22nd Pattaya International Conference on Economics, Education, Humanities and Social Sciences (PEEHSS-19), Aug. 12-14, 2019
Re-calibrating Writing Skills of Research Enthusiasts for
International Publications
Prof. Dr. David Cababaro Bueno
Dean of Graduate, and Director, Research, Innovation and Knowledge Development at Columban College, Inc.,
Olongapo City, Zambales, Philippines
Abstract- This paper provides facts in re-calibrating the
writing skills of research enthusiasts for possible
international journal publications. It was presented
during the international conference organized by the
International Association of Humanities, Social Sciences
& Management Researchers (HSSMR). It focused
primarily on the basic principles and guidelines for
writing a publishable research article for journal
publication. It provided guidelines in writing the
abstract and keywords, and the Introduction,
Methodology, and Results and Discussion (IMRaD), as
well as suggestions in writing conclusions and
recommendations for future research.
Keywords- Educational research, writing skills, research
enthusiasts, international publications
I. INTRODUCTION
Writing has always been regarded as an important
component of the communication skill engineering students
must acquire while in college. Writing for publication is
considered essential to the advancement of engineering
profession (Hasan, 2016). Getting your paper published can
be a satisfying and rewarding experience. Writing and
publishing in entails diligence and perseverance and can be
just as difficult as the research itself (Thompson, 2015). As
an author, your task is to present your research results in a
form that can be used by other investigators. It is expected
that publishable papers provide readers with new
information or new ways to think about a topic (Sadiku,
Musa, & Nelatury, 2018).
The International Association of Humanities, Social
Sciences & Management Researchers (HSSMR) is
primarily dedicated to the research in Humanities, Social
Sciences & Management. It promotes research by
organizing conferences as well as workshops with the aim
to bring together Researchers, Scientists, Professionals,
Scholars and Students in the various areas of Humanities,
Social Sciences & Management, and provides a forum for
the dissemination of original research results, new ideas,
Research and development, practical experiments, which
concentrate on both theory and practices, for the benefit of
society. We cordially welcome professors, Researchers and
professional from Industry who want to join us or
contribute. HSSMR is associated with Universal
Researchers (UAE).
Higher Education Institution (HEI) is the pathway to
the empowerment of people and the development of nations.
Knowledge generation has replaced ownership of
capita assets and labor productivity as the source of growth
and prosperity. Innovation is seen as the melody for
development. This realization is pervasive that nations are
scrambling to create institutions and organizations that
would facilitate the process of knowledge creation.
Knowledge creation requires a network of scholars actively
engaged in its pursuit because the search for the unknown is
a product of engaged minds, and constantly challenging the
known in an enabling environment. The modern university
is the ideal space for the ecosystem of scholars to search for
new ideas in a spirit of free inquiry. In human history, the
Higher Education Institutions (HEI) has been one of the
prodigious institutions that has emerged and endured.
Its structure; however, has changed over the centuries.
The primacy of research over teaching was solidified as
evidenced by the research productivity within the university,
with the quest for knowledge as an ongoing enterprise. The
discernable aspect of the modern university was the
provision of substantial funding to support research. The
modern research university has also encouraged deep
specializations structured around disciplines. Dividing
knowledge into disciplines and fields provides depth of
understanding in an increasingly complex world. However,
a growing understanding has appeared that the problems of
the 21st century require a holistic understanding of
knowledge in various aspects. New knowledge materializes
at the boundaries of existing disciplines; and crossfertilization of disciplinary understanding occurs in
numerous ways. The necessity to relate research to the needs
of society has also emerged as a dominant paradigm of the
policy discourse in higher education (Sibal, 2011).
Thus, world-class research universities are essential in
developing a nation’s competitiveness in the global
knowledge economy. These universities, at the pinnacle of
the higher education hierarchy, play key roles in creating
and disseminating knowledge, educating a highly skilled
workforce for technological and intellectual leadership, and
serving the needs of society (Altbach, 2009; Van der Wende,
2009).
In the past few years, it can be argued that an increasing
number of countries, regions and higher education
institutions in different parts of the world have joined the
same battle for academic excellence. This trend to create and
enhance globally competitive universities can be traced not
only in developed countries but also in developing ones.
While emerging countries and their universities make every
effort to enhance their capacity and to boost their research
performance, the academic superpowers endeavor to
maintain, if not further improve their global positions.
