Navigating the Path to Publishing Success for Postgraduate Minds

Boon Yih Mah
Jan 13, 2024
12 min read

Embarking on a postgraduate journey is a transformative experience that involves rigorous academic inquiry and the pursuit of knowledge at the highest level. As postgraduate students delve into their chosen fields, one crucial aspect of their academic journey is disseminating their research findings through scholarly publications. Cultivating scholarly brilliance and navigating the path to publishing success for postgraduate minds requires a multifaceted approach. From developing a strong research foundation to mastering the art of scholarly writing, engaging in responsible authorship, and leveraging online platforms, postgraduate students must navigate a complex landscape with skill and determination.

A. Tips for Academic Publishing Success Solutions

The world of academic publishing is multifaceted and dynamic, encompassing various outlets such as journals, conferences, books, and other online platforms. Postgraduate students must familiarise themselves with the different types of publications, their target audiences, and the specific requirements and standards associated with each.

a. Developing a Strong Research Foundation

Publishing success is inherently tied to the strength of the underlying research. Before aspiring to see their work in print, postgraduate students must invest time and effort in conducting thorough and original research. This includes formulating research questions, reviewing existing literature, designing robust methodologies, and analysing data precisely.

Supervisors and mentors are pivotal in guiding postgraduate students through the research process. Regular consultations, constructive feedback, and collaborative discussions help refine the research and ensure its scholarly merit. Additionally, attending conferences and workshops within their field provides postgraduate students with valuable insights, networking opportunities, and exposure to cutting-edge research.

b. Mastering the Art of Scholarly Writing

Effective scholarly writing is the cornerstone of successful academic publishing. Postgraduate students must be able to articulate their research findings clearly, concisely, and compellingly. This involves honing skills such as structuring academic papers, crafting well-defined arguments, and adhering to citation and referencing conventions.

A crucial element of scholarly writing is the abstract, the first point of contact between the author's work and potential readers. Crafting an engaging and informative abstract requires a succinct presentation of the research background (problem), objectives, methods, results, and conclusions.

Postgraduate students should perfect this skill to entice editors and reviewers to delve into the full manuscript by applying the X-factor of writing a postgraduate research report, ADOJAR. It is an acronym for Acquire, Define, Organise, Justify, Associate, and Refine.

Acquire: Acquire the prerequisite knowledge and skills.
Define: Narrow a topic within a scope.
Organise: Read, annotate, and create a list of references in a specified format and style.
Justify: Provide relevant supporting details.
Associate: Associate all written sections.
Refine: Refine the draft by revising, editing, and proofreading before submission or publication.

c. Understanding the Ethics of Publishing

Maintaining the highest ethical standards is paramount in academic publishing. Postgraduate students must adhere to guidelines for responsible research conduct, including proper citation practices, avoidance of plagiarism, and transparency in reporting methods and results. Ethical considerations also extend to obtaining necessary approvals for research involving human subjects or sensitive data.

Authorship issues can sometimes be complex, particularly in collaborative research projects. Postgraduate students must navigate discussions about authorship order, contributions, and responsibilities transparently and professionally. Understanding and adhering to the authorship policies of journals and institutions is essential for establishing and maintaining trust within the academic community. Here are some key aspects of publishing ethics:

