Certification in Scientific Writing

The Certification in Scientific Writing program examines skills and knowledge in scientific writing. A participant who passes the examination earns a professional certificate. Currently, IIT Gandhinagar Ph.D. students are eligible to take the certification examination.

The Certification in Scientific Writing is expected to:

• Encourage research scholars to work on scientific writing from an early stage of their career
• Promote in the skill development of IIT Gandhinagar’s students and trainees
• Serve as a milestone for gauging students’ skills and knowledge in scientific writing
• Facilitate emergence of tutors in scientific writing
• Enable students to use scientific writing competencies during their life-long learning process

Certification Process:

(1) Eligibility: Doctoral students and postdoctoral trainees are eligible to apply for the certification. The certification is especially relevant for scholars who are planning to present their research in international conferences abroad or are drafting their first communique. IIT Gandhinagar’s students and trainees can obtain certification at no cost.

(2) The certification process will be conducted twice every year: Jan-Mar and Aug-Oct. 

Norms for Certification in Scientific Writing
List of students who passed the Certification in Scientific Writing
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on Certification in Scientific Writing

Timeline of events, Sem I 2024-25:

    • 29th Aug., Thursday: Application form closed.
    • 2nd Sept., Monday: Phase 1 begins. Students prepare their written submissions for 6 weeks. Guidelines for the submissions will be provided to the students.
    • 14th Oct, Monday: Phase 1 submission deadline.
    • 15th Oct, Tuesday to 17th Oct, Thursday: Phase-1 submissions will be allocated to Reviewers. 
    • 18th Oct., Friday to 30th Oct., Wednesday: Evaluation of written submissions. The submissions will be evaluated based on the organization, structure, logical flow of ideas, and quality of writing. They will not be evaluated based on the scientific novelty of the work/proposed work.
    • 9th Nov., Saturday: Phase 2 written examination (in person). Students who pass Phase 1 will undertake a 1.5-hour written examination on various aspects of scientific writing.
    • 11th Nov., Monday to 20th Nov, Wednesday:  Evaluation of Phase 2 exam papers.
    • 22nd Nov., Friday (tentative): Announcement of Phase 2 exam results. Students who pass Phase 2 will be invited to an event for the presentation of their certificates.
    • TBA:  Awards ceremony

    Student Testimonials:

    The certification process has helped me to evaluate myself in scientific writing. As a researcher, it is important to communicate your scientific findings to the world in both a professional setting and to the common people. The best part in the certification process was the Phase I where I revised the poster and manuscript many times before sending it out. But the real challenge I faced was when responding to comments by the journal editor and revisions of my paper recently. For these “Certification in Scientific Writing” can be a starting point to evaluate oneself.

    R. Valli Divya (Earth Sciences)

    The ‘Certification in Scientific Writing’ course helped me understand the nuances of effective science communication, which will immensely benefit my academic career! The feedback, detailed examination, and numerous writing tips provided me with opportunities to look at my writing works in a different light. Thanks to the Scientific Writing Team at IIT Gandhinagar for providing this certification program.

    Apeksha Srivastava (HSS)

    I registered and submitted the required documents for this program to see how much I have learned in the past two years of my Ph.D. This program made me look at my writing and presentation of my work in a different light. It was interesting to re-read the documents several times by myself as taking views of others wasn’t allowed. That way, it made me read my writing as if I was looking at someone else’s piece of writing and gave me space to criticize my own mistake instead of being defensive of why I have written that way. This gave me a chance to open up and learn from the mistakes that I made. There is still a lot of scope to progress. The offline exam was well structured to test the knowledge and thought processes of the candidates. Those kinds of questions can’t be attempted just by mugging up the content. Overall, it was a good experience.

    Lalita Saini (Physics)

    I was able to ideate, perform and submit a preprint article as part of the Scientific writing program. The program helped me to identify the points that I need to work on while preparing a manuscript.

    Hemanth H (Chemistry)

    With this certification course, I explored new ways of effective, clear, and concise representation of the technical thought process. It helps in improving the impact of the research work and boosts the confidence of the researcher.

