Constructing your checklist

Hi everyone, this is the final sequence of our MOOC about writing a scientific paper. I really hope you enjoyed the previous section of this MOOC and that your personal work made you more aware of the various aspects about writing and publishing a paper for a scientific journal or a conference. Hopefully, you now consider yourself more like an insider than an outsider of the academic world. I will sum up rapidly what we learned. In section number 1, we discovered the rules, formal or not, of academic world. We hope that you will continue to advance your understanding of these rules while being an active contributor to your own scientific community. We underlined that each community and sometimes even journal in the same field have their own particular rules. Next, we talked about the relevance of your paper. For example, does it pass the so what test? Have you built a good literature review, which allows you to introduce the research question and the gaps we want to fill? In the section 3, we worked together to better understand the skeleton of a scientific paper and what the editors and reviewers are expecting by using the MRCI Framework. Finally in this last section, and thanks also to Matisse and Hartier, we underline the typical mistakes we do in the process of writing a paper and submitting it to a journal. We now know how to better avoid them. I really hope that now you feel more familiar with the codes of your community and develop your own and personal expertise in the writing of a scientific paper. So go ahead, writing and writing and remember that it is a process that allows you to improve your skills. The other thing, that we have to keep on sharing our experience with others, especially during the process of the PhD which can be long and fastidious. To that purpose, share your experiences in the forum of the MOOC. In this perspective of being your own mentor and continuing the work we have achieved together in this MOOC, we propose this final exercise, build your own checklist. It may appear silly. What, a check list? What I would need a checklist for? But as we have seen, the process of writing can be challenging. Your research has to be good as your writing skills, and you certainly know, maybe, the blank page syndrome. It’s going to be a great tool for you, and your best pal when you will write a paper, and this for two main reasons. One, you might consider the checklist as a formal process that you follow before sending in your paper. We often write a paper under pressure in the emergency of deadlines. Big mistake may occur for sure. The checklist would be like a safe guards to decrease the chances of rejection. You could also use it when you have to review a paper of one of your peers. The second is that your checklist may help you avoid the blank page syndrome. When you are writing, you can use regularly the checklist to give you a chance to reflect the different ways to build your paper. It will be something that makes you take a step back on your work, in an organized methodical fashion. We ask you to write your own checklist based on the sequences developed in the previous videos, and also the interviews. For example, you can structure it following the structure of the MOOC. That could help you categorize more precisely what you have to check in terms of form and content related mistakes. But, don’t forget to respect the rules of the journal you want to publish in. Read again and again these formal rules, and don’t hesitate to use the framework of the published article of this journal. It may be one of the items you have to check on your list. We also want your checklist to be peer reviewed by user. We think that the more we exchange on this subject, the more we can learn and improve. So take your time editing your checklist and then put in on the Coursera platform. Then we will and compare and review the checklist with other PhD students. Look at what they learn in the MOOC and what they have chosen to underline. The team and I want to thank you for following this MOOC. We hope you enjoy it, and you will continue to develop your skills and share your work with the fantastic community of research of your choosing. Good luck for your work. We hope you will publish a lot of articles. Au revoir, and see you soon.