Authorship and contributorship
1. Misappropriation of authorship credit or failure to give credit where it's due can lead to ethical issues in academic publishing.
2. All listed authors should have made a substantial contribution to the research.
3. Authors should agree on the authorship order and ensure that everyone involved is credited appropriately.
4. Authorship in academic publications can take various forms, and the order of authors often conveys specific contributions to the research.
5. The conventions for authorship can vary across disciplines and even among different journals.
  1. Some disciplines strongly emphasise author order, while others may use a footnote or acknowledgement section to highlight individual contributions.
  2. Clarity about authorship contributions should be established early in the research process to ensure proper attribution, and all authors should agree on their roles.
  3. Many journals and institutions provide guidelines on authorship criteria, and adherence to these guidelines is crucial to maintaining ethical standards in academic publishing.
6. Different types of authorship include:
  1. First or main author
    1. The first author is typically the individual who made the most significant contribution to the research and manuscript.
    2. This position is often considered prestigious and signifies primary responsibility for the work.
  2. Co-first authors
7. In some cases, when two or more authors have contributed equally to the work, they may be designated as co-first authors.
8. This acknowledgement highlights that these individuals made comparable contributions.
  1. Corresponding author
    1. The corresponding author handles communication with the journal during the submission and publication process.
    2. This author is responsible for addressing queries, revisions, and other correspondence.
  2. Senior author
    1. The senior author is often a researcher or principal investigator who led the research project.
    2. This author may have provided overall guidance and secured funding for the study.
  3. Last author
    1. The last author position is often reserved for the senior researcher or principal investigator.
    2. In some fields, the last author may signify the leader of the research group or project.
  4. Contributing or co-author
    1. Some publications may include a list of contributors who made significant contributions but are not designated as primary authors.
    2. This approach is more common in collaborative, multi-author projects.
Plagiarism
1. Authors should not present the work of others as their own.
2. Proper citation and acknowledgement of sources are essential.
Data fabrication and falsification
1. Researchers must present accurate and truthful data.
2. Fabricating or falsifying data is a serious ethical violation.
Duplicate publication
1. Authors should not submit the same work to multiple journals simultaneously.
2. Each submission should be original.
Conflict of interest
1. Authors, reviewers, and editors should disclose potential conflicts of interest that could influence the research or its interpretation.
Peer review
1. Peer review should be conducted objectively and without bias.
2. Reviewers should maintain confidentiality and declare conflicts of interest.
Informed consent
1. Research involving human subjects should have obtained informed consent.
2. Authors should respect the privacy and rights of individuals involved in the study.
Animal welfare
1. Animal research should adhere to ethical standards, including proper care, treatment, and reporting.
Publication ethics and misconduct
1. Journals and publishers should have clear policies on handling ethical issues, including fraud, plagiarism, and conflicts of interest.
2. Retraction or correction of published articles should be done in cases of serious ethical breaches or errors.
Open access and copyright
1. Authors should be aware of the copyright policies of the journals they submit to and comply with open-access requirements.
Transparent reporting
1. Authors should provide sufficient details in their publications to enable others to replicate the research.
Responsible authorship and peer review:
1. Authors and reviewers should act responsibly, ethically, and professionally throughout the publication process.
Acknowledgement of funding
1. Authors should acknowledge the funding sources that supported their research.
Editorial independence
1. Editors should base their decisions on the merit of the work and not be influenced by commercial interests, personal relationships, or other factors.

Researchers, authors, reviewers, editors, and publishers must be aware of and adhere to these ethical standards to maintain the credibility and trustworthiness of the scientific and academic publishing process. Journals often have specific guidelines and ethical standards that authors must follow, so it's crucial to be familiar with them.

d. Leveraging Online Platforms and Open Access

In the digital age, online platforms and open-access publishing have transformed the dissemination of research. Postgraduate students should explore opportunities to share their work through repositories, preprint servers, and other open-access platforms to increase the visibility and accessibility of their research.

Postgraduate students can explore online platforms and open-access resources to enhance their learning and research. Here are some recommendations across different categories:

Online courses and MOOCs
1. Coursera: Offers a wide range of courses from universities and organisations worldwide.
2. edX: Similar to Coursera, providing courses from universities and institutions globally.
3. Udacity: Specialises in tech-related courses and nano-degree programs.
Open-access journals and databases
1. PubMed Central: A free database of life sciences and biomedical literature.
2. DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals): Provides access to high-quality, peer-reviewed open-access journals.
3. JSTOR Open Content: JSTOR offers open-access content, particularly in the humanities.
Research repositories
1. arXiv: A preprint repository for physics, mathematics, computer science, quantitative biology, quantitative finance, statistics, electrical engineering, systems science, and economics.
2. SSRN (Social Science Research Network): Repository for research in the social sciences.
E-books and texts
1. Project Gutenberg: Offers over 60,000 free e-books, including many classic literary works.
2. Google Books: Provides access to a vast collection of books, including some available for free.
Collaborative platforms
1. GitHub: Ideal for collaborative coding and software development projects.
2. Overleaf: An online LaTeX editor for collaborative writing in academia.
Digital libraries
1. Digital Public Library of America (DPLA): Offers access to millions of photographs, manuscripts, books, and more.
2. Europeana: A digital platform for European cultural heritage.
Educational and research networks
1. ResearchGate: A professional network for researchers, providing access to publications and collaboration opportunities.
2. Academia.edu: Similar to ResearchGate, it offers a platform for academics to share research papers.
Data repositories
1. Zenodo: A repository for sharing research data and datasets.

Remember to check if your institution provides access to specific resources or platforms. Many universities offer students access to various academic tools and databases. Always ensure that you have the right to access and use the materials available on these platforms.

e. Building a Professional Online Presence

In addition to traditional publishing outlets, postgraduate students can enhance their scholarly reputation by cultivating a professional online presence. Creating and maintaining profiles on academic networking platforms, participating in relevant online communities, and sharing research updates on personal websites or blogs contribute to visibility within the academic community.

