On August 12, 2020, Research Synergy Foundation and Research Synergy Institute in collaboration with Universitas Islam Bandung (Unisba) held the 1st Session of RSF Research Academy. The theme of today’s session is Identify Research Opportunity and Theory and Framework Development I by Dr. Evan Lau. In this session, participants had the opportunity to understand what the research is and strategies how to conduct a research. The lecture is attended by 44 participants from faculty members, professionals, and government officers representing 4 countries Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, and Peru.
Presented as the expert, Dr. Evan Lau, explained more detail about the paradigm of research, how to formulate and clarify research topics, and how to attribute a good research problem. In this lecture, Dr. Evan Lau also discusses a six-stage process for choosing topic in a research. Being able to identify the researchable issue is an important skill to have for all researchers. So, the lecture has provided broad guidelines to help with how to properly start the research process. The participants were highly engaged and interested during the lecture with lots of questions answered by the expert. The lecture will continue the 2nd Session by the theme Theory and Framework Development II. We are excited to have all the participants in the coming weeks!
For some researchers, publishing scientific articles in high-quality journals have been quite challenging. Publication of a scientific article becomes a stage that must be passed by researchers considering that this is a form of validation of the research done. By publishing an article, researchers are making their knowledge contribution available to a community of scholars and society. There are various reasons why an article is accepted or rejected, and sometimes this makes researchers feel a little bit frustrated with the research they are working on. In fact, the rejection and any kind of challenge when publishing scientific articles in high-impact journals are part of the process. All of the process will become beneficial to improve a research experience.
Facing the challenges of publication, all we need is to keep learning to improve in each process. Writing a research can be considered as an art, it involves skill to express complex ideas in a concise way, communicate with readers, benefit civil society, and contribute to a better life. Thus, we organized a Webinar that might be helpful for researchers to learn and understand a proper research publication from the point of view of journal editors by the theme: “Publication Opportunities in Scopus and WOS Indexed Journals: Advice and Recommendations from the Editors”. The webinar was organized by Research Synergy Foundation (RSF), Research Synergy Institute (RSI) in collaboration with Sarawak Research Society (SRS), Emerald Publishing (East Asia), Ikatan Dosen Republik Indonesia (IDRI), and Pampanga Research Educators Organization (PREO) Phillippines. Presented as trainers are the journal editors from Scopus and WOS Indexed Journal: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mumtaz Ali Memon from NUST Business School Pakistan, Assoc.Prof. Dr. Evan Lau from Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Malaysia, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Iris Lui from Ming Chuan University, Taiwan, and Mdm. Rozita Gee from Emerald Publishing.
There are more than 1.135 scholars from more than 30 countries across the globe registered to the Webinar. The event is not just a simple Webinar, it is also an opportunity for participants to submit their articles in the high-reputable journals edited by the trainers.
The first session of the webinar was opened with an explanation of Emerald Publishing by Mdm. Rozita Gee. Emerald Publishing was founded in 1967 with only 1 journal published. In this year, Emerald has more than 300 journals with any reputable indexed and 3000 books. Emerald opened its branch in Asia on 1983, located in Singapore, and then in Kuala Lumpur on 1995. Emerald now has 8 regional offices worldwide. All journals in Emerald have been indexed by well-known indexation institution such as DORA, Scopus, Web of Science, ProQuest, EBSCO, and etc. Some Emerald journals currently open its special issued for certain themes.
In the subsequent sessions continued with an explanation of the special issue in each journals and its submission deadline. One of the journals that have a special issue is Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology that later be presented by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Iris Lui. The journal is opening a special issue with a theme: Challenges and Prospect of AIoT Application in Hospitality and Tourism Marketing. The journal wishes to expand the knowledge regarding an application of IoT in the hospitality and tourism fields, like the using of Disney Magic Band and West-Western Alexa Deployment.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mumtaz Ali Memon explained the special issue of Electronic Journal of Applied Statistical Analysis by the theme “digitalization and its impact on contemporary marketing strategies and practices”. The topics include digital marketing, cross cultures comparative studies, multi group analysis, marketing analytics, and etc. The journal will prioritize the advanced methodological papers or the research using PLS Path Modelling as a statistical analysis software.
