Introduction
Last week I attended a Faculty Development Workshop in my college on ‘Writing and Publishing Research Articles in SCOPUS and SCI Indexed Journals: From Basics to Submission’. The three day event was informative, particularly for faculty members and research scholars who are at the beginning stages of their research writing journey.
Table of Contents
Identifying SCOPUS Indexed Journals
One key idea that the sessions presented were to identify SCOPUS and SCI indexed journals from their websites. Before publishing, authors can identify the status of the journal. While an indexed journal is in itself and indication of a good quality publication, discussions around impact factor and h-index value also provided key insights into understanding the world of research publication better.
Search Engines for Research Articles
SCOPUS and other websites also serve as search engines tailored to meet research needs. Filtering journals by keywords, subject areas, publishers, and recency, are important services that these websites provide. These help in not just identifying a journal suitable for the research area in which a scholar is writing, but also in conducting a review of existing research literature. Besides SCOPUS, JSTOR and Google Scholar are also useful sources.
Developing a Database
If you are an expert in the area and are planning to write a review article, this is a useful way of developing a database of research articles that lend itself to sorting and filtering on various parameters. If I think of my early stages of research, this was a never-ending exercise undertaken in libraries. Physical copies of journals were sorted and sifted manually and the database was made through a painstakingly slow process. You would realise that a lot of research articles are sifted through and ‘discarded’ as not relevant by merely reading the abstract. This has become a simpler exercise with the very useful intervention of technology.
Referencing
Another significant feature is that of providing the facility to export referencing and citations. This not only reduces the effort to be made by the researcher but also nearly eliminates any chance of formatting error in citations. Further, most of these websites are also compatible with Zotero and Mendeley making it easier for researchers to build their database over a period of time.
Accessibility
A lot of these websites are accessible through institutional domain names and internet access. This does become a limitation for independent scholars. However, for most researchers, these barriers are lifted through various subscriptions that institutions have now taken.
Struggling with Article Processing Charge
Another significant aspect is to identify research journals for publication that do not charge a publication fee or an article processing charge (APC). A useful website that the resource person in the workshop shared was www.noapc.com. This is a useful website for scholars in developing countries and those working with institutions where publication fee is not paid by the employer. A word of caution, the journals listed on this website need to be cross checked for updated indexing on SCOPUS website.
Debates and Dilemmas
The faculty development workshop was an enriching experience. We learn from resource persons not just in terms of the facts that they share. The PPTs used can be accessed later but the learning is in the examples they share, their personal journeys, and the questions from the audience. It was a refreshing experience to listen to them.
However, it is important to look at the macro picture that lends itself to debates and dilemmas. Should quality work be restricted to a bulk of journals that charge exorbitant prices from authors, often not even giving them access to their own work? Why have authorities chosen to use these indexing as a criterion of quality? Could there be some other criteria? Would the rush of ‘scholars’ to publish in indexed journals to meet criteria of doctoral research, recruitment or promotions, really ensure quality?
What research does it lead to when we are only trying to publish to get ‘points’ to add to the total score assigned to us. What does it say about the university recruitment process if this is the only reason to undertaken research? How long can one stay away from the rat-race competition that the university system is engulfing it in?
Another important debate arises when we identify the ‘owners’ of these indexing sites. Where are the top journals published? Researches in well-funded universities in Europe and North America are likely to conduct researches in their own contexts. In order for researches in Asia, Africa, and South America, are likely to cite these studies because they don’t want to deviate from the accepted norm of what is quality work. A lot of these Euro-centric studies are not contextualised into non-western contexts. Yet, researches in non-westerns countries are likely to replicate experiments, or corroborate findings from Euro-centric researches. Original researches would never be adequately referenced.
The merits of indexing are outweighed by the whole experience of research writing. It translates into the dilemma of undertaking research work at all, if this is the status of research writing.
[Keywords: research writing, SCOPUS, journal, publishing, academics, higher education]
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