Scientific Publications: Methods and Skills Workshop, C-DAC Conference Hall, University of Pune, Pune, India, November 9, 2006

Abstract

The workshop was organized as a part of 2nd World Ayurved Congress which was held in Pune during November 5–12, 2006. ‘Vijnana Bharati’, ‘University of Pune’ and ‘AYUSH, New Delhi’ were the organizers of the congress. Scientific Publications: Methods and Skills was a 1-day workshop held on November 9, 2006. This novel Interactive Workshop was planned to address the need for paradigm shift amongst Ayurvedic scholars. Though there is lot of research going on in the field of Ayurveda, it is rarely converted into papers of international standards. The workshop covered various skills needed for presentation of collected and analyzed data in various forms of research paper. The workshop was extremely helpful for scientists from R&D sections, teachers and scientists interested in publication of scientific papers in the field of ayurveda. Facilitators/resource persons for the Seminar were Prof. Dr Edwin L. Cooper, PhD, and ScD, Distinguished Professor & Editor-in-chief: Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine (eCAM) and Dr Alexander M. Hankey. UK, PhD (Quantum Physics), Member, Editorial Board eCAM. It was an interactive workshop with two sessions. The first session was Lectures by Dr E. L. Cooper. In the first lecture, Dr Cooper reviewed the global scenario and position of the Ayurveda and alternative medicine, importance of the scientific publication, evidence level data and methods of generating the scientific data. Second lecture gave the clear idea about method and importance of peer-review, working procedure of peer-reviewed journals and suggestions and precautions for the submissions. In the third lecture Dr Cooper emphasized expectations from the international papers and path to construct well-structured original articles, clinical cases, reviews, commentaries, lectures, meeting reports, education section and tributes. The narration in lecture was supported by references and was full of a variety of examples from eCAM and other international journals. The three lectures were followed by a session of questions and answers. This enabled the audience to interact with Dr Cooper and get solutions to the queries and doubts in mind. The second session was the unique feature of the workshop. It was consultations on scientific papers written by researchers. Dr E. L. Cooper and Dr Alexander M. Hankey interacted individually with the researchers and assayed their research papers and suggested corrections, modifications and alterations to make them internationally acceptable. A mock peer review exercise was conducted where the participants reviewed the papers of other participants and these reviews were submitted to Dr Cooper for further arbitration. Dr Hankey expressed his views about Ayurveda and some crucial tips in scientific writing. Dr Bhushan Patwardhan, Head of Interdisciplinary School of Health Sciences, Pune University chaired valedictory function. He shared his experience about scientific paper writing, and inspired the audience for excellence in publication. Around 50 Ayurvedic researchers from all over India and few students of Ayurveda from USA and Austria benefited from workshop. Dr Vishnu Joglekar, Coordinator of workshop concluded the workshop. The skills of writing or reporting a research learned in the workshop will certainly help in producing quality research papers in the near future.