The next journal is International Journal of Business and Society. This session was explained by Assoc.Prof. Dr. Evan Lau as a Journal Editor. International Journal of Business and Society is published by University Malaysia Sarawak and it has been indexed by Scopus from 2009. The journal publish 3 times a year with the main topics are high-quality papers using multidisciplinary approaches with a strong emphasis on business, economics and finance. The theme of special issue of the journal is: the coronavirus pandemic: economic impact, challenges, opportunities, and recovery paths for emerging countries.
The 2nd session of the webinar was 2nd Topic Advice for submission to the special issues and expectation from the guest editors that presented by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mumtaz Ali Memon and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Iris Lui. The session began with the emphasis from Dr. Iris that as an editor she did not expect a paper like a compile of information from textbook. To start writing a proper scientific article, researchers should consider: study from recent literature on subject matter, solicit ideas from the practitioners and observation of the real world, read recent papers of each journals and author guideline to know how the manuscript should be prepared.
From the perspective of Dr. Mumtaz, as an editor he expects the submitted articles that are:
Relevance: it means the paper suits the theme and topics of the journal
Quality and Contribution: it is okay not always using PLS, but make sure it contributes a new knowledge.
Complete: complete all parts of the research sections, like implication and discussion of findings which are often incomplete in a research.
Balance: put the same efforts between analysis and other sections, such as theoretical, findings, or background.
Efforts: make your manuscript worthwhile and do not use outdated references.
The 3rd webinar session is Reasons for Manuscript Acceptance, Revision (Major & Minor) and Rejection that was presented by Assoc.Prof. Dr. Evan Lau. In this sessions, the participants learned about crafting an excellent research paper. Researchers should consider what a journal looking for and what should be inside the research. Here are some consideration in crafting a research paper:
Solid, interesting and attractive intro (the research should attract the editors in the first reading)
Unique dataset
Good presentation and discussion of results
Solid set of empirical robustness tests
Importance of abstract and conclusion
Contribution and what is new
Localized issue with international appeal
Dr. Evan also showed common issues why the papers are being rejected.
Lack of motivation (too outdated reference, not sufficient contribution)
Out of scope (easy to reject)
Fundamental flaws
Topic is dated
Key sections are missing
Unreadable
Unethical practices
He also showed what common major and minor corrections. For major correction, generally caused by several factors: lack of justification of contribution, poor storyline (needs to improve the storyline), lack of theoretical support, underdeveloped hypotheses, key information is missing, key references are missing. For minor corrections caused by linguistic issues, not following submission guidelines, and less recent literature. To improve minor correction, researchers needs a proofreading and improve citations.
The topic of the next session was Editorial Decision to Accept and Reject a Manuscript that presented by Dr. Iris. She showed a chart of decision process and important dates so that Authors can understand the journal publication process and see how the editors work together to accept or reject manuscripts (you can see the chart in the webinar recording).
Mdm. Rozita also shared tips for writing more effectively. All Emerald journals does a double blind review, so make sure to craft a high-quality research and find a suitable journal.
She highlight five important things:
Structure your journal submission
Writing a literature
Writing simply
Proofreading
Writing collaboratively with your peers
Dr. Evan also advised 3 golden rule:
Read and explore the literature
Do not write a murder mystery – adopt KISS method
Do not rush your article for publication – select the right journal
The last advice was given by Dr. Mumtaz
Attend all comments
Prepare response sheet and highlight revisions/changes
Be polite, honest, and appreciative
When a reviewer give a comment, Authors must understand that the reviewers also given a lot of time and efforts to suggest your manuscript. So, we need to appreciate each other, even author can ask their peers to make sure that the social writing in response to a reviewer comments is a good-enough.
