On October 7, 2020, RSF Research Academy Day 9 by the theme “Tools for Analysis: Quantitative Analysis” have been well presented by Dr. Cheah Jun-Hwa (Jacky). Dr. Jacky first gave a general introduction to some basic characteristics in conducting a quantitative research. He then explained more about types of data and research modeling prior to starting data analysis. The lecture is not just providing opportunities to get deeper understanding of quantitative analysis, but also to help master practical skills the researchers need to have. Dr. Jacky showed a test run of data analysis through SPSS and ANOVA. He also presented online guides to calculate a sampling size through G Power software. Finally, the participants also learned how to use Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Using SEM, researchers will be assisted in explaining the relationships among multiple variables.
Universitas Pertamina and Research Synergy Foundation has successfully conducted a virtual coaching on “The 2nd Scientific & Academic Writing: E-Coaching Clinic Series 2020” on September 17, 2020. This second coaching were designed to help more than 30 lecturers from Universitas Pertamina and STIDKI Ar Rahmah Surabaya continue to work through the research process and get it published in a suitable journal. Prior to the event, participants have undergone a series of assistance paper-writing program from RSF scientific team. The program includes draft submission, content and language review, and journal recommendation from reviewers and journal editors who have been affiliated with RSF.
Source: Participants of Universitas Pertamina Coaching, RSF
Source: Participants of Universitas Pertamina Coaching, RSF
At the beginning of the coaching session, Mrs. Ani Wahyu as the Director of Research Synergy Institute, reminded participants of the steps that must be followed before submitting their manuscripts to the recommended journals. The session then continued by Dr. Hendrati Dwi Mulyaningsih as a Chairman of Research Synergy Foundation, who delivered some key techniques and strategies for author to improve the quality of the manuscripts. Dr. Hendrati shared her experiences based on his point of view as an author and journal editor. She also gave explanations regarding the differences between conceptual and empirical papers. In addition, Dr. Hendrati guided the revision process of the participants reviewed articles. During the session, participants were allowed to consult virtually about their research papers to the trainer. At the end of the session, Mrs. Ani then explained several methods that author can use to choose journals that are suitable for their research. These methods are beneficial for authors so that they can recognize the preferences of each recommended journals and also avoid choosing predatory journals or publishers.
Research Synergy Foundation in collaboration with Taylor & Francis organized a webinar on the theme “Webinar #AskEditor3: Learn from Publisher: How to Publish Open Access Scopus/WOS Indexed Journal”. The webinar addressed the publication issues and opportunities in Open Access Scopus/WOS Indexed Journal. RSF and T&F had earlier launch a webinar series ““How to Publish Open Access with Taylor and Francis”. The topic attracted hundreds of participants who were researchers and students from various countries. The organizers then decided to hold more than one session focused on helping researchers develop their skills in manuscript writing based on journal’s editor perspective and understanding OA as a form of scholarly publishing for researchers.
In this webinar, Victoria Babbit as Director of Researcher Development & Outreach, Taylor & Francis. Victoria provided information about types of open access journals and insight into how to write a proper manuscript based on editors’ perspective. Victoria shared an overview of F1000 research and ‘How Researcher’ program from Taylor & Francis. She offered some suggestions for authors on the craft of writing an effective manuscript. She also described general rules of writing abstract, discussion, citation, as well as some publication ethics issues. In the question and answer round, many questions from participants were answered very informatively by the speaker.
On August 27, 2020, Research Synergy Foundation in collaboration with UPN “Veteran” Yogyakarta conducted a virtual workshop for faculty members, lecturers, and professors in the fields of management, social sciences, technology, and engineering. The workshop focused on exploring data and perspectives on how to gain international exposure by developing a research culture in a university and improve the knowledge about writing a research. The workshop also provided a technical guidance to assist researchers preparing their manuscripts submission to international journals. There are more than 80 participants registered from UPN “Veteran” Yogyakarta, STIA Bina Banua Banjarmasin, Politeknik Bali, Universitas Diponegoro, and Universitas Islam Bandung.
Presented as the trainer, Dr. Hendrati Dwi Mulyaningsih first delivered some important data and perspectives related why Indonesian researchers should be global researchers. Dr. Hendrati then shared her experience of developing a research culture in a wider-way through Research Synergy Foundation by conducting international academic forum and facilitating publication opportunities for global researchers. RSF has several established platforms to support the creation of global research ecosystem, including: Scholarvein, RSF Press, Research Synergy Institute, and Reviewer Track. RSF has also partnered with Taylor & Francis and F1000 as one of the publication gateways in several research fields. As RSF Chairman and a reviewer from some reputable journals, Dr, Hendrati also explained about what a good research is and how to be a productive researchers. Based on the insightful explanation, many participants asked many questions about their written manuscripts and international journals to the trainer.
