The Paper Development Workshop organised by the Directorate of Research, Innovation and Development (DRID) of the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) ended with a call on lecturers to avoid predatory publishing of their research work.
The workshop was held in the institute’s seminar room at the North Dzorwulu campus on 28th January 2022. The participants were lecturers and staff of the Institute.
Dr. Etse Sikanku, the Director of DRID mentioned that the purpose of the workshop was to provide faculty members with peer-reviewed guidance and expertise for the development of manuscripts, ideas and abstracts to conference and quality journals, to help mentor young upcoming academics and to help strengthen and improve research papers among others.
Mr. Yaw Odame Gyau, a senior lecturer in the faculty of public relations, advertising and marketing, presented a research work he is currently working on with Dr. Ebenezer Malcoom, a lecturer at the Ghana Technology University College (GTUC) for peer review.
The topic was “COVID-19 pandemic and the adoption of E-learning as an alternative learning: The perspectives of tertiary students”.
He stated that the research focused on level 400 students at GIJ and GTUC.
The objective is to understand the perception of students towards e-learning and the challenges they face.
As part of the peer review session, Dr. Etse Sikanku recommended some journals this research could be published on which includes insight on Africa; A Journal of Contemporary African Studies, New Media and Society, Digital Media and Communication, among others.
Mr. Paul Herzuah, a lecturer in the journalism and media studies faculty, also presented research he is currently working on for review.
His research topic was ”A semiotic investigation into president Akuffo Addo’s COVID-19 speeches”.
He stated that the purpose of the research is to understand the ‘image text interaction’, thus the correlation between the outfit of the president and his message.
During the peer review of Mr. Paul Herzuah’s research work, some lecturers came up with a topic he could consider for future research, which is “How has the public been able to decode the COVID-19 message of the president?”
Mr. Bright Senanu a lecturer at the Department of Integrated Marketing Communication, took participants through a session on things to consider before choosing a journal to publish your research.
He stated that it is important to research on a journal before publishing your work on it.
“This is because, if you don’t use the right journal for your research work, you won’t get the desired feedback.”
He, therefore, encouraged lecturers to publish their research work on renowned journals like Web of Science, Scopus, Schimago, the Australian Business Deans Council (ABDC) and so on, in order to enhance the reputation of the Institute, help ease their career development and secure them a promotion.
The Director of DRID, Dr. Etse Sikanku ended the workshop by stating that DRID has a similar event lineup for the semester.
