VUIIS Scientific Communication Seminars

VUIIS Scientific Communication Seminars

Invitation to Attend

VUIIS is offering a series of seminars on the topic of scientific communication. These are primarily offered to meet the course requirements for Chemical and Physical Biology 316, Scientific Communication in the Imaging Sciences II. However, the classes are open to all interested VUIIS personnel.

Objectives

The objectives for the seminar series are to:

Appreciate ethical issues as they apply to written scientific work;
Identify campus and other online resources in scientific communication (see below);
Learn skills for proposing research objectives, rationale, and plans;
Learn skills for public presentation of scientific material; and
Learn skills for writing journal articles.

Course Description and Schedule

The scientific process linking an idea to a published result includes the following steps:

Get an idea
Write a proposal
Obtain resources
Obtain approvals
Conduct study
Analyze results
Present preliminary findings at a conference
Final publication

In this seminar series, we will focus on steps 2, 7, and 8, in which we communicate our ideas and findings to others. We will use classroom discussions and case studies in order to foster our understanding and improve our abilities. There will also be some at-home exercises intended to facilitate these discussions.

**SCHEDULE OF CLASSES**
Date	Topic
Jan. 28	General issues regarding proposal writing
Feb. 4	Ethical issues in writing and reviewing
Feb. 11	Overview of federal funding agencies (Guest speaker: John Gore)
Feb. 18	Defining the background and significance to your proposal Developing and stating aims
Feb. 25	Formulating, describing, and defending a research plan
Mar. 11	Grants case study – regular research grant (Guest speaker: Vicky Morgan)
Mar. 18	Grants case study – career development award (Guest speaker: Chad Quarles)
Mar. 25	Communicating results in talks and posters
Apr. 1	Communicating results in journal articles
Apr. 8	Journal article case study (Guest speaker: Baxter Rogers)

All classes will meet on Wednesdays from 1:00 – 2:00 pm in the VUIIS 1^st floor classroom.

Resources

General

Vanderbilt Editors’ Club (See also their list of online resources)
The Vanderbilt College Writing Program’s compendium of online writing resources
Vanderbilt English Language Center
Locke, LF, WW Spirduso, SJ Silverman. (2007). Proposals that Work (5th ed). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Booth WC, GC Colomb, JM Williams. (2008). The Craft of Research (3rd ed). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Strunk W, EB White. (2000). The Elements of Style (4th ed). Needham, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Ethical Issues

NIH Office of Research Integrity (ORI)
ORI publication on the Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR)
Vanderbilt RCR and Certification Program

Literature Searches

Pubmed (National Library of Medicine database)
Web of Knowledge (citation tracking)
Google Scholar (searches these and other databases).

Grant and Proposal Development

Vanderbilt Division of Sponsored Research
The Office of Research’s online resources for proposal development can be found here.
NIH’s grants homepage – contains links to an overview of the NIH grant process, descriptions of peer review policies, a search engine, policy issues, etc.
For all sources of federal funding, see Grants.gov
Vanderbilt’s FIND Grants database and services.
The Vanderbilt Office of Research’s grant writing resources (log in using VUNetID required)

Making Scientific Presentations

Further Information

Contact Bruce Damon (bruce.damon@vanderbilt.edu) if you would like attend or have any questions.

Last Modified: February 5, 2009. Webmaster