Enhancing research publication quality fiib 2014

Enhancing Research Publication Quality

Dr. K.B.C. Saxena

Fortune Institute of International Business

New DelhiDecember 24, 2014

What is this thing called “research”?

Range:

• Desk research: ascertaining information from published sources.to

• Doctoral research for a doctorate degree, or post (pre?)-doctoral research conducted to create/extend knowledge in a knowledge-domain.

Purpose:

• Applied research: research conducted to solve an immediate problem.

• Evaluative research: research to assess the performance/ impact of an action/policy on a person, group or organisation.

• Basic research: research to develop or test some theory, with varying degree of abstraction.


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Types of Research1. Academic ResearchObjectives: (a) Advance theory; (b) Create new knowledge; (c) Develop new

methodologies; (d) Sustain the doctoral/Fellow programme; (e) Underpin innovative teaching programmes

2. Practice-oriented ResearchObjectives: (a) Inform management practitioners; (b) Enhance students’

learning; (c) Research sponsored by specific companies; (d) Improve management practices; (e) Understand current business environment; (f) Update contents of a course/programme

3. Pedagogical DevelopmentObjectives: (a) Create new course material; (b) Create new programmes; (c)

Develop new learning methodologies; (d) Create new learning tools

Research Value-adding Cycle

Enhancing Research Publication Quality 4

Knowledge Creation

Knowledge Dissemination

Knowledge Impact

Research Types, Audience & OutputsResearch Type Target Audience Research Output Research Impact

1. Academic Research

Academic peers,Research students,Int. academic knowledge market

-- Papers--Conf. publications--Res. Monographs-- Dissertations

-- Citations-- Journal Impact factors--- Funding support/ awards

2. Practice-oriented Research

Students, MDP participants, management practitioners, consulting clients

-- Books/ monographs-- Papers/ articles-- Reports/ studies

-- Industry adaptation-- Intellectual property creation-- Consulting practice

3. Pedagogical Development

Trainers, students, MDP participants, teachers

-- Management cases--Business games-- innovative courses/ programs

-- Academic adaptation-- Intellectual property creation



Asian Management Research“…most of the research effort has simply scratched the surface, largely limited to simplistic comparisons that provide no insight into underlying processes. The result is a lack of theory development, which in turn leads to low levels of contribution to management research and practice. Questions of similarities and differences – comparative research using both replications and in-study comparisons – have clearly been the dominant concern of researchers focused in Asia. The comparisons, however, are normally benchmarked to US contexts, and they have been largely limited to understanding the differences as opposed to examining the processes that give rise to these differences.”

- White, S. “Skimming the Surface: Rigor and Relevance in Asian Management Research”, INSEAD Working Paper.


Typical Characteristics of Asian Management research

• Mostly descriptive, comparative or conceptual• Weak in rigour


Choosing a Research Topic

Potential research area

Gro

win

g/po

pula

r re

sear

ch

area

Mature research area


Generating a Research Topic

Analyse

Analogise

Synthesise

Components

Metaphors

New Model

Key to Scholarship


Observe the phenomenon &

think


Scholarship Process

Think

Question

Conceptualise

Read

Observe

Listen

Write

Record

Speak

Feedback

?

Research comes from Scholars, but where are they?


`

Knowledge Acquisition

Knowledge Dissemination

Knowledge Processing

Knowledge Development

Reader

Writer

Processor

ThinkerScholarshi

p


The Journal Paper

• Also known as the ‘refereed’, ‘learned’, or scholarly paper.

• The refereed journal has evolved as the medium typically used by researchers to record formally for their peers the original results of their investigation.

• The refereeing process (before publication) is to confirm that the results described in the paper deserve archival recording in terms of originality, significance and implicitly on the correctness of the results.


Why do you want to publish a journal paper?

• Getting recognition of scholarship• Getting publication credit• Communicate your recent research• None of these• All of these


What is an International Refereed Journal?

• International editorial board• International readers• International authors• Abstracted by international abstracting services


Determinants of Journal Quality

• Difficulty of publication– (Total no. of papers published/ Total no. of papers

submitted) x 100

• Quality of papers published• Scholarly reputation of authors published• Quality of readers/subscribers• Circulation of the journal• Citations of its papers (Journal Impact Factor)


Journal Impact Factor

• Number of citations of a journal’s material divided by number of citable material published by that same journal.

• While impact factors may be useful for the qualitative evaluation of journals, the usefulness does not extend to jndividual papers published in a journal.


Determinants of Paper Quality

• Quality of Journal publishing the paper• Paper citations and the quality of the source where

citation occurs

Depends on journal quality


Assessing the Publication Turnaround & Reach of a Paper

Acceptance

Possibility

Circulation &

Citation Possibility`


Assessing the Research Market for a Planned Paper

• Identify what you consider to be the top four or five journals in your field.

