UI as one of the best universities in Indonesia pays great attention to improving the quality of research by its academic community. In this case, the various research that has been produced by the UI academic community is one of the indicators that supports the campus’ reputation, academic careers, and the dissemination of knowledge in Indonesia. On the last Monday in August, the UI Library held an international webinar entitled “Best Practices in Research Writing: Perspectives from The Experts”. This event was held synchronously via Zoom and the UI Library YouTube Channel.
This international webinar presented speakers from various scientific backgrounds, both natural and social sciences. From UI, the Director of Innovation and Science Techno Park, Ahmad Gamal, S.Ars., M.U.P., Ph.D., was present as one of the speakers. On this occasion, he explained the mechanism for adjusting the audience and strategies for communicating with reviewers. Apart from that, Ahmad Gamal also suggested that researchers remain polite even if they have conflicting views with other parties, including reviewers. “Even if you don’t agree with the reviewer’s ideas, it would be wise if this is communicated in a polite way,” said Ahmad Gamal.
The webinar session is broadly divided into two parts according to the knowledge groups explained. The first part, done by Benedict Yeo and Tee Lip Hwe from Singapore Management University (SMU), focused on writing scientific papers in the social sciences. Both agreed that librarians have a very crucial role in supporting the research process. Lip Hwe emphasized that their role is important because the basic problem faced by researchers is usually difficulty in connecting the data processed and the written text. Thus, this is the most effective way to bridge the gap between written data and narrative. “The essence of a librarian’s job is to support the complex interaction between data and narrative,” said Lip Hwe.
The discussion regarding writing scientific papers in the social sciences was continued by Benedict Yeo. He explained that there are two ways to maximize writing scientific papers, namely in class and out of class. In this case, Benedict Yeo wants to emphasize that the learning process related to scientific papers cannot stop just at the atmosphere in the classroom, but needs to be followed up outside of class hours. In particular, in his view, undergraduate students need to get more learning outside of class time considering that they do not have much experience. On this occasion, Benedict Yeo suggested that undergraduate students diligently consult with their respective librarians and academic supervisors. In short, writing scientific papers in the social sciences relies on intense communication between researchers, data, and parties involved in providing the data.
The second part was presented by a researcher from Monash University, Prof. Taufiq Asyhari, Ph.D. who explained the rules for writing scientific papers in the natural sciences. At the beginning of his presentation, Prof. Taufiq wants to open our minds regarding how researchers (especially engineers) work. “We don’t work alone, we definitely need the involvement of other people in it,” said Prof. Taufiq. In this case, even though working in a field of science is often labeled as individualistic, building good communication with other people is also important. There is special advice for researchers who will take part in the engineering field, namely that they need a mindset that focuses on the audience (in the sense of understanding the target audience well). Another thing that is no less important are the aspects that need to be considered when writing a scientific paper based on natural sciences, including:
- Structure (each type of writing has its own format which cannot be generalized for all purposes)
- Illustrations (very important to provide a clearer picture of the topic being discussed)
- Language (mastery of a foreign language, especially English, will really help researchers to produce writing on a wider variety of topics)
Regarding the third aspect, Prof. Taufiq emphasized that the ability to speak English has become an unwritten obligation for today’s researchers since worldwide writings are dominated by English. He advised researchers to carry out frequent proof-reading as an effort to increase wider opportunities in academic careers. Thus, writing scientific papers is not only focused on the structure and content written, but also related to the variety of languages used in the process of writing scientific papers.
Author: Asep Abdurahman Hidayah | Editor: Dyra Daniera/ Finda Salsabila
