QMed conducted a one-day workshop on Literature Search and Reference Management on 11th April at Medicon 2013 which was held this year at the University College of Medical Sciences, Delhi. The workshop was attended by undergraduate students who had registered for Medicon as well as post-graduate students from UCMS. Some of the students from UCMS had attended our workshop held there in the month of November.
The literature search session went off smoothly as students tried to absorb the concepts and features of the PubMed database. It was the session on reference management tool Mendeley that stole the show. Mendeley helps you store, organize and cite your references. So, as you do literature search you can store your references in Mendeley and when you write your article you could add/import those references from Mendeley. When the students did a small exercise of importing and citing references and saw the bibliographic record being generated in their word file, the look of amazement on their faces was a treat to watch. Students who had finished their thesis wished “only if I had known this earlier” and students who were in the midst of their STS and thesis felt “wow, this is great, it makes citing references so easy”.
The feedbacks conveyed that the workshop was much needed and helpful to the students.
A UG student wrote:
“This program has been absolutely wonderful. It has made such a great difference in how I see references and citations. It shall now be a joy than a burden. I would definitely like to attend more classes for this and learn it in more detail. It was a completely new territory for me to explore. The teachers are wonderful.!!!”
A PG student wrote:
I attended one class before my thesis protocol, but it was not clear. With your class, things got very clear. For more students and health professionals you can arrange this type of classes.
Ms Vasumathi Sriganesh and Ms Lakshmi Padmanabhan from QMed also judged a debate session on the topic “The intention behind the hippocrates oath is now nothing more than a mere hypocrisy”. About 15 participants from various medical colleges across India expressed their views on this topic. Some quoted scriptures, some cited instances and some mere facts to prove their point. It was an interesting debate and participants and the organizing team maintained the spirit of the event. As judges we felt that though there is always room for improvement all the participants did a great job at voicing their views and opinions on this topic.
Looking forward to Medicon 2014!
