Explore our Scientific Research and Communication taught Master's degree.

P-F1PE

MSc

1 year full-time;
2 or 3 years part-time

26 September 2022

Chemistry

University of Warwick

Scientific Research and Communication MSc is ideal for those looking for a career in science, writing or journalism, research, education and more. At Warwick you will gain the necessary English Language and writing skills, experience in cutting-edge cross-disciplinary research, helping you to learn how to communicate complicated scientific concepts to various audiences.

Do you want to become an expert in communicating scientific concepts? Whether you are preparing for a career in scientific writing, education or communication, this course is the one for you.

You will choose from over 50 modules and tailor the course to your specific scientific skills and interests. You will enhance your communication and English Language skills, learning to convey advanced technical scientific concepts for journals, classrooms, or the media.

You will also undertake a bespoke research project, gaining research experience using our state-of-the-art facilities in an interdisciplinary environment. You will gain advanced knowledge in your chosen fields and learn to communicate with a range of audiences, preparing you for a career in research, scientific writing, science education or science communication.

You can find out more about the Department of Chemistry by joining our Webinars.

Dr Nikola Chmel is the head of the MSc in Scientific Research and Communication. Please contact chem-pgt at warwick dot ac dot uk with any Chemistry specific department questions, where course directors Dr Nikola Chmel and Dr Remzi Becer are available to discuss any queries.

The first 23 weeks are lecture-based, providing you with a diverse range of skills in analytical sciences to complete a successful 22-week research project.

Class sizes will range between 5 to 40 students, dependent on module: some of which are shared across programmes.

Depending on your module choices, you can expect to attend around 10-25 hours of lectures and workshops per week. Some modules might also include additional supervised practical sessions (e.g. laboratory work). For each one-hour lecture, you should expect to put in additional time for private study.

Each scientific module is usually between 50% and 80% examined and 20 -50% assessed; the scientific writing modules are 100% assessed; the research project is 100% assessed.

Reading lists

Most departments have reading lists available through Warwick Library. If you would like to view reading lists for the current cohort of students you can visit our Warwick Library web page.

Your timetable

Your personalised timetable will be complete when you are registered for all modules, compulsory and optional, and you have been allocated to your lectures, seminars and other small group classes. Your compulsory modules will be registered for you and you will be able to choose your optional modules when you join us.

2:i undergraduate degree (or equivalent) in a science subject.

• Band A
• IELTS overall score of 6.5, minimum component scores not below 6.0.

There are no additional entry requirements for this course.

Writing focused scientific articles and reports

This module is intended to allow you to develop and demonstrate your capacity to communicate scientific concepts through writing short, focused scientific articles. It will facilitate engagement with a variety of audiences and the use of a range of strategies to describe scientific procedures, summarise and disseminate findings, write reviews, and formulate effective instructions. It also aims to develop critical thinking and peer review skills.

Writing extended scientific articles and reports

This module provides a genre-based focus on academic scientific papers. Through a focus on models of professional writing, it explores particular features of science papers such as how to reference to the literature, where and when to outline the methodology, and how to present results and conclusions. An integral part of this approach is for participants to bring along samples of their own writing (e.g. lab reports or research articles). Students will be asked to provide critiques and action plans, as well as to engage in peer reviews.

Research Skills

Communicating Science to different audiences

This module aims to help you to communicate your research findings accurately and concisely to different audiences. The main focus is on how to communicate in print, radio and TV to non-scientific audiences, but the skills will translate across to your research reports and presentations. It is based on a 3-day non-residential course (but including 1 evening) at Warwick and BBC Coventry and Warwickshire which will consist of a variety of seminars by experts in the field.

22-week Research Project

Optional modules

Any Level 7 (Master’s) modules from the Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine with permission of the course leader.

Any Level 7 (Master’s) modules from the Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine with permission of the course leader.

We have revised the information on this page since publication. See the edits we have made and content history.

This is a holding content block which does not currently display on the page. To make it live, update the copy above, change the Title to remove the brackets, and delete this sentence.