010 or CEPI5100 or BSTA5011)
Corequisites:
? 
None
Prohibitions:
? 
CEPI5214
Assumed knowledge:
? 
Some basic knowledge of summary statistic is assumed

At the completion of this unit, you should be able to:

  • LO1. demonstrate knowledge of metrics of, and methods for, measuring publication impact
  • LO2. describe mechanisms of disseminating published research
  • LO3. demonstrate skills in working with media and social media to disseminate medical journal papers
  • LO4. demonstrate knowledge of structure and practical tips for preparing a high quality conference poster
  • LO5. demonstrate knowledge of principles of data visualisation
  • LO6. demonstrate an ability to use available open source software to help improve tables, figures, and plots
  • LO7. demonstrate knowledge of how to reuse creative commons images with correct attribution
  • LO8. demonstrate an understanding of bibliometrics and altmetrics
  • LO9. demonstrate an ability to deal with media and press releases
  • LO10. demonstrate an ability to use social media to disseminate work
  • LO11. demonstrate knowledge of archiving and copyright.
  • LO12. demonstrate an understanding of research integrity considerations including (but not limited to) authorship requirements
  • LO13. demonstrate an understanding of conflict resolution in research
  • LO14. Demonstrate an ability to provide constructive peer review of research work
  • LO15. Demonstrate an ability to reflect on the strengths and limitation of peer review, as a provider and receiver of peer feedback
  • LO16. demonstrate an ability to prepare a manuscript according to specific journal requirements

Unit availability

This section lists the session, attendance modes and locations the unit is available in. There is a unit outline for each of the unit availabilities, which gives you information about the unit including assessment details and a schedule of weekly activities.

The outline is published 2 weeks before the first day of teaching. You can look at previous outlines for a guide to the details of a unit.

Session MoA ?  Location Outline ? 
Semester 2 2024
Block mode Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney
Semester 2 2024
Online Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney
Session MoA ?  Location Outline ? 
Semester 2 2025
Block mode Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney
Outline unavailable
Semester 2 2025
Online Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney
Outline unavailable
Session MoA ?  Location Outline ? 
Semester 1 2020
Online Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney
Outline unavailable
Semester 2 Early 2020
Online Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney
Semester 2 2021
Online Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney
Semester 2 2022
Online Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney
Semester 2 2023
Block mode Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney
Semester 2 2023
Online Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney

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Modes of attendance (MoA)

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