Design, implementation, and evaluation of principles of writing biomedical research paper course

Introduction: graduate (phd) students in medical sciences, who will formfuture faculties and investigators in iran’s universities of medical sciences,are not trained on scientific writing during their training. the present studydescribes the design, implementation, and evaluation of principles of writingbiomedical research paper course.methods: the course, prepared based on an extensive search of the literatureand books on writing biomedical research papers, was offered as an electivecourse to phd students at shiraz university of medical sciences in the secondsemester of 2011-2012 academic year. the structure and function of varioussections of a paper and publication ethics were discussed in lecture andpractical sessions over a period of 12 weeks. the course was then evaluatedusing a self-designed questionnaire.results: the majority of students gave the highest score (20) to the content andimplementation of all sessions of the course. moreover, most of them believedthat the allotted time to the course was not enough, and suggested that it shouldbe increased to 32 hours (equal to two credits). also, almost all the participantsbelieved that overall the materials lectured were comprehensive, the practicalsessions were important in learning the lectured materials, and the course wasuseful in advancing their abilities and skills to write papers.conclusion: the evaluation of the present course showed that it was able toincrease the participants’ knowledge of the structure of scientific papers, andenhanced their abilities and skills to write papers. the evaluation was used as abasis to modify the course.