The “Short Term Course On Article Publication in High Impact Journals and Reference Management” organized by the Human Resource Development Center (HRDC) and the School of Agriculture, Lovely Professional University in collaboration with ClarivateTM catered to the capacity building in terms of selection of good journals, best practice of writing research paper, article publication in high impact journals, uses of reference management tools, journal finder and professional growth of the participants.

The participants group consisting of a balanced mix of research scholars and faculty including representation from different universities and institutes got off to a flying start. Addressing the participants, Deputy Dean, Human Resource Development Center, Mr. Sarabjit Singh Kwatra gave insights on the objectives of this short term course mentioning the in-depth thought gone into designing the format of the course after feedbacks and inputs from the participants of the last hosted course. He advised the participants to translate the learning of the course into high impact paper publications and make use of the reading materials shared among the participants. He remarked that each designated subject matter expert had proven track record and mastery on their specific topics. He also thanked the Course Convenors, Dean and Head, HRDC, Dr. Sunaina Ahuja and Head of Department, Entomology, Agriculture, Dr. Ankush M. Raut, for the help rendered in organizing this short term course. Mr. Sarabjit Singh Kwatra, Course Coordinator moderated the inaugural session, Organizing Secretary and one of the resource persons, Dr. Devina Seram (Assistant Professor, Entomology, School of Agriculture), explained the course flow, the eligibility criteria for obtaining the certificates, the assessment and evaluation pattern, and Course Coordinator, Dr. Haobijam James Watt (Assistant Professor, Economics and Extension Education, School of Agriculture), demonstrated the usage of LPU Online Assessment System (OAS) for evaluation purpose.

There were two external (the lead speaker and the invited speaker) and one internal resource persons involved in this short term course. The opening session (Day 1), second (Day 2), third (Day 3) and fourth sessions (Day 4), respectively were delivered by the lead speaker of the training program, Dr. Subashree Nag (Regional Solutions Consultant, Life Sciences and Scholarly Research Division, ClarivateTM). The subject matter expert focused on most of the important contents for good article publication during the four sessions. The topics covered on Day 1 included Research Discovery and the resource person gave an introduction about VOS Viewer software, which is required for filtering and selecting the required paper of interest from the Web of Science database. A pre-training evaluation was conducted in order to check the prior knowledge of the participants regarding good journals and publishers. On Day 2 (Session 2), the lead speaker (Dr. Subashree Nag) enriched the participants with the right way to conduct the Literature Review using various free databases for literature search such as OpenDOAR, PubMed, JSTOR, etc. and gave insights on identifying the research gap first in research manuscript preparation. All the sessions were followed by Question and Answer round. After the fourth session, the first post-training evaluation based on the lectures delivered was conducted through Online Assessment System.

How to Publish in High Impact Journals was the topic for Session 3 (Day 3). It was focused on Guide to Preparation of Scientific Papers following the Chicago Manual Style and the IMRaD format (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion) for writing research papers. The session was also dedicated to other topics such as What Editors Look for in a Manuscript, tables and figures requirements, common softwares available for data analysis, creating graphs and figures and Web of Science Core Collection. The lead speaker (Dr. Subashree Nag) also gave a brief introduction of the Journal Citation Reports (JCR), which is the premier citation index on the Web of Science platform.

The last session 4 (Day 4) for the lead speaker was dedicated to the topic on Avoiding Predatory Journals and the use of EndNote, the referencing tool from WoS. The different criteria to be considered for determining a journal for its predatory nature were also highlighted. Information on paper publication in Open Access Journals and the list of few trusted publishers with open access having APC (Article Publishing Charges) was provided and a brief note on the different Bibliometric Indicators, the Analysis of Research System, their methods and examples were discussed. The afternoon session was dedicated to self-practice and writing. The most important highlight of the session was clearing the confusion of the participants regarding Impact Factor (IF) or Journal Impact Factor (JIF), which is a scientometric index calculated and published by ClarivateTM on a yearly basis.

The thrust on Day 5 (Session 5) was on Reference Management Tool mainly focusing on the widely used Mendeley Reference Manager and its hands-on demonstration. The session was taken by Dr. Arati Ningombam, Senior Scientist (ARS), Department of Entomology, ICAR RC-NEH Region, Manipur Centre, Imphal). The subject matter expert briefed about the common Reference Manager Tools used by the researchers such as EndNote, Mendeley, Zotero, etc. Differences between bibliography, Annotated bibliography and references were explained. The invited speaker engaged the participants with practical hands-on demonstration of using Mendeley Reference Manager and conducted poll questions. Thereafter, the session was followed by Question and Answer round, in which the participants were actively involved.

The topic for the final session (Day 6) was on What’s next after the submission or review process and it was handled by Dr. Devina Seram, Assistant Professor, Entomology, School of Agriculture, LPU. In this session, a new tool called Journal Finder or Manuscript Matcher was introduced to the participants for selecting the journal of choice based on the abstract of the paper submitted to the respective websites such as Elsevier Journal Finder, Springer Journal Finder, Web of Science Manuscript Matcher, etc. A hands-on demonstration on selecting a good journal was performed by checking the journal authenticity through their respective websites and steps were presented to the participants. Other topics covered on the last session included the Techniques for responding reviewers’ comments and preparation for resubmission, Reasons for Rejection of a Research or Review paper, Flowchart of the whole reviewing process for a good journal, difference between research and review papers, etc. At the end of the session, the second post-training evaluation was conducted through Online Assessment System.

The assessment and evaluation was conducted through Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ) based on the session learning outcomes and construct of an Abstract. The participants were unanimous in their appreciation of the course in terms of the content, delivery and organization. The responsiveness of the organizing team and the interaction made with the resource persons were applauded by the participants who expressed that this was a good initiative taken up in collaboration with an external organization, the best training program conducted and requested to conduct the same program again. They also conveyed their desire to participate in such well-organized programs in the future. All the speakers and the participants were duly acknowledged. The valedictory speech was given by Dr. Sawinder Kaur, Deputy Dean, Foot Science and Technology, School of Agriculture, LPU and the session had a buzz of vibrancy and enthusiasm!

TESTIMONIALS:

Jeevandeep Mishra : I think this was excellent and good.

Lalit Kumar Bhardwaj : Good work by the entire team.

Rashav Chahal : Organize this type of course in future again.

Meenu Bhanot : Please have some more sessions like this.

Akanksha Malaiya : All the sessions were very nice. Thank you to the entire LPU team.

Manish Sharma : Nicely organized.

Amandeep Kaur : The sessions were informative and quite interactive. 🙂

Sakshi Chaudhary : Sessions were organized wonderfully within set time duration with 100% accuracy. Thanks to all the respected organizers and invited guests.

Amar Singh Meena : It was nice training and well planned as well.

Milu Mathew : Great initiative by LPU.

Gagandeep Singh : Excellent.

Shamulailatpam Shidayaichenbi Devi : It was a very useful workshop for us students.

Geemol John : Overall, a wonderful session with lots of inputs; A must-attend course for a fresh researcher.

Dipti Joshi : Great experience and well planned workshop.

Kiranpreet Kaur : Session was very helpful for review and citations, it helped me a lot in enhancing my knowledge regarding many things about research papers.

Dr. Sabitha N : Request to plan one more session….on week end days….so that we working persons can learn better.

Samkutty Samueal : All the topics were excellent.  Information on ‘Journal finder’ was very much helpful for me as I was struggling to find out a suitable journal for one of my rejected article.

Archana Dangi : Best performance.

Photographs of training:

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