In the Philippines, some academics are often susceptible to predatory journals – or publications that claim to be “legitimate scholarly journals” but are just fraudulent, money-making journals – because they find it easier and faster to publish in these journals, unlike those Scopus-indexed journals. Time, for them, will always be an issue, and they would rather pay money to have their works published faster – though without proper review – than wait for half a year or even years to have it published in a reputable journal.
This kind of mentality is somehow engendered by the desire to get promoted in their respective jobs. But perhaps another reason is that they are not inure to criticisms – they are sensitive to it, and thus they try to find ways to avoid it.
I’ve had my fair share of struggles in submitting researches for publication. Some of my submitted papers were outrightly rejected by certain journals because it wasn’t what they were looking for; there were times when it was also rejected because the peer reviewers found it unacceptable – or it just did not reach their standards.
Of course, receiving rejections is not and will never be easy. There are times when you feel like you are not good enough, and just by and large feel bad about yourself. But do not allow these self-doubts to permanently affect you.
One of the reasons why others tend to go for the easier route is because they fear rejections. Rejections, however, will invariably be part of academic life; not everyone thinks like you, or agrees with what you are working on, or the interpretations of your findings in your research. So, try to understand that rejections are common in the academe; all you can do is just take it as it is, and move on to the next.
In the field of history, for example, historians always tend to disagree with each other. History, as a subject, is not necessarily cumulative, rather it is conflictual as one historian would point out. Interpretations of the past vary, and this would lead to many conflicts among historians at present. This is also why it is common for history to be revised; historical revisionism is not really a bad thing.
Hence, unless your paper is not properly written and the methodology is questionable, it is not surprising for other reviewers – in the case of a historical research – to disagree with your work or reject your paper.
Be that as it may, it’s always important for academics to remember that there is no easy route to success. In doing research, we must always try to instill a strong sense of academic integrity in order to set an example for our students and the general public. We have to remember that it’s not always about promotions but more so on contributing something significant to the literature in our respective fields of specialization.
The phrase publish or perish is often seen or perceived pejoratively by academics today. It was first coined by Prof. William Morris Davis who did not really mean it in a negative way; in fact, right after he said that line, he then continued saying that “if it’s worth doing, it is worth printing!” This subsequent statement means that Professor Davis encouraged academics to write and do research about new knowledge as it will only perish if it won’t be written.
However, later on, this phrase was seen in a negative light as it was used by academics to describe the potential perils in their careers if they fail to publish; that if they do not publish, then they will perish.
This mentality is not so common among academics in the Philippines – as there are many of them who do not necessarily or oft-times publish, but their positions remain intact.
The only problem is that if you do not often publish, especially in universities, then there is a large chance that you will not get promoted. Thus, those who are clamoring or aiming for professorship positions must try to submit and publish their research in reputable journals.
But there are loopholes to it; for example, some academics tend to publish more journal articles in less reputable (or questionable) journals and, if accepted, garner the same points [due to the number of papers they submit] as those publishing in more reputable journals.
Thus, it would be best if there would be a proper standard of rating such journal articles – whether it was thoroughly reviewed in a reputable journal, or it was just reviewed haphazardly by the less-reputable, predatory journal.
At the end of the day, it always boils down to academic integrity. As academics, we must always try to uphold a sense of probity and high standard for ourselves and not settle for lesser quality of works just for the sake of promotion.
We must always remember that people look up to us as intellectuals who have the duty and responsibility to provide quality, new knowledge in our respective fields of study. As much as possible, there should be no room for mediocrity – but there is always a room to improve in doing research, and we must always try to learn along the way.
To paraphrase what my mentor, Prof. Carlos Magtolis Jr. said in his speech during the pinning ceremony of my undergraduate history majors last week: we must always try to maintain a sense of humility. Suffice to say, one of the most humbling academic experiences really is to learn from our mistakes and to learn from the rejections that we receive. Do not be afraid to get rejected and be humble enough to accept such rejections.
We cannot learn to be better, or we will not be better off in the long run if we always try to follow the easier route, simply because we are afraid of rejections. We also cannot contribute anything significant to our respective field of specializations if the only end-goal we think about in doing research is to get a promotion.
These are just some things to ponder.
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Author’s email: JJAbulado@norsu.edu.ph
