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The Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI) is mandated to give expert advice, publish scientific evidence, provide policy guidance and inform practice for the Ministry of Health, partners and World Health Organization. To be able to address this mandate, senior and junior scientists must be able to present research evidencein a clear and simple form.
The UVRI with support from the Training Researchers into Vocational Excellence (THRIVE-2) supported an online mentorship training in scientific writing on November 3 and 4 2020. The training aimed to introduce trainees to the mentorship program in scientific writing and pair junior scientists (mentees) with senior scientists (mentors) so that they are able to publish their research work. The training was also used to inspire, share skills and best practices by senior experienced scientists in order to enrich the skills of junior scientists in writing abstracts for presentation at national and international scientific conferences and manuscripts for publication in peer reviewed journals. The expected output of the training was to create a pool of paired mentors and mentees to support one another on the journey of scientific writing and publication.
The training was attended by 26 participants from Makerere University, UVRI, MRC/UVRI and LSHTM Uganda Research Unit and UVRI-IAVI. The training targeted PhD and MSc students with on –going research
work and existing data sets that they could use for practice during the training. The methods of instruction involved online presentations with shared screens, sharing experiences and life time challenges faced by trainees and trainers during scientific writing. The training was facilitated by Prof. Harriet Mayanja Kizza from Makerere College of Health Sciences, Prof. Janet Seeley from MRC/UVRI & London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (MRC/ UVRI /LSHTM Uganda Research Unit and Co-PI THRIVE-2 at UVRI); Dr. Tom Lutalo an experienced epidemiologist and chairman of the UVRI Research Ethics Committee, Ms. Ann Kapaata and Ms. Christine Amito – PhD students from Makerere University and Mr. Hudson Onen, PhD student and UVRITHRiVE- 2 MSc alumni. Dr. Jonathan Kayondo -Coordinator THRiVE-2 and Mrs. Emily Nyanzi the Monitoring and Evaluation Assistant –THRIVE-2 also facilitated some sessions.
The PhD students were involved to inspire trainees because they already have published work.
The training covered areas in collaborative research and publication, introduction to abstract writing (TIMRD and IMRD formats), identification of target journals for publication, qualitative research findings, identification of research problems for manuscript writing, formatting documents for research and scientific publication among others. The sessions were designed in such a way that all the participants participated in the discussions and the facilitators engaged the participants and encouraged them to share experiences and challenges. Presentations and guidance was provided on writing and presentation of data and graphics in a manuscript, presentation of qualitative findings and presentations on the formatting and general lay out of documents using Microsoft Word. The participants were excited and exchanged contacts including email and phone numbers with facilitators.
The two-day training was concluded with an on-line evaluation using google forms. Eighteen (70%) out of the 26 respondents participated and returned forms. Summary results showed that most of the participants (91%) felt that the guidance from the experts was sufficient, while 9% thought the time during was too short [when asked if the training was beneficial]; and when they were asked if they could recommend
the training to a friend the participants indicated that they would recommend fellow junior scientists (99%) since they found the training useful. A follow -up training is planned in the first quarter of 2021 for mentees that will have draft abstracts and manuscripts to show progress with their work.
Materials about the mentorship training can be found on this link: https://www.uvri.go.ug/mentorship-andgrant-writing-training