The International Conference on Economics,
Education, Humanities and Social Sciences scheduled
today, is for the scientists, scholars, professionals and
students from the Universities all around the world and the
industry to present ongoing research activities, and hence to
foster research relations between the Universities and the
industry. This conference provides opportunities for the
delegates to exchange new ideas and application
experiences face to face, to establish business or research
relations and to find global partners for future
collaboration. The conference is sponsored by Universal
Researchers (UAE). All the submitted conference papers are
peer-reviewed by the program technical committees of the
Conference. All accepted papers of the conference are
published in the printed conference proceedings with
International ISBN number registered at London, UK
and will be archived in UR's Engineering & Technology
Digital Library. Each Paper will be assigned Digital Object
Identifier (DOI) from CROSSREF. Later, the proceedings
of the conference will be submitted to ISI Thomson/
SCOPUS for review and possible indexing. In addition, the
proceedings will be indexed at Google and Google Scholar
and all major search engines.
Thus, a number of papers are focused on economics,
education, humanities and social sciences, law, business,
environmental, chemical, biological and medical sciences,
recent trends science, engineering, technology and disaster,
and interdisciplinary studies.
II. OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
This paper aims to provide facts for re-calibrating the
writing skills of research enthusiasts for possible
international journal publications. It focuses primarily on
the basic principles and guidelines following the
Introduction, Methodology, and Results and Discussion
(IMRaD), as well as suggestions in writing conclusions and
recommendations for future research.
III. METHODOLOGY
It utilized document reviews and analyses. Major
references, journals’ guidelines for authors and writers, as
well as online publications were consulted by the author to
come up with a consolidated suggestions and
recommendations for future research writers and authors for
possible international publications. The approach involved
the provision of highlights that authors need to pay attention
to in carrying out the production of a journal-length article
from researches. It is vital for expository studies and tends
to offer insight on how to execute a design or an engagement
including those relating to how to prepare papers by amateur
academics. Additionally, the approach used tend to
demystify issues that would otherwise become unclear to
new authors, in the making reducing more elaborate
documents to relatively smaller ones equivalent of journallength articles. Thus, the method employed sought to
underline the necessary guideposts as well as rudiments that
would be beneficial to potential authors of articles and also
make it easy to get the articles approved for publication
(Abreh, & Amenorvi, 2018).
IV. DISCUSSION
Abstract. An abstract should be presented on a separate
page immediately preceding the text. The Abstract should
concisely inform the reader of five vital information:
introduction of the topic, chief purpose, objective, method,
results and conclusions. Only recommendations with
universal or wider application could be included but
optional only (Thompson, 2015). Moreover, an abstracts
must include sufficient information for reviewers to judge
the nature and significance of the topic, the adequacy of the
investigative strategy, the nature of the results, and the
conclusions. The abstract should summarize the substantive
results of the work and not merely list topics to be discussed.
An abstract is an outline/brief summary of your paper and
your whole project. It should have an intro, body and
conclusion. It is a well-developed paragraph, should be
exact in wording, and must be understandable to a wide
audience. Abstracts should be no more than 250 words
(Abreh & Amenorvi, 2018; Pickett & Mcdonnell, 2017;
Shidham, 2012).
Keywords. The abstract must be followed by keywords
in four parts: discipline of the study, concepts/ variables,
methods, process, and geography of the study, country, and
continent (Pickett & Mcdonnell, 2017; Jensen, 2017; Singh,
2015).
Introduction. The introduction is the part of the paper
that provides readers with the background information for
the research. Its purpose is to ascertain a framework for the
research, so that the readers can understand how it is related
to other researches or studies". In an introduction, the
researcher should create reader interest in the topic, lay the
extensive foundation for the problem that leads to the study,
place the study within the larger context of the scholarly
literature to illustrate the global and local perspectives, and
reach out to a specific reader (Singh, 2015). Thus, the
researcher/ writer needs to consider the following in
formulating the framework of the study: (1) existing
literature and previous research and its relevance to the
current investigation; (2) and relevant theoretical or
conceptual perspective or perspectives based on the
previous research studies/ conducted and literature review
ranging from global to local perspectives; (3) key ideas/
concepts or constructs in research approach; (4) a gap in
existing literature and studies conducted and considerations
of inquiry; (5) exposition of the rareness and novelty of the
present study; as well as the (6) aims or objectives of the
study (Bueno, 2017; Abreh, & Amenorvi, 2018). The
introduction usually elaborates on what the study is about,
the conceptions and assumptions that underline it, literature
that inform this current research, frameworks and raised
issues that support why the study is worth conducting. Thus,
there is the need therefore to put this part in a very logical
and orderly manner publication (Abreh, & Amenorvi, 2018;
Pollard, 2005).