The workshop then continued by Ms. Ani Wahyu guiding the technical process to improve content and language quality in a manuscript with a computer-based tools so that it can increase the possibility of acceptance in a high-indexed journal. Participants are guided to use applications such as grammarly, google drive, and etc. Ms. Ani also explained how to choose a reputable journal and avoid any predatory journals. By conducting the workshop, participants are expected to prepare their best manuscripts to be presented at upcoming UPN Conference Series 2020.
The August 26 online lecture session presentation “Systematic Literature Review using Mendeley” was presented by Mr. Fulgensius and Mr.Benediktoharies from Areopagus Indonesia. The participants received an overview of the Publish or Perish, Mendeley, and NVivo as computer-based applications which can help the researchers improve the quality of content and research writing of their manuscripts. Each of these software has its advantages. The session is divided into two learning days. All participants have been able to install the software properly and try to practice it with trainers guide during the session.
Publish or Perish is a software program developed by Professor Anne-Wil Harzing of the University of Melbourne. The software is designed to retrieve and analyze academic citations. Mendeley Reference Manager is a software that helps to manage research data and simplify reference management workflow in systematic way. While NVivo provides software tools to assist researchers undertaking analysis of qualitative data. NVivo can help researchers to manage, explore, and find patterns and insights in unstructured or qualitative data. Using the software in a research can bring in numerous benefit for researchers. It can also minimize the time and effort that takes to collect and analyze data, and simplifies the entire research process. Many researchers and students have found great help through some research tools and software, so it will increase productivity of researchers.
On August 13, 2020, Research Synergy Foundation in collaboration with Universitas Katolik Parahyangan conducted a webinar by the theme “Scientific and Academic Writing: Pre E-Coaching Clinic Series”. The webinar aims to encourage research productivity among lecturers, as well as facilitates them to use computer-based tools to be applied in every stage of research process. The coaching started by a brief introduction regarding Research Synergy Foundation as a global research ecosystem by Ms. Santi Rachmawati. The webinar was attended by 35 lecturers from Universitas Katolik Parahyangan, STIDKI Ar Rahmah Surabaya, and Universitas Padjadjaran.
The webinar then continued by a presentation from Dr. Hendrati Dwi Mulyaningsih as Founder and Chairman of Research Synergy Foundation. Dr. Hendrati began her presentation by sharing some facts and figures to be a World Class University and what is Indonesia’s position in the midst of world education level competition. Since WUS is now becoming a global obsession, the university must prepare the necessary prerequisites to achieve the status. The notion of World Class University includes some alignment of key factors. There are at least four key factors that are required to be WUS: teaching, research, knowledge transfer, and international outlook. Producing advanced research is one of the key characteristic of the WUS. So, university should have a high concentration to enhance research productivity and provide a number a scheme to facilitate it. Research Synergy Foundation as a global research ecosystem is committed to help universities or institutions to promote research excellence and global outlook with an established system of an extensive network and artificial intelligence. Currently, Research Synergy Foundation have collaborated with many partners and have many members.
Dr. Hendrati also shared some tips and strategies on how to structure a good academic paper to increase the opportunity to be published in any global education forums or reputable indexed journals. In this session, the participants were very enthusiastic in asking questions regarding their development of their respective research. The session then continued by Ms. Ani Wahyu as a moderator with a short training on several tools that researchers could use to improve academic paper quality. Ms. Ani demonstrated on how to use computer-based tools for improving language quality and writing style.
On August 19, 2020, the online lecture by the theme “Theory and Framework Development II” have been conducted successfully. Research Synergy Foundation and Research Synergy Institute in collaboration with Universitas Islam Bandung (Unisba) continue to invite Assoc. Prof. Dr. Evan Lau as an expert in the 2nd Day of RSF Research Academy. The organizers are committed to encourage all participants to develop their research skill to work towards a better research process.
Dr. Evan Lau continued to review and discuss how to design conceptual framework. Dr. Evan gave an explanation about the conceptual/theoretical framework in the first place, then demonstrated an interconnected flow chart that illustrates an example of conceptual framework. He also described several important uses of theoretical framework that can help to strengthen a research and how to develop it. For most researchers, it is sometimes difficult to find the answer to the research question, so the expert reminded all the participants to read and review in depth the literature related to the research, also shared some tips for managing a research process. In this online lecture session, the participants were given to create and present their research conceptual frameworks. Dr. Evan then reviewed all the presented conceptual framework charts one after another in detail. The participants ended up getting a material that was very useful and informative for their research. In the next lecture, we will continue to facilitate the improved management of the research datasets, so we look forward to meeting all the participants in this insightful session!
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:
