31 March 2022 – Ministry of Public Health staff in Lebanon recently advanced their knowledge on scientific writing and publishing through a 2-day workshop conducted by WHO. The training session, held in March, targeted professionals in the Ministry’s Epidemiological Surveillance Unit who have been heavily involved in responding to serious challenges in Lebanon in recent years, including the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Epidemiological Surveillance Unit plays a key role in generating health-related data at the national level in Lebanon, and team members are increasingly seeking to harness data to document progress and enhance available evidence at national level. The workshop aimed to help team members publish their work in scientific literature so that other researchers and policy-makers could benefit from it.
Participants reviewed the core elements of a scientific paper and scientific conference presentation, and discussed core ethical and practical concerns around scientific writing and publishing, such as authorship, plagiarism and copyright. Key issues and controversies were highlighted through a range of case studies and other exercises. The training was based on an initiative from the WHO Lebanon country office and selected staff from the office participated in the training.
Virtual workshop with facilitators from the WHO Regional Office and participants from the Lebanon country office and the Ministry of Public Health's Epidemiological Surveillance Unit
The workshop was presented by Dr Ahmed Mandil, Coordinator for Research and Innovation, and Mr Toby Boyd, Publishing Manager, in the Department of Science, Information and Dissemination of the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean, in collaboration with the Eastern Mediterranean Association of Medical Editors (EMAME).
