Editorial quality of the doctoral thesis at the Faculty of Medicine of Sousse (Tunisia)

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Published May 7, 2022
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Vol. 100 No. 5 (2022): Issue Mai 2022

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Ben Abdelaziz
Abdelnour ERRAFEI
Sarra Nouira
Asma Ben Abdelaziz
Dhekra Chebil
Mohamed Azzaza
GRIF2D

Abstract

Objective: To assess the writing quality of the theses defended at the Faculty of Medicine of Sousse (FMSo).

Methods: This is a bibliometric, transversal and exhaustive study done on all theses defended at the FMSo between 2001 and 2005. The
writing quality of the thesis was assessed, via double reading, by a grid applied to its abstract. This grid was composed of 20 items detailing
the principles of scientific writing. A thesis was considered “satisfactory” when the writing score was ≥15 / 20. Results: During this five-year
period, 670 theses was defended at the FMSo (an average of 134 theses per year), which in 93% of cases were research ones. All these
theses were written in French except for one. On a 20-point scale, the average thesis editorial score was 14.1 ± 2.2. The writing quality was
judged satisfactory in 47% of the theses. The objective of the thesis, research design and study population were mentioned, respectively,
in 81%, 77% and 91% of theses abstracts. However, the descriptors chosen were MeSH words in only 42% of the time; Data sources and
standard deviation were mentioned in only 25% and 9.6% of the abstracts, respectively.

Conclusion: The writing quality of the thesis at the
FMSo suffered mainly from documentary, methodological and statistical insufficiencies. The introduction of a scientific medical writing module
in the curriculum of the FMSo would be essential for the optimization of the medical thesis.


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