The last topic was presented by Dr. Iris regarding 3 criteria to determine a manuscript publishability. It includes more attention to originality of the research, findings, and rigors.
The webinar was closed by concluding remarks from the moderator. After the webinar, make sure as researchers we do not rush to publish our manuscripts, make it worthwhile, also put a learning-mindset when we revise a manuscript. So we hope there should be no particular difficulty if Authors can match the high quality manuscript and high-reputable journal.
For more complete lecture access, please check out the link below:
On 19 May 2020, Research Synergy Foundation in collaboration with Poltekkes Medan and Palu held a live Scientific and Academic Writing Workshop to help enhance and accelerate author capacity towards outstanding global scholars. This online workshop is attended by more than 100 lecturers and faculty staff of Poltekkes Medan and Palu. The event is strategically designed to discuss urgency and what must be prepared to be global researchers and how to build a global reputation in academic world. By this program, we strive to provide facilities and intensive training for researchers so that it will help changing the productivity and merit of their work. Engaging a new platform internationally international exposure is highly beneficial for academic careers
The online workshop was hosted by Dr. Hendrati Mulyaningsih, SE., MM., CECP., CT as founder and chairman of Research Synergy Foundation. The workshop presented 3 session. In the first session, Dr. Hendrati started the presentation with her explanation about the objective of the workshop and benefit of research publication. She also summarized 2 main ways for being globally accepted: wider your horizon and know what to write. As the final step in the research process is disseminating the work, publishing research works in scholarly journals has now become not just optional but obligatory for researchers. Publishing process refines writing skills and it will help the researchers get different benefits, such as: peer recognition, career advancement, subject development, and professional promotion. Research publication with the aim of making knowledge beneficial at various levels are also in line with education policy in Indonesia. To fulfil this step, researchers should engage in any scientific forum. There are many option for students or researchers to present their work: non-indexed and indexed conference proceeding or non-indexed and indexed journals.
In the 2nd session, Dr. Hendrati gave details of what is meant by research and what is key attributes of a good research paper. Structuring a good paper, authors should pay attention to what they read and how to fill the gap between them, reviewers, and editors. Dr. Hendrati then showed some tips for technical improvement in crafting a good research paper and how to avoid violations of publication ethics in the last session of her presentation. The presentation was so clear enough to be applied and hope it encourage participants to develop their research skill and give a huge benefit to society.
As institutions begin to navigate their activities online or distance learning, so many stakeholders also going through this learning environment shift. Most students, professors, lecturers and researchers are forced to use technology as they do their studying, teaching and research works. They must know how to speed up the adoption of technology-enabled learning in response to the coronavirus outbreak. Despite this transition, researchers still have the responsibility to increase their capacity and disseminate their knowledge to a large audience. But there’s hope for them to perform their responsibility in society by engaging virtual events.
In this post, we recommend platforms aim to help those who might consider working from home to do virtual conferences:
1. Google Hangouts
It allows you to message contacts, start free video or video calls with one or more person. The application is integrated with other Google’s G-Suite tools. It can also be used across all devices.
2. Zoom
The platform is one of the leading video enterprise solutions. It allows you to host product training, webinars, video conferencing, meeting, and more. Zoom has also collaborated with many apps, like Outlook, Slack and Egnyte.
3. GoToMeeting
GoToMeeting is another online meeting software. You can also launch or join a meeting from your smartphone. It can feature collaborative team messaging, video transcriptions and customizable team settings. The company also has, GoToWebinar which have hosted 2.7 million webinars a year.
4. Skype for Business
Skype for Business is a communication tools that gives you instant messaging (IM), audio and video calls, online meetings, availability (presence) information, and sharing capabilities all from one. The platform is enterprise instant messaging software developed by Microsoft.
