Overview of the Foundations of Scientific Writing for Staff Members: Assessing Impact
Rationale
The Foundations of Scientific Writing for Staff Members concept was designed to provide a basic introduction to scholarly writing in the biomedical research settings. Developed and produced through the Duke AI Health Community of Practice in partnership with the Duke Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI), the course is particularly focused on equipping staff members with the knowledge, mentoring, and tools needed to participate actively in the entire process of developing, authoring, and publishing scholarly works such as presentation posters, abstracts, and peer-reviewed manuscripts.
The course is structured around and culminates in a class project that consists of selecting a topic of interest and developing it into a formal poster that each student or student group will present in a culminating showcase. Notably, while project topics may include the presentation of formal research, educational, operational, or process-oriented topics are also welcomed.
The Foundations of Scientific Writing for Staff Members course has been held three times, with a fourth session planned for the fall of 2026.
Foundations of Scientific Writing for Staff Members
Since launching in Spring 2024, the Writing Workshop has continued to grow in both participation and impact. The inaugural Spring 2024 cohort included 25 participants representing 2 Duke organizations, resulting in 7 completed posters authored by 9 individuals. In Fall 2024, 17 participants from 6 organizations took part, producing 5 completed posters with 6 authors. By Fall 2025, the program expanded significantly, welcoming 25 participants from 15 Duke organizations and culminating in 18 completed posters authored by 18 participants. This growth reflects increasing interest across the Duke community and demonstrates the workshop’s success in supporting researchers, staff, and trainees in developing and disseminating their scholarly work through conference-quality posters.
Table 1. Participation in the first three Foundations of Scientific Writing for Staff Members course.
Workshop Syllabus
The course’s instructional elements comprise 4-5 virtual sessions, each combining lecture elements and interactive discussion. Topics include:
- Introduction to Scholarly Writing. The origins of peer review; the evolution of the research article as a form; discourse communities; elements of diction and style in scientific writing; the idea of genre in scholarly writing; audiences and tacit knowledge; basics of rhetoric.
- Writing for Publication – Structure and Process. Organizing your ideas; developing your drafting process; revising with intent; different ways to structure writing; the journalistic toolbox; proofreading.
- Writing for Peer Review – Abstracts and Papers. Parts of structured abstracts and their functions; unstructured abstracts; design and use of tables; concepts of visual rhetoric in graphic design and typography; design and use of figures; elements and structure of IMRaD-style scientific papers.
- Scholarly Publication Practices. Roles and responsibilities of scholarly authorship; choosing a venue for publication; submitting an article for peer review; revising and responding to critique.
Each lecture is accompanied by an interactive session intended to 1) reinforce the application of lecture topics to the ongoing class project (each class member’s poster presentation) and to afford an opportunity for further questions and discussion.
At the end of the Workshop, the organizers also administer a survey designed to elicit participant feedback on course topics, organization, presentation, and applicability. Subsequent course offerings are continuously refined based on this information.
Impact
Participants across three workshop cohorts (Spring 2024, Fall 2024, and Fall 2025) reported improvements in understanding key concepts related to scientific poster development and research communication. Across cohorts, participants entered with varied baseline experience, and most demonstrated gains following the workshop.
In Spring 2024, all participants reported improvement in at least one concept, with at least 69% reporting increased understanding across all seven areas. The largest gains were in developing scientific content and appropriately acknowledging funding sources (both 92%), and 85% reported improvement in five or more concepts.
In Fall 2024, all participants reported improvement in at least two concepts, with at least half reporting gains in each area and 100% reporting improvement in developing scientific visual elements. Participants also reported increased confidence in research dissemination, including gains in presenting scientific work and contributing to team-based research products. Three participants (75%) reported increased confidence in independently developing research outputs, and most reported gains in leading research teams.
In Fall 2025, most participants reported improvement across all seven concepts, with gains ranging from 73% to 82%. The strongest improvement was in scientific visual development (82%), and 73% reported gains across all seven areas. Participants also reported increased confidence in research dissemination, with all respondents reporting improved confidence in presenting scientific work and contributing to team-based research products. Strong gains were also reported in independently developing research outputs (91%) and leading research teams (≥80%).
Table 2. Results of the evaluation survey.
Quotes from Prior Participants
- “I feel much more equipped and less afraid to present in the future.”
- “I appreciated the opportunity of Poster Showcase the best as it provided an opportunity to meet our colleagues and talk to them about their projects.”
- “It helped me develop a concrete communications tool for sharing programmatic achievements and also lessons learned during a five-year program pilot phase.”
- “I liked the opportunity for professional development. It provided me the chance to interact with CTSI colleagues and also focus my attention on scientific writing and personal development.”
Course Personnel and Roles
The course team consists entirely of staff members with extensive experience.
- The workshops are designed and taught by Jonathan McCall, MS, Director of Communications for Duke AI Health
- This opportunity is produced by Shelley Rusincovitch, MMCi, FAMIA, Managing Director of Duke AI Health and Co-Director, CTSI Biomedical Informatics & Data Science (BIDS) Pillar
- Jessica Johnstone is the project manager for the workshop series
- Whitney Welsh, PhD, is the qualitative scientist providing evaluation for the series
