This face to face course is run by the Researcher Academy as part of the Engineering Faculty Training Programme

The Researcher Academy courses are very popular and the majority are run in both semesters to give you the opportunity to attend at a time of the year that suits you. 

Target audience: Postgraduate students in engineering

Description:

The course is designed to raise your awareness and understanding of the process of getting your work published in journals so that you are better prepared to meet the expectations of editors and reviewers.

There will be a number of learning exercises delivered throughout the course with group discussions, reading and analysing a technical journal. At the end of the first day of the course, you will be given the opportunity to ‘peer-review’ a typical journal paper at home. The results will form the basis for the hand-on exercise and discussion on the second day of the course. Your contributions to the discussion forums will be the course  'assessment' and your opportunity to apply some of the concepts learnt during the course. Guidance will be provided by the course tutor.

Aims: The aim of this course is to provide practical guidance on how to write a successful engineering paper

Objectives:

By the end of this course you will be able to:

• Identify features of a successful paper

• Identify key parts of a technical paper

• Understand and apply the process of planning, drafting and revising a technical paper

• Recognise ethical and professional issues

• Experience the review process

• Identify the expectations of journal editors

• Be familiar with the publishing process

Process: The course runs over two half-day sessions and will include learning exercises, group discussions and case studies.

Please note, attendances for courses will be recorded. There are no training points associated with courses run by the Researcher Academy.

Course Accessibility

The following table shows a summary of what is needed to participate in the course. 

If you feel you will experience any difficulties participating, please let us know via the ‘special requirements’ tab, providing as much information as possible. The special requirements tab can be completed when you book your place. Alternatively, you can contact us directly at ra-training@nottingham.ac.uk.

Access seminar room on campus
Take part in group activities/ discussions
Watch and listen to the course tutor(s) and/ or other attendees
Follow presentation slides during the course
Attend the course at a specific date and time

 

Booking Guidelines

Latecomer policy
Researchers should plan to arrive prior to the advertised course start time. Except for exceptional reasons, there will be no admittance to a Researcher Academy or Faculty Training Programme (FTP) course 15 minutes after the advertised course start time.

Importance of booking commitment
 When booking on to a Researcher Academy short course you are entering into a commitment to attend. If you find that you are no longer available to attend you MUST cancel your place (on the system if more than three days before the course) or if at short notice by emailing ra-training@nottingham.ac.uk. This will ensure that your place can be offered to another researcher on the waiting list. Failure to cancel a place results in other researchers missing out on places through the waiting list process.

It is unacceptable for researchers to just not attend when booked onto a course. The Researcher Academy maintains records of those who repeatedly do not attend courses they have booked. This may affect future eligibility to book onto further Researcher Academy courses and will affect considerations for Researcher Academy funded opportunities.

Pre-Requisites

Pre-requisites: During this course, you will learn about the processes involved in writing and preparing a manuscript for publication as an engineering paper. Analysing and identifying the pit-falls and mistakes commonly found in a less-successful papers will form a key part of this course.   The course tutor, therefore, requires you to bring a paper along for analysis. This paper could be one of your past conference or journal papers (if you have already written one) or any paper you will use as a primary research reference in your research.

Additionally, If you are in the process of writing your manuscript draft, please bring this to the course too so you can directly implement the writing strategies highlighted during the course, thereby aiding your writing process.

Please also send the paper (or manuscript) to davide.lopresti@nottingham.ac.uk before the course commences.