Training in reference management software: a part of new medical informatics workshops in Pakistan

ABSTRACT

Researchers in Pakistan can increase writing productivity, reduce errors in manuscripts and improve quality of their papers by hands-on workshops on bibliographic reference software. A workshop was conducted in an interactive tutorial format using an overhead projector to show screenshots of software at each step. Our Workshop included1 starting the Endnote program [www.endnote.com];[2] manually entering a reference of a journal article[3] searching and importing references from PubMed[3] inserting a reference in Microsoft Word document in a journal-specific format;[4] essentials of journal article formatting; and[5] the ethics of respecting other peoples of intellectual effort by proper citations and avoiding plagiarism. A post-workshop test was administered to assess whether instructional objectives were attained. All the participants passed the post-workshop multiple choice questions and 85% rated the workshop as good, very good or excellent. A workshop on reference formatting in research writing is useful to promote high quality research work. We recommend holding workshops twice a year on research article formatting and reference software at medical colleges in Pakistan and other developing countries