MAAUN Workshop: Over 6000 participants from 42 countries attended

Driven by its penchant for research development, Maryam Abacha American University of Nigeria, on Thursday, 4th April 2024, conducted a One-day Online International Workshop on Article Publication in Reputable Journals.

The workshop was attended by over 6,000 participants from 42 countries across the globe including; the United States, United Arab Emirate, United Kingdom, Canada, Russia, France, China, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, United Nations, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Czech Republic and Egypt.

Other participants were from Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Kenya, Kuwait, Malaysia, Maldives, Pakistan, Philippines, Turkey, Oman, Morocco, Nepal, Ethiopia, Ghana, Benin, Cameroon, Nigeria, Benin, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda and Zambia.

The grand event was designed to acquaint participants with the practical knowledge and skills needed to publish their research in high-impact academic journals.

During the seminar, two papers were presented by renowned international scholars on contemporary topics related to writing and publishing academic articles and insights into predatory journals.

The event also served as an avenue for cross-fertilization of ideas, where participants engaged in discussions, asked questions, raised concerns, and co-created new solutions to problems surrounding research publication.

In her presentation, a lecturer in the Department of English, Al Asyariah Mandar University, Indonesia, who doubled as the Deputy Director of Language and Character, Dr. Muthmainnah S. discussed extensively on the procedures of writing outstanding papers.

She described the process of writing outstanding research as a rigorous one, which involves a careful selection of a research question, adopting a robust methodology and crafting a compelling manuscript.

Dr. Muthmainnah, who took time to explain the requisite processes to planning research, navigating the submission process, choosing the right journal, dealing with rejection of research papers in trying to get them published in reputable journals, cautioned against issues of plagiarism.

While discussing the ethical considerations in publishing research, such as plagiarism, conflicts of interest, and authorship, Dr. Muthmainnah pointed out some tools that can be used to prevent plagiarism, which include paraphrasing, plagiarism checkers, and referencing.

Also, in his paper, a faculty at the Department of Computer Science, University of Kufa, Iraq, Dr. Ahmed J. Obaid, acquainted the participants on how to promote published research articles and increase their visibility within the online space.

Dr. Obaid explained that publishing a research journal is key to advancing a researcher’s discipline and career but selecting a reputable and trustworthy journal has over the years remained a thing of concern as there are predatory journals in play.

According to him, predatory journals are fake publishers that do not follow proper academic standards for publishing and who never provide the publication services an author would expect, such as peer review and editing.

Dr. Obaid, who’s a web and data mining expert, spoke at length on the features and dangers of predatory journals, where he shared tips on how to identify the fake journals from the reputed ones.

Earlier in his remarks, the President of MAAUN, Prof. (Dr.) Mohammad Israr stressed the importance of research publication, which he said goes beyond providing a means of communication and a permanent record but increases researchers’ performance and productivity within the academia.

In a closing remark, the Vice President Administration, Dr. Habib Awais Abubakar, who reiterated the need for institutions to embrace digitization of research, commended the two presenters for their extensive and thorough exploration of the topics presented.

He thanked the management, particularly the founder of the university, Prof. Adamu Abubakar Gwarzo, for providing the avenue to host the international workshop while at the same time lauding the participants for their time and contributions during the session.