• Scan the table of contents and the abstracts in each issue of them for at least the last five years, and whenever an abstract appears relevant to your research interests, read the entire paper.

• Judge if your envisioned research paper sincerely and substantially draw on and contribute to the research already published in the top journals of your field.

• If yes, then an audience for the envisioned paper exists, and you can target your paper for the readers of that/those journals.


Related Professional Literature• Notes or Communications: report potentially important

findings that have not been subjected to the degree of testing normally associated with journal publication.

• Conference papers describe generally work-in-progress.

• Survey and review papers may be published in an emerging area of investigation where there is a need for unifying information. However, the insights and relationships revealed must be useful to the author’s active peers, rather than simply to those who have failed to stay abreast of the literature. Also, development of the material in the paper must have required original thinking of the author, not just hard work at the library (or Internet!).


Life History of a Paper

Memo NoteConcept Paper

Research Paper

Working Paper


Judging Contribution of a Paper to decide its publication worthiness

• Usually subjective (to referee’s opinion) involving a combination of criteria

• Journals want a paper giving result that is not obvious, and/or one that requires considerable creativity or ingenuity of the author.

[Target Unusual topic and/or Unusual approach and/or Unusual results]

• Paper results may appear to be sound to the referee, but nonetheless such a trivial and obvious extension to present knowledge that its publication is not justified!

• Length may be too long!


Potential Attractiveness of a Paper in a Journal

Surprise Value (Topic or Result)

Research Methodology Quality

Quality and Number of References


Characteristics of a Journal Paper

• Rigour• Professional ethics: falsification of results, submission

to more than one journal, not attributing an idea to its originator.

• Efficient reporting of new information– avoid superfluous information


Parts of the Journal Paper• Author(s) names• Title

– Will be published in separately published indexes.– Must begin focusing the attention of readers onto the

specific contribution documented.

• Abstract– Must provide as much information about the

contribution as space allows.

• Introduction– Should describe fully the author’s contribution and

paper structure


Checklist for ‘Introductions’• After having read the introduction, will the author’s peers

Understand exactly the nature and extent of the contribution?

See its relationship to current related knowledge?

Have sufficient background information to appreciate its significance?

Have some understanding of its implication for the discipline?

Have a little knowledge of the methodology used?

Know something about the structure and contents of the rest of the paper?


Checklist for ‘Introductions’ (contd.)

• Regardless of the kind of beginning used,Has a terse summary of the contribution been

provided?

Was it provided as soon as readers could assimilate it?

Was it assumed that readers knew nothing about it from having read the title and the abstract?

Has the description been confused by the inclusion of any other kinds of information?

Was the opening that was chosen, appropriate for the contribution?


Some Journal Paper Beginnings

• Statement-of-the-Contribution beginning• Historical beginning• Statement-of-the-Problem beginning• Statement-of-Objective beginning


Writing Formal Arguments• Formal arguments are well-developed arguments that do

not follow specific academic conventions of a particular discipline.

• They state a clear position and present evidence to support that position. Informal arguments rely mostly on assertions whereas formal arguments include specific supporting evidence.

• Components of a formal argument:– A clear statement of position– Introductions– Evidence of proof– Conclusions– Citations


What you thinkWhat readers think

Common ground

Knowing what others think about the topic, makes one an authority.


Forms of Proof• Proof is anything that can be considered proven, is

accepted as fact by your audience, and is authoratitive.

• Proof should meet the following criteria:– Comes from a Source your audience will consider

reputable.– Emerges from well-accepted Research Methods in the

field.– Replicable either by reading, experimentation, or

conducting the same interviews.– Based in research using evidence the audience consider

factual.


Purpose of References

• Direct readers to further information about a subject.

• To build on information that has been established as correct in the formal literature by other researchers.

• To describe claimed new results by fitting them into the framework of previously reported findings.


Knowledge of the Literature

• New findings cannot be fitted into the fabric of existing knowledge unless the author “knows the literature”.

• Most common reason for lack of knowledge of related work is the emergence of so many new and often overlapping sub-specialities and so many new journals to report the results of the work.


How do you track literature?• Books

– library

– bookshops

– specific publishers’ catalogues/web sites

• Tracking specific journals

• Tracking review/survey publications

• Searching specific publishers’ electronic versions of journals

• Specific Conference proceedings

• Specific peers’ working papers– Give names of three peers in your area whose work you are

tracking.

Which journals you track? How?


Good luck scholars!

Enhancing Research Publication Quality37

Questions?

Real Estate

Enhancing research publication quality fiib 2014