    Shivam Shukla (Materials Engineering)

    Before obtaining the scientific writing certificate, the process of writing a scientific paper seemed very intimidating to me. I would stare at a blank page for many hours, constantly doubting and double-checking whatever I had managed to write. While giving me an opportunity to prepare a manuscript, the certification process provided the much-needed initial confidence in my ability to write a structured and coherent scientific manuscript. It helped me familiarize myself with the various aspects of a scientific paper. The process also helped me identify the weaker areas of my writing process, working on which will surely improve and refine future writing endeavors.

    Shekhar Kumar Yadav (Electrical Engineering)

    The certification program has allowed me to enhance my scientific writing and preparing posters for the presentation. It also helped me gauge my technical writing skills. Nevertheless, it gave me an insight into the implicit points that I have to remember while drafting a research paper.

    Prasanth P Nair (Mechanical Engineering)

    The certification in scientific writing is a very thoughtfully designed evaluation process that includes not just scientific writing but also emphasized the ethical, legal aspects of it. This program gave me an opportunity to learn the intricacies of the writing, get comprehensive feedback on it. Scientific Writing, IITGN website presented all the relevant resources that helped me a lot during preparing documents for Phase-1 and also during preparation for Phase-2. I am much grateful to the entire Certification in Scientific Writing Team. Thanks.

    Rajdeep Singh Devra (Mechanical Engineering)

    The major part of the ‘Certification in Scientific Writing’ course was based on self-learning and self-assessment through critical revisions of one’s own written document. This process helped me in coming up with a good first draft of my research proposal. The resources provided on the scientific writing website proved to be very useful and the single-blind reviewers’ comments provided feedback that enhanced the writing and presentation quality of the actual submitted work.

    Sapna R. Bisht (Biological Engineering)

    I have never made any technical proposal or poster before. This certification course made me learn the proper ways to create these technical documents. I am very much thankful to Writing-Studio to provide all needed information through its website. I strongly encourage every PhD scholar to do this course.

    Md Modassir Firdaus (Mechanical Engineering)

    This certification process aided in building my confidence in scientific writing. I could gain a better understanding of the technicalities through this process.

    Chythra J N (Chemistry)

    The certification process has given me a insight to writing a research proposal in a concise manner which is in general required rather than a detailed approach which I was more familiar in the past. Also, the poster submission has given more clarity on how to draw attention to the major point which we want the audience/reviewer to have.
    In the similar manner the Phase II examination has helped me to go through the nuance of various points which one should follow but usually overseen in bigger picture.

    Aniket Panchal (Civil Engineering)

    The ‘Certification in Scientific Writing’ course explicitly focused on independent and ethical academic writing, which helped enhance my writing skills as a research scholar. The drafting of the manuscript, repeated revisions, and self-evaluation of the draft assisted me in building on my critical writing and thinking. Furthermore, the well-curated resources on the scientific writing website and reviewers’ constructive comments helped me recognize ways in which I can write more effectively, concisely, and coherently. For this, I am very thankful to the entire scientific writing team.

    Anukritika Raj (Earth Sciences)

    Scientific writing is a well-designed course, and it helped me enhance my writing skill. The most challenging thing about this course was that we had to write the manuscript independently without taking anybody’s help during phase-1. Therefore, I felt confident after completing this course. Moreover, the reviewer’s feedback helped me identify my weaknesses and the areas where I need to work to write more effectively. The material provided by the scientific writing website was beneficial for me in both phases. I am very thankful to the scientific writing team for conducting such an excellent course.

    Vivek Kumar Bind (Earth Sciences)

    The certification process in scientific writing is not just a test of writing skill set but also a medium to enable one’s thinking to write, read, revise and rewrite critically. In the exercise of this program, I learnt to synthesize and structure our work, make a criticism on our drafts, and revise them. This program gears up researchers for scientific writing and gives a line of thought to draft better.

    Chaman Modi (Civil Engineering)

    The process of writing a scientific manuscript for the first time in a structured and coherent way made my understanding of the topic clearer. I also learned about ambiguity, parallelism etc. which improved my writing skill.

    Akash Chandra (Biological Engineering)

    It was a great experience. I have written more than 10 scientific research articles. But this competition helped me to strong my writing skills.

    Anuj Kaushik (Electrical Engineering)