Methodology. Methods are tools for data collection, for
example, focus group discussions employed in collecting
data from a small group of people with a homogenous
background. It looks at the approaches and justification for
their choice for carrying out the research work.
Methodology or procedures applied vary according to the
discipline and topic at one level, and the type of journal,
conference and audience that the research article targets
Abreh & Amenorvi, 2018). Thus, it should explicitly present
the specific research design, the sampling technique used,
research environment/ site, contruction and validation of
instrument, data-gathering procedure, ethical consideration,
and data analysis technique (Pickett & Mcdonnell, 2017;
Jensen, 2017; Singh, 2015; Bueno, 2017; Abreh, &
Amenorvi, 2018).
Results and Discussion. The results/ findings are based
on addressing research questions or testing hypotheses to a
broader research topic than it is with research articles.
Similarly, findings with research articles come in the same
fashion, but with a bit of difference. The difference stems
from the fact that the findings of research articles are much
succinct. Here again, an author ought to bring coherence and
chronological order in the reportage of the findings of a
study (Abreh, & Amenorvi, 2018; Shidham, 2012; Pickett,
& Mcdonnell, 2017). Thus, the presentation of the results in
terms of narratives or tables, charts or graphs must be
carefully decided at the methodology stage. The discussion
must at all times interconnect the chart, tables and graphs
and statistical inferences drawn from the data. In other
words, the data presentation tools do a secondary role of
supporting the arguments and discussions. This will guide
the course of conciseness that the author desires to
accomplish, while directing the objective of the journal
article. Take note that straightforward data are better
reported as narratives (Abreh, & Amenorvi, 2018). Authors’
perspective and biases must not be introduced at this stage
of the work (Rudner & Schafer, 1999), and therefore, useful
for the author to allow the research to report without any
potentially skewed data (Abreh, & Amenorvi, 2018;
Berman, 2017; Brusa, Carter, & Hellman, 2010). Thus, it is
also suitable to come up with an interpretation and
explanation that are dependable and reliable with the
priorities offered relative to its problem, objectives(s) and
research question(s) or hypotheses in line with the methods
and procedures and the analysis to draw scientific inferences
(Thompson, 1995).
Conclusions. Conclusions should briefly answer the
objectives of the study. They are not repetitions of the
discussions but are judgments of the results obtained.
Therefore, the author needs to wrap up by concisely
affirming the most substantial information and insight as
results of the research. The conclusion is a provision of
perspective that the study brings to bear. It indicates a note
of finality to the paper, drives home the point by restating
the objectives addressed by the study and indicates the
significance of the study more clearly why its findings
matter to the global readers and future research consumers.
It is therefore suggested to use a compelling and captivating
statement (Abreh & Amenorvi, 2018; Pickett & Mcdonnell,
2017; Shidham, 2012; Jensen, 2017; Singh, 2015; Bueno,
2017; Brusa, Carter, & Hellman, 2010). This means the
extraordinarily new insight must be unpacked and
showcased at this section.
References. Every journal article must include a
“References or Literature Cited” section that contains only
those works cited within the manuscript. Each entry should
contain all information necessary of the published work.
Authors are advised to use references which are traceable
online, with Digital Object Identifier, indexed by
international databases, written by authors or agencies and
not links. The URL must be written at the end of the
bibliographic entry and provide the date of retrieval and the
link. Sources must be at least five years old except sources
of theories, historical documents or chronologic
presentations of the literature and theoretical reviews.
Writers must refrain from using unpublished research, thesis
or dissertation. APA may be the standard format to be used
for all social science researches (Berman, 2017; Brusa,
Carter, & Hellman, 2010).
V. CONCLUSIONS
This paper highlighted potential information that
research enthusiasts and potential authors can take note of
and triumph their attempt to publish in peer-reviewed
journals. This significant note will surely guide the choices
that authors and researchers would like to consider.
Moreover, equally important is meeting the demands and
requirements of the target journal for international
publication relative to writing the abstract and keywords,
and the Introduction, Methodology, and Results and
Discussion (IMRaD), as well as conclusions and
recommendations.
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