The Academic Writing Office of the Institute of Linguistics and Intercultural Communication organized the 1^st International Sechenov Medical Writing Symposium. From Pre- to Post-Publication: An Introduction to Medical Writing. It was held in the Congress Hall on April 4, 2018.

The initiator and the main organizer of the Symposium was Jonathan McFarland (Head of the Academic Writing Office). Thanks to his effort, enthusiasm, and devotion the Symposium was eventful.

The Symposium was a full-day event, which was divided into three sessions.

The Symposium started at 10 am with welcoming speeches given by Jonathan McFarland (Head of the Academic Writing Office), Prof. Andrey A. Svistunov (Vice-rector), Prof. Trevor Gibbs (AMEE International Development Officer), and Prof. Irina Y. Markovina (Director of the Institute of Linguistics and Intercultural Communication).

During the 1^st session, moderated by Jonathan McFarland, the audience learned a lot about the publication process. The first two presentations were given by members of Bibliosalut (The Virtual Health Sciences Library of the Balearic Islands): Virgili Paez (Director) spoke about the Importance of Visibility in research, while Elena Pastor (Librarian) spoke about the importance of post-publication dissemination and the use of social networks in promotion of research.

Prof. Trevor Gibbs was the last speaker in this session. In his report MedEdPublish: Online Open-access Medical Education Journal, he spoke about a new style of medical education journal. Prof. Trevor Gibbs explained the structure of the journal, the topics it covers, and its advantages over other medical education journals. MedEdPublish is working to be included in Scopus by the end of 2018.

The 2^nd session was entirely devoted to academic writing in medicine and was given by AWO team: Jonathan McFarland, Alexander Zaytsev (Deputy Head of AWO), and Adilya Makhmutova (AWO manager). The presentation entitled Six Statements about Academic Writing: Myths or Facts? covered stylistic, grammatical, punctuation, and syntactic issues of a scientific paper. The presentation included many examples that were discussed together with the audience.

The Q&A session was the last of the Symposium. This included two major events: the AWO Workshop and a Roundtable. During the Workshop, participants worked on different tasks in 6 groups. Each group had a moderator who helped and assisted the groups when necessary. Then, each group presented its results to the audience and was given useful feedback from the AWO, the foreign guests, and the audience.

The Roundtable on the topic What language should be used in research? closed the Symposium. After a lengthy debate, Jonathan McFarland, Prof. Irina Y. Markovina, Prof. Trevor Gibbs, Elena Pastor, Virgili Paez, and Peter de Jong concluded that, even though there is always room for other languages in a local context, English is fundamental for doctors hoping to develop and further their careers on a wider stage. For, as we all well know, “In Medicine, English is not a priority – it is a necessity”.

The AWO team are sure that the participants of the Symposium are delighted to have attended and learned a lot. We hope that you will use the knowledge of how to write a paper and disseminate it because as Elena Pastor mentioned your work is not finished with publication. Promotion and self-promotion of your research is essential.

The AWO team thanks Anastasia Asoskova, Karina Darbinyan, Maria Kiriukova, and Alexey Matyushin for their help in the workshop.