After successful completion of the course, students are able to...

• … apply principles inherent to all scientific work
• … generate adequate research questions
• … find scholarly publications based on systematic search techniques
• … name criteria for evaluating the quality and relevance of research outputs
• … use standards for the structure of manuscripts
• … correctly use citations and references (including with the help of reference management softwares)
• … design a research and to finalise it throughout various stages of writing

Every unit comprises not only lectures and inputs, but also multiple opportunities for small practical exercises and discussions to interactively convey the following topics:

• General principles of academic work (e.g. what are the characteristics of a scientific writing style?)
• Structure of research manuscripts (e.g. Abstracts, IMRaD-structure)
• Phases of writing, from the vague collection of ideas to the final revision of a paper
• Rules of citing and referencing, and the prevention of plagiarism
• The use of reference managers (e.g. Zotero)
• Systematic search for scholarly publications
• Strategies of reading and searching with regards to research outputs
• Understanding and evaluating various types of academic publications
• Rules of scientific integrity

• Conveying fundamental standards of scientific research and academic writing with many small exercises and discussions
• Active use of scientific databases to search for academic literature to the students‘ topic of choice
• Writing very small training chapters according to the IMRaD-structure of scientific papers
• Peer review procedure among the students

The seminar is particularly well-suited for students who prepare to write (or who are in the midst of writing) academic works or similar papers such as bachelor theses, master theses and diploma projects.

It may be helpful, but not necessary, to have a vague idea of a preferred research topic.

• Research paper of max. 8 pages (please note that that the assessment relates only to general skills regarding the formalia of academic writing; students should thus not expect subject-specific supervision concerning the content of the work)
• Active participation, including in an internal peer review-procedure

Passable knowledge of English (for reading small text passages) may be useful.