One of the initial steps in the publishing journey involves selecting an appropriate venue for disseminating research. For instance, journals vary in scope, impact factor, and audience reach. Postgraduate students should carefully consider how their research aligns with a particular journal's focus and the potential impact their work may have on the academic community. Choose a legitimate journal rather than a predatory one.

A postgraduate student must be aware when considering a journal you haven’t heard of before. Below are the questions to be pondered:

Is the journal or publisher well-recognised?
1. Look for visibility and reputation.
2. If you hear the journal’s or publisher’s name for the first time, consult your librarian to verify its authenticity.
3. You can access the journal's previously published articles/abstracts if it is a legitimate journal.
  1. Check some of the articles yourself to gauge the quality of the articles published.
Does the journal website include complete contact information about the journal and publisher?
1. Look for contact information.
2. The journal website must provide complete contact information, including a verifiable physical address.
  1. Try searching for the address on Google Maps or Street View, as it may be fraudulent.
3. If you only use web contact forms, double-check the other criteria.
Does the journal's scope combine multiple unrelated, wide-ranging fields?
1. Check the journal’s aims and scope section
2. Is its scope multidisciplinary?
  1. If the answer is yes, be cautious when combining unrelated disciplines.
Does the journal's editorial board include well-known experts?
1. Look for the editorial board.
2. Verify such claims made by the journals. often feature names of prominent researchers without their knowledge.
  1. Check whether the editorial board members’ full affiliations are mentioned.
  2. Contact a few of the listed experts to inquire about their experience with the journal or to confirm their association with it.
Did you receive an invitation email to submit to the journal or to join its editorial board?
1. Look for email invitations.
  1. Doubtful journals often acquire researchers’ email addresses and send out bulk invitations either to submit a paper or join their editorial board.
  2. If you cannot verify the authenticity of these invitations, it is best to ignore them or report them to the librarian so that other researchers can be warned.
2. A legitimate journal's editor or staff would use institutional or journal-affiliated email addresses.
  1. This will help to assess the journal’s authenticity
Has the journal prominently displayed author fees for open-access publishing?
1. Look for the author fee policy (APC).
  1. Many journals tend to hide APC.
  2. They charge authors a hefty amount at the time of publication when it’s too late to back out of the process.
2. If you feel the journal is legitimate but hasn’t listed APCs, you could ask the journal for this information.
  1. The journal’s response may also help you determine if it is legitimate.
Is the journal's peer review process clearly described on the website?
1. Look for the peer review process.
  1. Some bogus publishers claim that manuscripts go through the customary screening process and peer review, but fail to send authors the peer reviewers’ feedback.
2. Always check whether the journal’s website clearly explains its peer review process.
  1. If the journal is legitimate, it will provide clear details about its peer-review process.
Has the journal been indexed in an indexing database?
1. Look for indexing information.
2. Always check:
  1. The reliable journals will likely be indexed in Web of Science (WoS), SCOPUS, MyCite, and ERA.
  2. They would be affiliated with prominent publishers or scholarly associations such as:
    1. Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
    2. Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA)
    3. Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)
    4. International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers (STM)
3. Newly launched journals will take some time to be indexed.
Does the journal make promises that sound too good to be true?
1. Look for an in-pitch to authors.
2. Remember that as a rule of thumb, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn’t true!
  1. If the journal guarantees publication or promises a quick peer-review process, you should be cautious before submitting your manuscript.

B. Publishing Tips for Postgraduate Excellence Solutions

All UiTM postgraduate students must fulfil a minimum publication requirement before graduating as follows:

Master’s Degree
1. One indexed publication as the first or corresponding author.
2. The journal is indexed by SCOPUS / WoS / ERA / MyCITE or the journals listed for a student from the respective faculties.
Doctoral Degree
1. Two indexed publications with at least one published as the main or corresponding author
2. The journal is indexed by SCOPUS / WoS / ERA / MyCITE or the journals listed for a student from the respective faculties.

SCOPUS, WoS (Web of Science), ERA (Excellence in Research for Australia), and MyCITE (Malaysian Citation Index) are all platforms or systems related to academic research, citation, and evaluation. Here are brief explanations of each, along with their key differences:

