| May 3, 2023 | Good scientific practice with Prof. Helmut Grubmüller. We will offer a course on Good Scientific Pratice that is tailored to the specific requirements of biophysics students. In detail, we will address issues such as proper statistical analysis of data sets, handling large amounts of data and quantitative image processing. We will include examples and case studies and interactively have the PhD students check for cases of scientific misconduct. We will also address topics such as data presentation, conflicts of interest, authorship etc. Good scientific practice is essential for the scientific enterprise, but what exactly does this mean in the daily life of a Bachelor, Masters, PhD Student, Postdoc or Professor? Using real life examples particularly at the borderline between good scientific practice and scientific misconduct, we will illustrate the fundamental principles shared by many organisations. We will further provide helpful tips of how to perform focused and effective scientific work, and how to avoid being tricked by one's own brain. It will be discussed what how to proceed in case of suspected scientific misconduct, and where to seek help and advice. |
| Apr 27, 2023 | Literature search and use, Julika Mimkes (SUB). Finding scientific information such as literature, methods, physical and chemical substances, reactions and patents is one of the tasks of a successful scientist. In this course, participants will be introduced to reference and citation tools such as Web of Science and SciFinder, as well as the literature management programmes BibTeX and Zotero. In a short outlook we will talk about the services of the SUB Göttingen to increase the visibility of one's own research and about the financing of Open Access articles. |
| Jun 10, 2023 | Adapted primary literature writing, Dr. Ingo Mey. Students will learn to rewrite scientific publications from the field of biophysics of the cytoskeleton to be accessible by advanced high-school students. With this writing skill, the PhD students will be able to break down long and complicated science publications to the essential take home message simultaneously increasing the awareness of transmitting scientific context to the general public. |
| May 8/17, 2023 | Peer review, Prof. Timo Betz. The peer review system as a sanity check of scientific publications remains the standard evaluation tool used by journals and researchers to ensure that scientific publications remain of high quality. But how does this system work, and how can one even write such a review? In this course, we will first get an introduction to the history of peer review and the current ideas to improve the system. You will also get real-world examples and together we will discuss a paper preprint and set up a peer review to practice this important skill. If you are interested, we may even upload the review you created to one of the open peer review sites, such as "scienceopen". |
| Oct 13/20, 2023 | Presentations I: Posters, Dr. Peter Lénárt. At the first session we will discuss the purpose of poster presentations and generally information exchange / networking at conferences, followed by an explanation of the structure and design principles of posters. The homework will then be to prepare a poster presenting each participant’s PhD project. In the second session, students will present these posters to each other and we will jointly discuss and give feedback on their presentations. |
| Dec 18, 2023 | Gender and diversity in academia: awareness training, Dr. Silke Oehrlein-Karpi. This course discusses the concepts of the awareness for gender and unconscious bias in academia. We will also focus on the intercultural awareness, intercultural communication and the possibilties to gain diversity competence. |
| Feb 19/23, 2024 | Scientific writing I: Papers, Prof. Sarah Köster. Writing papers is an integral part of doing science. We will look at some strategies of how to structure a manuscript, what to do and what to avoid. The course will include hands-on writing exercises and peer review within the group. |
| Sep 10, 2024 | Introduction to Research Data Management, Timo Henne. Everything you wanted to know about storing, organizing, describing and sharing your data. |
| Sep 19, 2024 | Presentations II: Talks, Prof. Claudia Steinem and Prof. Peter Sollich. This course will run in a workshop format, with an introductory session followed by participants preparing short presentations on their own work and sharing insights into good practice. Topics will include how to craft a story, getting into the mind of your audience, and handling discussions professionally. |
| Jan 13 and 20, 2025 | Scientific writing II: Grants, Prof. Sarah Köster. Towards the end of you PhD you may start thinking about applying for your own (postdoc) funding. The success of grant proposals does not only depend on the research idea presented but also largely on the way it is presented. We will give you insight into what reviewers look for, how to present your most important points in a clear and concise way and how to actually have fun when writing grants. |
| tba | Teaching and tutoring, Prof. Anne Wald and Prof. Tim Salditt. Teaching and tutoring is a challenge. We will present some do’s and do not’s and participants will prepare a 15 min presentation of a homework exercise. |
| tba | Presentations III: Novel tools, Stefan Schulz. PhD students will get to know state-of-the-art presentation tools, e.g., the online presentation program Prezi as an alternative to PowerPoint and use it in a goal-oriented manner for scientific presentation purposes including fundamental concepts of how to present data in presentations for different target audiences. They will receive basic know-how about the functions and use of dynamic presentations with animations. This includes inserting, adjusting and editing objects of any kind (texts, images, videos…). Special focus will be put on motion scribbles and recording of science videos to create illustrative how-to videos for other students and for documentation purposes, which can then be fed into our virtual lab. |