Reacting to the fast-spreading of Covid-19, almost all universities in the world has already canceled all public events and transition all in-class instruction to online and remote teaching. With this transition, researchers also seem to have missed the opportunity to hold any scientific gatherings. For researchers and academicians, also for experts, policy makers, students and stakeholders, international conferences can play a significant role to exchange and spread ideas, knowledge and recent trends. Bearing in mind that researchers also have to publish their research, international conference can provide this obligation. Following the trend to move all activities to online, so does the international conference.
Now, it seems online/virtual conferences will complement traditional conferences. Some of the primary benefits of online international conferences are:
1. Access can be easier
Online conferences are quite similar with same professional conferences, they are packed with sessions, panel discussions and sometimes short ceremonial and social media events. As long as you have an internet connection, you can participate online conferences with smartphone, tablet or computer. You can attend any sessions remotely. It can be said that you have a permanent access, you can watch and and re-watch all the sessions you want.
2. Connecting with a larger audience
Online conferences also have a much wider geographical reach, allowing for attendees to join from any different countries.
3. Cost and time-effective
Online conferences are much more cost-effective for organizers and participants. It reduced extraneous expenses, like travel, hotel accommodations, food expenses. By setting up an online conferences, it saves time consumed and only cost you registration and publication fees. Nevertheless, you don’t have to stress about your formal attire.
Find Upcoming Research Synergy Foundation Virtual Conferences Here: http://www.researchsynergy.org/upcoming-international-conference/
Research Synergy Institute in collaboration with Universitas Padjadjaran conducted a two-day workshop themed: Designing Quantitative & Qualitative Research towards Publishing in Scopus/WOS Journal. The workshop was held in Universitas Padjadjaran, Bandung, from 26 to 27 February 2020. The workshop targets lecturers, postgraduate students, researchers, and academic staff who are designing to improve research methodology. The goal of the workshop was to encourage research productivity among Indonesian Researchers and support them to publish manuscripts in high-impact journals. On the 1st day, the workshop was officially opened with a welcome remarks from Dr. Hendrati Dwi Mulyaningsih as a Chairman of Research Synergy Foundation.
The workshop was being delivered by Assc. Prof. Dr. Hiram Ting from from UCSI University, Sarawak, Malaysia and Dr. Cheah Jun Hwa (Jacky) from Universiti Putra Malaysia. At the beginning of the 1st workshop session, Dr. Hiram Ting shared his publication success experience. He explained his experience based on 2 different points of view; 1) as a researcher, and 2) as a Scopus Journal Editor. His explanation includes several important points that must be considered by the author so that the article can be accepted by Scopus/WOS Journals. He also revealed how a research can have a broad and beneficial impact on society.
In the afternoon session, participants learned about how to design a quantitative research with Dr. Cheah Jun Hwa (Jacky). The learning session has been very interactive. Dr. Jacky also taught step by step on how to process data using Smart PLS in quantitative research. Along with the workshop facilitators; Dr. Cham Tat-Huei from Universiti Tunki Abdul Rahman, Dr. Bibiana Lim from Sarawak Campus, and Dr. Leong Choi Meng from UCSI University, they helped participants install the software and complete the data process. The trainers also provided free license of Smart PLS for all participants.
In the 2nd Day of the workshop, Dr. Hiram Ting provided a rich understanding on how to conduct a qualitative research design. Dr. Cham Tat-Huei and Dr. Bibiana Lim also shared their practical experience in qualitative research. The trainers also helped to guide and develop participants’ skill on interviewing styles. With the help of workshop facilitators, two participants were allowed to practice interviewing on two interviewees. The practice was intended to show on how to get data from various interviewee characters.
Furthermore, participants were given a training on processing a qualitative data with Quirkos software. Participants used their laptop to analyze sample qualitative data using Quirkos during the exercise. All workshop facilitators were actively guided each participants to ensure they could use the software properly.
