Under the auspices of Prof. Ahmed Al-Minshawi, President of Assuit University and in the presence of Prof. Mahmoud Abdel Alim, University Vice-President for Community Service and Environmental Development, Assuit University organized a workshop about “The Basics of Scientific Research” during the from September 10 to September 11. The events of this workshop took place in the conference hall of the Main University Hospital to discuss ways for developing scientific research in Upper Egypt and publishing mechanisms in scientific periodicals.

Prof. Ahmed Al-Minshawi, President of Assuit University, pointed out that the workshop aimed to enhance and improve scientific research among young physicians and to improve the quality of scientific publishing in major journals and internationally ranked periodicals through 8 important lectures over two days. He indicated that the workshop involved many topics such as the challenges faced by a researcher in scientific publishing, ways of overcoming them, how to choose a scientific journal and identify its ranking.

The workshop comes on the sidelines of the 6^th scientific conference of the Egyptian Heart and Diabetes Association to be held from September 20 to 21 under the supervision of Prof. Alaa Attiya, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the University Hospitals; Prof. Ihab Fawzy, Executive Director of the University Hospitals; Prof Mohamed Zein, Under-Secretary of Assuit Health Directorate; Prof. Mohamed Al-Yamany; Head of The Internal Medicine Department, Faculty of Medicine; Prof. Alaa El-Din Abdel-Monem, Manager of the Main University Hospital; Prof. Manal Ezz, Professor of Internal Medicine, Diabetes and Endocrinology and Chairperson of the Conference; Prof. Noshy Zaki Youssef, Cardiology and Diabetes Consultant, Head of the Egyptian Heart and Diabetes Association and Chairperson of the Conference; and Prof. Soher Qassem, Professor of Critical Care Medicine and Coordinator of the Workshop.

In his speech during the opening of the workshop, Prof. Mahmoud Abdel Alim indicated the necessity of placing scientific research in its proper technical and legal framework, especially after the President of the Republic passed Law 2014 for the year 2020 to regulate the scientific research process, whose penalties amount to 10-year imprisonment and a fine of up to one million pounds. He pointed out that six main standards for preparing scientific research should be taken into account; namely, registering the research protocol in scientific research publishing databases; fulfilling all administrative procedures such as obtaining the approval of the department council, postgraduate committee and faculty council as well as the approval of the faculty’s ethical committee; making sure that the researcher adheres to the ethical standards related to the patient’s rights and respects his privacy; taking diversity into account when selecting the study sample; and preparing a list of all participants in the scientific research.

During the workshop lectures were delivered by Prof. Hilal Foaud Heta, Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at the Faculty of Medicine and holder of the State Incentive Award for Scientific Research; Prof. Medhat El-Arabi, Professor of Public Health and Diabetes; Prof. Tarek Al-Arini, Professor of Public Health, Obesity and Diabetes at El-Minya University and the Secretary-General of the Egyptian Heart and Diabetes Association.

Prof. Hilal Heta delivered important lectures which addressed: the challenges faced by a researcher in scientific publishing and ways of overcoming them; how to choose a scientific journal and identify its ranking; how to avoid unreliable journals; the use of artificial intelligence in medical research in terms of assisting in diagnosis, prescribing treatment, choosing the topic of scientific research, linguistic reviewing, reducing citation rates; the standards and challenges of research integrity and its role in enhancing the university’s scientific ranking; and the steps of sending the scientific research to the scientific journal. 

Prof. Medhat El-Arabi also tackled the research methods, the statistical basics that must be followed, how to write a distinguished scientific research and avoid writing mistakes. Prof. Tarek Al-Arini overviewed the reasons behind rejecting a research paper and how to respond to arbitrators and referees in order to avoid the rejection of a scientific research.