How to communicate your research

Communicating with others effectively is part of our survival skills. The same applies to academics (of course😀). In the academic world, researchers often need to communicate their findings to others and receive feedback. This includes attending seminars, workshops and conferences, publishing articles in journals and magazines and so on.

Guides on attending meetings

Preparation is the key to attending group seminars, workshops and conferences, as is for anything. Be prepared allows you to focus on the topics that you are interested in, ask questions that concern you the most, and communicate effectively with others.

Here is an interesting article on attending international conferences which also offers some useful advice.

Guides on academic publishing

Publishing an article requires hard work not only on how to identify a good research question and finding answers to that question but also on writing up a report, which usually needs to go through iterations of revisions. For most of you, publishing an article is a compulsory requirement to confirm your degree. So, do pay special attention to publishing. My advice is to discuss with your supervisor at the beginning of your study (as early as you have identified your research topic).

Again, there are many books on scientific writing and publishing. For example, here are two books that provide all-around guidance on this matter:

• Scientific Writing and Communication Papers, Proposals, and Presentations by Angelika H. Hofmann
• The Scientist’s Guide to Writing

This short book The Elements of Style is more on writing styles, which is also very useful. Read this book over and over to improve your English writing skills.

The most important things are summarised below:

1. You MUST discuss the topic, authorship, and target journal of your paper with your supervisor before you start your investigation.
2. You MUST get approval from your supervisor to submit the paper produced as a result of your post-grad study for publication. You do not need to do this if you are submitting a paper that is NOT on the findings of your current post-grad study. In the latter case, you may NOT include your current supervisor in your author list unless prior permission is obtained.
3. Whatever findings you are publishing MUST be quantifiable, verifiable, replicable, and defensible. Academic dishonesty and plagiarism will result in serious consequences. More on academic ethics can be found here.

Writing and reference guides

The Griffith Health Writing & Reference Guide presents some very good guidances on scientific writing and critical analysis.

Writing tools - LaTeX

LaTeX is the most used typesetting tool for scientific writing. Please familiarise yourself with this. Your thesis/dissertation and articles should be typeset using LaTeX if possible.

Visit A short guide to LaTeX for more information.