This two-day training workshop was very successful. Participants have learned a myriad of ways to become more productive researchers and better known for quantitative and qualitative research. Research Synergy Institute (RSI) and the trainers who are part of Sarawak Research Society (SRS) will continue to work together to provide the next scientific writing workshop and international conference in Bali on August 2020.
We look forward to welcome all Global Researchers in our upcoming events!
The rapid growth of technology has impacted the development of research and learning management. With sophisticated information technologies, it is possible for students and researchers to advance science and innovations faster. Today’s researchers can easily access scientific data in online publication. The existence of scholarly journals in the digital age help improve research productivity in significant ways, including:
1. It provides proof that supports the research result
An original research must include evidence to strengthen the answers of the research question. The evidence followed by an explanation that highlight important findings. This can be done by conducting literature review and rigorous data analysis.
2. A credible source for scientific research
It is very important to use reliable sources in academic work. The most common credible sources in writing an academic research are scholarly journals, conference papers and books. Articles in scholarly journals are reviewed by experts and must always attach proper references as the essential part of academic integrity. Author should cite only the articles in reputable journals and non-biased website.
3. Focused and relevant research
The scholarly journals are like a “warehouse” for knowing the latest development in a particular field of science. Researchers can easily find a relevant and specific information related to their work. They can also make a knowledge contribution by getting their research published in scholarly journals.
The first workshop in 2020 was begin with a collaboration within Research Synergy Institute and Politeknik Negeri Tanah Laut (Politala). At the official opening of the workhsop, all participants and Trainers from RSI were welcomed by Dr. Mufrida Zein, S.Ag., M.Pd as a director of Politala. Dr. Mufrida has given a warm opening speech, also shared a glimpse of the Politala lectures experience in research publication and their expectation in joining the workshop.
In the first day, Dr. Hendrati Dwi Mulyaningsih as a Founder of Research Synergy Foundation -also presented as the workshop trainer- was shared interesting knowledge regarding why publication is needed and how to know the research design.
While in the second day of the workshop, Dr. Hendrati was focus more on research writing technique. In this workshop, the participants also learned how to cite properly with referencing tools.
Research Synergy Institute held a Coaching Clinic Series Workshop in last December which was the last workshop organized in 2019. This workshop was a collaboration with Politeknik Negeri Jakarta with the aim to increase academic papers publication of PNJ lecturer.
In the first session, Dr. Hendrayati Dwi Mulyaningsih was shared knowledge regarding how to do a proper with high quality paper.
The next session, Mrs. Ani Wahyu Rachmawati, Director of Publication and co-founder of Research Synergy Institute, was shared information regarding coaching process and output. In this coaching clinic workshop, the participants are expected to be focused on writing good papers and in the end of coaching, they should submit their papers to the Journal within 15 days.
Citation index (indexing) is an ordered list of cited articles, each accompanied by a list of citing articles. The indexing will be a parameter of the value of your research. Indexing will help the journal for being accessible to a wide audience. Journals must increase their visibility, availability and readership. All academic indexes require journals to follow certain core publishing standards. Here are some basic indexing requirements:
An International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs)
An established publishing schedule
A copyright policy
Basic article-level metadata
Some of the most popular indexing include:
Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ): DOAJ is an open access journals in all disciplines. DOAJ provides access to quality open access and peer-reviewed journals.
Scopus is a general database of peer-reviewed journals in the scientific, technical, medical, and social sciences. Scopus is the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature: scientific journals, books and conference proceedings.
Google Scholar: Google Scholar is not a human-curated database but a search engine of the whole internet which narrows the internet results based on machine automated criteria. Google Scholar Citations lets authors set up a profile page that lists their publications and citation metrics.
Web of Science: WoS is an interdisciplinary and covers all scientific areas, but it only covers what is considers to “best” journals and concentrates on English language ones. There are three flagship Citation Indexes at the center of WoS Core Collection known as Science Citation Index (SCI), the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI), the Arts and Humanities Citation Index (AHCI), and Emerging Source Citation Index (ESCI).
