New Writing, Peer Review Workshops at the Annual Meeting

Learning Opportunities for Early Career Attendees and Those Seeking to Fine-Tune Their Skills

August 2, 2024

Attendees of the 2023 Peer Review Workshop at the Annual Meeting in St. Louis.

Encouraged by the success of the two hands‐on peer review workshops presented by the ASA, CSSA, and SSSA Publications team at the 2023 Annual Meeting, we are excited to preview new learning opportunities for attendees at this year’s meeting in San Antonio from November 9–13. Two new workshops will join “Introduction to Peer Review” this fall.

Creating a Materials and Methods Section of a Manuscript

A well‐written Material and Methods section should be detailed enough so that a competent researcher can replicate the experiment, including the statistical analysis. The objective of the workshop is to equip participants, in a hands‐on setting, with the knowledge and skills necessary to write an informative and professional Materials and Methods section for any scientific paper. You will also be expected to complete a pre‐workshop assignment.

Simplify Your Professional Writing

We all want to be better communicators and possess the skills to tell the story of our research and explain why it matters. But, writing about science is hard, and sometimes we get caught up in unnecessary detail and jargon that can quickly lose the people we want to reach. Learning how to simplify our writing can help. This doesn’t mean “dumbing it down”; it means making it clear, concise, and easy to read while still including complex ideas. Attendees of this workshop will learn how to make their writing more accessible to their audience. The objectives include writing concisely, the role of vocabulary, limiting jargon, and understanding readability.

Introduction to Peer Review

Peer review is an essential part of the scientific‐publishing process, but many early career professionals are not comfortable taking on this important task without experience. In this workshop, you will receive hands‐on instruction on the peer review process from a team of experienced mentors. You will be placed in a group of people with similar scientific backgrounds as you gain the skills necessary to become a confident reviewer. All attendees will be expected to complete a pre‐workshop assignment before attending the workshop.

All workshops are two hours in duration, and pre‐registration is required. Additional information, including time and dates of the workshop, will be available at acsmeetings.org/publications. Check for updates frequently.

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