Smart Evaluation Process of Publishing Academic Articles:

Auhtor: Associate Professor Dr Razidah Ismail, Research Management Institution, MARA University of Technology, Shah Alam, Malaysia

 

The publication division of Research Management Institution, MARA University of Technology, Malaysia had organized a one-day workshop on the evaluation process of publishing academic articles with the objective of empowering the academic staff of UiTM. The workshops were held on 20 August 2008 and 21 August 2008 for two different groups, split according to their background - basic and social sciences.  Dr. Mohammad Samaun Safa, who was the speaker and trainer, had shared his valuable experiences as editor and reviewer of several international journals. He is the Founder editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Management and Entrepreneurship and the International Journal of Business and Management Research published by Binary University College and MARA University of Technology MARA respectively. 

Dr. Safa began his session by focusing on the background of evaluation process in publishing academic articles and the recent development in Instrument Based Assessment (IBA). He shed light on the drawbacks of the prevailing evaluation  systems and the relevant impacts. In order to remedy the shortalfalls and step up the evaluation process to a more convenient and authentic level, he then introduced a new evaluation system called the SAFA™ system. In the afternoon, a hands-on session  took place where the participants learnt about the software, SAFA™ Calculator v1.1, developed based on the SAFA™ system.  Each participants was given an article to review individually and the review had to be done accoroding to the guidlines provided in the training materials with the help of the software. The workshop was concluded with a participative discussion on the different evaluation-outcome by the participants with reasoning.

Prior to this workshop, Dr. Safa shared his experience in another seminar on ”Editor’s role: Quality Control in Journal Publication” which was also organised by the publication division on 4 July 2008. The main theme of the seminar was creating  awareness of quality publication through quality editorial work. Dr. Safa also proposed some policy reformation for the enhancement of UiTM publication culture and strenghening the publication effort to be a worldclass university. He concluded the seminar by urging the UiTM community to be aware of the eithical aspects of publication process.   

RMI is indebted to Dr Safa for sharing his valuable experiences and contributing to initialize a competitive publication environment in UiTM.

 

Quantitative approach in management research

There is always debate on number - should we rely on number or not? Decision making is deeply related to number. Without number decision making may be possible but surely with a degree of human factor bias. Recently there is a development of quantitative approach in carrying out research in management discipline. Management science is a kind of social science. Question may arise how reliable to apply quantitative approach to analyze management decision problem.

We may keep debating on this issue infinitely. Both the groups -supporter or non-supporter have their own explanation. It seems to me that a possible conclusion on this debate is context based approach. Research may find a context where quantitative approach is more effective than qualitative approach or vice-verse. For instance, validity of an instrument of survey often follow qualitative approach though there are tools to deal with it quantitatively. In contrast, checking reliability of an instrument often follows quantitative approach and justified statistically.

I suppose context-based approach may be the best way to get rid of this debate. Every research has right to argue to establish his or her view, no matter which approach it follows. At one point all researchers tied up which is linking argument to the existing literature. One may say that if we always refer to existing literature how could we establish something new that is not supported by literature. Off course, this is a considerable point. We must remember that literature is the vehicle of developing theories and theories are the truth. Thus linking our work or argument to the laid down theories support us to be closed to the truth irrespective new contribution or modification to an existing work.