Yogyakarta, October 28th, 2022
The Master of Science and Doctoral Program (MD) FEB UGM has successfully held a training, that called Writing Skills for Publication on October 28th, 2022. The event was held offline in the 3rd Floor of BRI Auditorium at MD FEB UGM Building and presenting Mrs. Widya Paramita, M. Sc., Ph.D., as a speaker. This regularly event, which is include in the Reach Program series for student debriefing, mandatory for students of the Master of Science Program in Academic Year 2020/2 and 2021/1. The event took place at 01.30-04.00 p.m.
On this occasion, Mrs. Mita explained the stages of writing scientific articles, which consist of four stages, there are generate research ideas (phenomena observation and literature review), determine the methods, data analysis, and writing up. In writing the scientific article, every part must be consider so no important points missed. First, the introduction is meaningful part and the key to understanding article. For prepare a good introduction, it is necessary to elaborate the relevant phenomenon and important to be studied, understand the issues/phenomena raised, and consider the substantial impact of the problems/phenomena being studied. Therefore, creative thinking is needed, namely limiting the literature to the last five years, making a list of the variables used in the reference and their modification variables, the relationship between several variables from different studies, checking for differences, and inverted assumptions.
Second, theory development must be really understood, namely using specific theories that are appropriate to the phenomenon so that it is easy to create a research framework and limit the assumption of the readers. Third, the research method determined from the purpose of the study, for example experiment is for testing effects between variables, survey is for examine the relationship between variables, and qualitative method generally used for exploratory studies. The method must also support the argument for why a particular context is selected and why a particular sampling method is selected. The research method is a series of measurements, so it is always safe to use measurements from previous studies to test their validity and reliability. However, validity and reliability tests are needed to ensure the accuracy of the measurement media. Translating a measurement and conducting a pilot test before doing the survey is highly recommended. Regarding the selection of the measurement scale, use the right indicators, be it multiple-item or single item, formative indicators or reflective indicators.
Fourth, data analysis and research results consist of psychometric analysis and primary analysis (hypothesis testing), applicable to qualitative and quantitative studies. General method bias also needs to be addressed. In certain studies, there are some additional tests, such as multilevel analysis for sample was taken from different groups, social desirability bias for ethics study, and manipulation check is a must in an experiments. In data analysis section, requires an understanding of the characteristics of data analysis techniques (Hayes Process Macro, PLS-SEM, CB-SEM, SPSS regression). After obtaining the results of data analysis, the next step is to present the results of data analysis in a systematic and communicative sentence as a result of the research.
Fifth, the discussion section is not a repetition of the analysis results, but the elaboration of the introduction. Also add theoretical and practical contributions, where the authors need to relate findings to previous studies used in the literature, highlight findings to fill research gaps, and make recommendations for practice as specific as possible.
There are two things that used as guidelines by Mrs. Mita in writing articles. First, to be able to write well, you must be write. Second, be open in thinking to criticize something because it is the beginning of finding writing ideas to building a research framework and analyzing it. Let’s have a fun process. (Y)