A unique aspect of ICBM-2019 was the interactive “Meet the Editors” session organized on the last day of the conference, 27th of April at The Westin, Dhaka. This session consisted of a highly distinguished panel of speakers consisting of renowned and experienced editors who have published multiple papers each while also being in charge of international academic publications. The speakers for this session were Prof. Dr. Hui-Ming Wee, Chung Yuan Christian University, Taiwan and Prof. Dr. Tzong-Ru Lee, National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan with Brac University’s Assoc. Prof. Dr. Md. Mamun Habib, the Program Chair of ICBM-2019, as the session chair. This session provided the audience with the chance to find out how to submit papers for conferences and journals successfully by knowing first hand from the editors what they look for in a paper. This session progressed in a lively question-answer manner with an audience member posing a question which was then discussed by the panel.
Prof. Dr. Tzong Ru Lee advised the scholars to focus on the contribution of their research and how their ideas can solve a particular problem. If the problem pertains to a particular industry then that should be properly highlighted in the paper. When asked about which publications have higher quality, Prof. Dr. Lee mentioned that those with peer review processes and index citations are highly respected by scholars. Speaking on the topic of choosing which publication to submit a paper in, he advised scholars to research the Editorial Board of that publication to see how diversified in terms of race, nationality the editors are, as greater diversity leads to fairer evaluation. Talking about local cases, Prof. Lee mentioned that BRAC being a successful social enterprise would make a good topic.
Prof. Dr. Hui Ming Wee suggested the researchers to give an attractive title to the paper and clearly communicate the message of the research through the abstract. Prof. Dr. Wee encouraged new scholars to send their papers to multiple conferences in order to gain experience and suggested them to apply to those with no participation fee in the beginning years of their research so as to make participating more economical. He also mentioned that submitting to high index value publications is extra beneficial since even if the paper does not get accepted, the researcher gets a very valuable feedback and this review can be used to improve the research and the approach applied by the researcher. In case of Asian scholars, Prof. Dr. Wee said that an expert in English should be consulted to proof read the document since most international publications are written in English. When asked about providing references for a research, Prof. Wee said a good practice is to provide reference to the works of the Editor(s) in the Editorial Board. He also spoke about the scientific data presented I the paper saying that the result must be genuine and the methodology clearly indicated.
Dr. Md. Mamun Habib, an Editor-in-chief of UK based Scopus indexed journal, emphasized the importance of mentioning the novelties and contribution of the paper. He also suggested that research paper should focus on contemporary issues and that the timing of any research can be the key to its acceptance in society. The session chair further advised the participants that significant modification to conference papers, at least 50% is necessary in case the researchers want to submit the same paper to a journal.
All three editors spoke of how business focused cases can help industries and would be a good trend to pursue in coming years.