On June 15th, 2016, the joint scientific writing workshop of PloS Neglected Tropical Diseases (PLoS NTD) and Infectious Diseases of Poverty (IDP) was open in Shanghai which attracted about 100 international and Chinese participants in the field of infectious diseases.

After introduction, Prof. Xiao-Nong Zhou, Editor-in-Chief, awarded certificates to authors with top three cited articles published in IDP. In the workshop, Dr. David Blair, associate editor of PLoS NTD, gave a speech on how to choose the right journal and write the paper in terms of title, abstract, background, methods, discussion, conclusion and figure and tables. He also introduced some applicable rules of writing, including the basics and clear writing techniques. Dr. Pin Yang, managing editor of IDP, reported IDP’s scope and service, that are, to take up the “One health-One world” approach recommended by the Global Report for Research on Infectious Diseases of Poverty, followed by explaining the mainly questions in submission to publication. IDP mainly works for trans-disciplinary research for the control of infectious diseases that 70% manuscripts came from African countries. Dr. Ernest Tambo, specialist on disease surveillance & pharmacologist from Université des Montagnes, Bangangté, Cameroon presented an issue “Can evidence-based scoping reviews in guiding emerging epidemics and infectious diseases policies, priorities and interventions?” based on the “scoping review” papers published in IDP, explained that how do “scoping review” papers contribute to evidence-based decision making policy, priorities and programmes. Mr. Men-Bao Qian shared his experience on writing scientific articles in the sequence of literature review, project design and implementation, data analysis to paper writing, submission and revision.

From the questionnaires responding to the workshop, we can conclude that more than 60% audiences are familiar with PLoS NTD and IDP. The experts and students with master degree take the big part of audience attending the workshop, accounting for 71.4% but most of them never publish SCI papers. Most audience give a positive response to this joint workshop that 72.3% audience think it give sufficient knowledge about scientific writing. After the workshop, audiences express their strong interest in the submission to PLoS NTD and IDP and clear comprehension about how to choosing journal and how to write a scoping review paper, get more familiar with IDP’s scope and submission. However, seldom expert know “scoping review” before, representing 77.6%. Most think “language” and “paper designing” are the most difficult part of paper writing with the proportion adding up to 64.1% according to the questionnaire. Therefore, we can introduce more sufficient information with regard to journal’s scope and interested article types and detailed paper designing method in the future scientific writing workshop.

Editorial Office

Infectious Diseases of Poverty