Identifying the facilitators and barriers for scientific writing among pharmacy students in College of Pharmacy, Umm Al-Qura University - A qualitative study.

Introduction: English is the dominant international language for academic publication, thus mastering English writing is required for a successful career in research. Our objective was to identify facilitators and barriers to English language scientific writing among pharmacy students in Umm Al-Qura University in Saudi Arabia (where English is not the native language).

Methods: We used face-to-face semi-structured interviews in the Arabic language with fourth- and fifth-year students of the college to gain insight into their perspectives. An interview guide was prepared using the Arabic language. The interviews were conducted at the college of pharmacy. All interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim.

Results: Twenty-three participants agreed to be interviewed and signed the consent form. The mean interview time was 10 min. Two researchers independently analyzed the qualitative data using thematic analysis and agreed on the coding and themes. A third researcher verified the themes on randomly selected transcripts. The analysis showed main facilitator themes of: having rich vocabulary, competency in English language, having new ideas, increased writing activities, and individual guidance. Barrier themes were: lack of vocabulary, incompetency in English language, time constraint, lack of ideas, lack of writing activities, and lack of guidance.

Conclusions: Participants of this study showed limited understanding of scientific writing. This study also found that pharmacy students need to develop their writing skills through practice sessions and university courses.