SCOPUS
1. SCOPUS is a comprehensive abstract and citation database covering various disciplines.
2. It includes scientific, technical, medical, social sciences, and arts and humanities content.
3. SCOPUS indexes academic journals, conference proceedings, and patents.
4. It provides citation analysis, author profiles, and journal metrics. Widely used for bibliometric analysis and evaluating research impact.
5. Elsevier owns it.
Web of Science (WoS)
1. Web of Science is a multidisciplinary citation database with a broad range of scholarly content, including journal articles, conference proceedings, and books.
2. It covers the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities.
ERA (Excellence in Research for Australia)
1. ERA is an Australian government initiative to evaluate the research quality of Australian universities and their disciplines.
2. It focuses on Australian research outputs and performance.
3. It assesses research quality based on a set of criteria and indicators. Results are used for funding allocation and strategic planning.
4. It is primarily relevant to the Australian academic context.
MyCITE (Malaysian Citation Index)
1. MyCITE (Malaysian Citation Index) is a Malaysian database that indexes scholarly publications produced by Malaysian researchers and institutions.
2. It focuses on research output from Malaysia.
3. It aims to showcase and enhance the visibility of Malaysian research.
4. It provides citation analysis and metrics for Malaysian publications.
5. It is primarily relevant to the Malaysian academic context.

Here are the key differences among SCOPUS, WoS, ERA and MyCITE indexes:

Scope
1. SCOPUS and WoS are international databases covering various disciplines, while ERA and MyCITE are more region-specific, focusing on Australia and Malaysia, respectively.
Purpose
1. SCOPUS and WoS are primarily used for bibliometric analysis, citation tracking, and evaluating the impact of research globally.
2. ERA and MyCITE focus more on national research evaluation and visibility.
Ownership
1. Elsevier owns SCOPUS, while Clarivate Analytics owns WoS. ERA is an Australian government initiative, and MyCITE is a Malaysian citation index.
Audience
1. SCOPUS and WoS are widely used by researchers, institutions, and publishers globally.
2. ERA and MyCITE are more relevant to the national evaluation and promotion of research within Australia and Malaysia, respectively.

Below is the list of additional journals that can be accepted for the publication requirements by the respective faculties:

Academy of Language Studies
Faculty of Art & Design
1. International Journal of Art and Art History
2. International Journal of INTI
3. Jurnal ISI (Inspirasi, Seni & (Intelektual)
4. Jurnal of ISI Yogyakarta
5. Sequential Arts and Digital Content Studies
Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying
1. Asian Journal of Environment-Behaviour Studies (ajE-Bs)
2. The Asian Journal of Quality of Life (AjQoL)
3. International Surveying Research Journal (ISrJ)
4. Journal of Design + Built
5. Jurnal Lanskap Indonesia
Faculty of Film, Theatre & Animation
1. Gendang Alam
2. International Journal of Applied and Creative Arts
3. KUPAS SENI: Jurnal Seni dan Pendidikan Seni
4. Melayu: Jurnal Antarabangsa Dunia Melayu
5. Jurnal Wacana Sarjana
Faculty of Law
1. Malayan Law Journal
2. Current Law Journal
Faculty of Music
1. Journal of Music Research (Uni Melb)
2. Ethnomusicology Review (UCLA)
3. Riffs Journal (Birmingham CU)
4. The Chamber Music Journal
5. Asian Journal of Behavioural Sciences
6. Asian Journal of Research in Education and Social Sciences

Besides, excellent students can be nominated for an award and recognised for their academic achievements. Outstanding students who completed their studies in a shorter period and met the required publications may be considered for APC, ASCTC, and AKCTC, subject to Senate approval. The publication criteria for each award are as follows:

Excellence Research Award (APC)
1. Has published research findings as the lead author during the study period in indexed journals recognised by UiTM or other recognised journals.
  1. At least one indexed journal for Master’s students
  2. At least two indexed journals for Doctoral students
Anugerah Sarjana Cemerlang Tuanku Canselor (ASCTC)
1. The ASCTC is awarded to Master’s Degree students.
  1. Has presented at least one indexed conference recognised by UiTM.
  2. Has published at least two indexed journals or other recognised journals as the main author.
    1. The main and/or co-supervisor must be included as a co-author and UiTM as an affiliated institution.
Anugerah Kedoktoran Cemerlang Tuanku Canselor (AKCTC)
1. The AKCTC is awarded to Doctoral Degree students.
  1. Has published at least three (3) indexed journals or other recognised journals as the main author.
  2. The main and/or co-supervisor must be included as a co-author and UiTM as an affiliated institution.

C. To Sum Up...

Navigating the path to publishing success requires a combination of intellectual prowess, effective communication skills, and an understanding of the intricate world of academic publishing. By embracing the iterative nature of the peer review process, maintaining the highest ethical standards, and actively participating in academic communities, postgraduate students can contribute meaningfully to their respective fields.

Ultimately, successful publishing disseminates knowledge and establishes postgraduate scholars as valuable contributors to the ongoing discourse within their disciplines. As they embark on this journey, postgraduate minds have the opportunity to shape the future of academia and leave a lasting impact on their chosen fields of study.

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