Pre-conference: Boosting research impact: essential manuscript writing skills for emerging public health scientists.  

Tuesday 12 November, 13:30 – 17:00 Lisbon time (starting with network lunch at 12:30)

Organised by

EUPHA Public Health Epidemiology section, Chronic Disease section and Public Health Economics section, and EUPHAnxt

Background

Public health is a multidisciplinary field that requires clear and effective communication of research findings. Presenting complex data and research in an articulate manner is critical to advancing the dissemination of research findings within the public health community.

This workshop is designed to empower public health professionals to publish by focusing on critical aspects of scientific writing and publication. Participants will gain practical skills and insights to improve their research manuscripts' clarity, impact, and credibility by examining real-world examples from chronic disease epidemiology, burden of disease studies, and social epidemiology.

This half-day workshop will provide participants with a toolkit of writing strategies and standards to navigate the nuances of academic writing in public health research.

Topics include:

• General aims of research dissemination: Understand the broader objectives of disseminating research findings effectively.
• Ethical and efficient use of LLMs in research writing: Explore how to responsibly integrate advanced AI tools like large language models (LLMs) to enhance research writing without compromising integrity.
• ‘Know your audience’: Focus on adapting writing styles to meet the needs of different reader groups.
• Writing titles and introductions: Tips and common errors to avoid for creating engaging and informative openings.
• Research contextualisation: Learn to set the stage for your findings and emphasise the relevance of your research to a broader public health context.
• Methods dos and don’ts: Gain clarity on crafting precise and replicable methods sections that stand up to scrutiny, with some examples regarding epidemiological studies
• Essential components of the discussion section: including how to contextualize limitations, compare findings with existing literature, and elaborate on the implications of the research.
• Publish or perish: Evaluate research impact beyond the simple count of publications, focusing on public health relevance and effective strategies for knowledge translation and dissemination.

Participants will engage in hands-on exercises that focus on:

• Comparing various styles in medical writing.
• Readability exercises.
• How to write a compelling title and introduction.

Learning Outcomes

Attendees will leave the workshop equipped to:

• Understand essential structure and common pitfalls of the Introduction, Methods, and Discussion sections of your manuscript.
• Discuss transparency, attribution, and maintaining the authenticity of scientific discourse while harnessing the power of AI.
• Construct well-organized and impactful research papers.

Target Audience

This workshop is ideal for PhD students, early career researchers, and public health professionals eager to enhance their manuscript writing skills and boost the impact of their research.

Speakers

• Angelo Maria Pezzullo, MD, MSc, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Public Health at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore and Vice-President of the EUPHA Public Health Epidemiology section. His research interests lie in the fields of epidemiology and meta-research.
• Jinane Ghattas, BPharm, MSc, is a scientist in the Implementation, Monitoring, and Evaluation (IME) team at the Cancer Centre of Sciensano, the Belgian Health Institute, a PhD candidate at the Université Catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain) and acts as the EUPHAnxt Conference Manager. Her main topics of interest are health inequalities, social determinants of health, and knowledge translation.
• Stefan Buttigieg, MD, MSc (Melit.), MSc (Sheffield), is a Specialist in Public Health Medicine at the Ministry of Health and Active Ageing of Malta, and the Vice-President of the EUPHA Digital Health section. He is passionate about Digital Health, Health Data and Social Media. He writes books and blogs, leads teams, manages social media, organises events and speaks at events.
• Vanessa Gorasso, MSc, PhD, is a scientist at Sciensano and the Vice-President of the EUPHA Public Health Economics section. She is currently working on the Belgian National Burden of Disease study, with a specific focus on risk factors and the cost of illness. She has experience in health modelling and impact assessments.
• Julian Mamo, MD, MSc, PhD, MFPH, is an Associate Professor of Public Health at the University of Malta and the EUPHA Section of Chronic Diseases Vice-President. He learned and taught basic epidemiology for many years and had experience with writing skills from a young age on WHO missions, published work, and acted as a referee for publications of notable journals.
• Saverio Stranges, MD, PhD, is Professor and Chair of the Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics within the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University in Canada, and President of the Section of Chronic Diseases of EUPHA. He has extensive experience in epidemiology and prevention of chronic disease and aging across the life course.

Programme

Registration

The registration fee is EUR 75. Networking lunch and refreshments are included. Number of registrations is limited to 30 persons.