You are looking at the first newsletter of the Doctoral School. It contains official information that is relevant to your thesis work and career as a scientist.

Doctoral School FBM

Self-plagiarism: is it really that bad?

The main theme of this edition is topical. All too often we read about it in the newspapers: plagiarism and ghostwriting are sadly detected in the academic works of public figures of many disciplines. Yet integrity is a fundamental asset/capital for any career, including that of the scientist. This is the reason why one of the School's objectives is to make you aware of how to write impeccable texts. As you may know, we have been carrying out random plagiarism checks on thesis manuscripts for a year now. Let's start with the good news: no major problems were found! However, the checks did reveal practices that can be qualified as self-plagiarism, i.e. the use of paragraphs from articles published in journals that were co-authored between the PhD student and other scientists, and which were not properly cited. How can you avoid these practices, which can damage your career? Read the articles below and learn more about self-plagiarism and other topics related to the PhD. We hope you enjoy reading!
pexels-vlada-karpovich-4050287

How to avoid self-plagiarism?

The thesis is a single-author work, whereas the articles you publish as part of your thesis are multi-author works. For this reason, when using information from articles for your thesis, you must ensure that the co-authored paragraphs are cited correctly, especially for the abstract, introduction and discussion sections. To guide you in writing your thesis, we have updated the format section of the Thesis Milestones booklet. Please download the brochure (choose the appropriate version that applies to your situation) and read it carefully!
Go to pages 7-9
Go to pages 13-15

Good writing practices: tips & resources

Scientific integrity & the prevention of plagiarism are at the heart of your training. We therefore encourage you to use the tools available at UNIL to ensure that all your written productions are free of any form of plagiarism. We strongly recommend the self-training module: Avoiding plagiarism (to have access to it, use the activation key “plagiatdoc”).
pexels-monstera-6237967-site2
pexels-anna-shvets-4226268_site

Your PhD during the covid-19 pandemic

Information regarding the organisation of PhD exams and e-learning/courses is available on our website and is updated on a regular basis. Please pay a special attention to this section if you are planning to hold your mid-thesis exam, private exam and/or public defense in the coming weeks.

A label to certify good writing practices: interview with an FBM alumni

Read the interview with Dr Roten, where he presents his career, the start-up OrphAnalytics & its innovative technology (based on machine learning) to certify good writing practices.

Save the Date: May 12th 2022, Lausanne

Life Science Career Day @SwissTech

Find out about career opportunities after the PhD and make connections with employers!
Brought to you by your Doctoral School in collaboration with the BSNL association.
June 2021
Doctoral School, Faculty of Biology and Medicine, University of Lausanne, UNIL-Sorge
phdthesis@unil.ch
021 692 40 09