PhD Courses in Denmark

Department for Technology and Innovation, Odense
Teaching language: English - ECTS / weighting: 5 ECTS / 0.083 full-time equivalent.

Teacher: Monica Armengol

Period:  Autumn Term 2026 
Offered in: Odense. Date and times of classes will be agreed within the group.

The course is fully booked!

Teacher: The teacher is Monica Armengol, Biomedical Engineering Centre, Department for Technology and Innovation, Faculty of Engineering

Sign-up: Send an email to Charlotte Bruun – cbp@iti.sdu.dk to be enrolled to the course - remember to write your name, email and course name (WSP Autumn 2026).

Prerequisites: The course is open to students from all scientific disciplines. It is intended to help students to write their first scientific paper, and as such, students must have already completed some research with suitable results to write about. It therefore may not be appropriate for new PhD students who have just started their projects.

Content - Key areas: This course will provide support for each student in writing their first scientific paper, from producing their first draft, through two revisions and an outline of the process of submitting the paper to an academic journal or conference, and handling peer review process.

Lectures will take place both in person and online, covering the key components of good scientific writing, including how to find relevant papers to cite, how to structure a paper, the use of AI and bias in academic writing.

Students will be given short articles to review in three different occasions. Additionally, students will produce their first draft independently, using the information from the lectures, and submit this to the teacher. They will then prepare a 5-minute presentation explaining the background to their work to present to their peers.

Following these presentations, each student will review two papers from their peers. The review process will emulate the typical journal review process. Guidance will be provided on this in lectures. Students will then edit their papers based on the classmate reviews and must provide appropriate responses to all feedback. The reviews and second draft of the paper must be submitted to the teacher.

Following this, each student must identify a suitable non-student reviewer (i.e. a lecturer or academic in the field) to review their paper. With this feedback, they will then produce a third draft, which will be submitted to the teacher along with the review.

All three drafts will be assessed by the teacher in the context of the reviews, assessing how reviewer feedback has been incorporated into the paper. The teacher will then review the final version of the paper and provide feedback for the paper’s submission to a journal or conference.

Learning outcomes: 

Knowledge:

• Describe the structure and key components of a scientific paper
• Understand the process of academic publishing, including submission, peer review process, revision and resubmission.
• Describe methods for identifying and selecting relevant scientific literature.
• Understand principles of good scientific writing.
• Understand ethical aspects of scientific writing, including bias and use of AI.

Skills:

• Identify, evaluate and integrate relevant scientific literature into their writing.
• Present scientific work clearly and consistently in oral presentation.
• Write a structured scientific paper for peer-reviewed publication.
• Critically review scientific literature and provide constructive feedback.
• Evaluate and integrate feedback into your own scientific paper.
• Formulate clear and appropriate responses to reviewer’s comments

Competencies:

• Independently develop a scientific paper from initial draft to submission-ready version.
• Manage and reflect on peer review process, including incorporating and responding to feedback.
• Assess peer’s scientific writing and being able to identify areas of improvement.
• Apply ethical considerations, including bias awareness and responsible use of AI, in scientific communications.
• Communicate scientific project and ideas effectively to peers.

Literature: None

Time of classes: The course will run in Autumn. Lectures will take place in person, with an online livestream for those who cannot attend. The autumn presentation day will usually be in October/November.

Lessons: Most of the work will be completed in the students’ own time. Deadlines will be widely spread to allow for students’ other commitments.

Form of instruction: Lectures online and in person, emails, presentations, written material.

Course type: Lectures, presentations and written work.

Evaluation:
Individual examination, pass/fail, approval by the teacher.

To pass, students must show satisfactory production of:

1. A paper they have written about their own research.
2. A 5-minute presentation of this paper.
3. Two reviews of fellow students’ papers.
4. Three general reviews.
5. An improved version of their own paper, incorporating feedback from their fellow students’ reviews.
6. A final version edited following the professional reviewer’s comments.
7. A covering letter.

Any use of generative AI in the preparation of the first draft of the papers must be disclosed and justified in an accompanying document. Generative AI may not be used at any other stage of the process (e.g. reviews, responses to reviews, or updating the papers), otherwise, it renders the whole exercise pointless.

Comments: This course accepts a maximum of 18 students and may be cancelled if less than 8 participants enrol.

Price:
* PhDs enrolled at the Faculty of Engineering at SDU: Free
* Other PhDs: DKK 1.200,- per ECTS = DKK 6.000