WCU Festival Universitas Sebelas Maret - Workshop on Writing and Publishing of Review Articles

Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) Surakarta, Indonesia held a World Class University (WCU) Festival entitled Being Part of the International Research Community. The WCU Festival was held for two days, 27-28th November 2020. This event was divided into two sessions, the first day on Social Sciences and Humanities and the second day on Science, Engineering, and Technology.

Workshop on Writing and Publishing Article Reviews is one part of this big event. Professor Timothy Teo from Murdoch University Western Australia was the speaker. The event, which took place on 27th November 2020 at 10.00-11.45, was opened by Deputy of International Office UNS, Ms. Murni Ramli, M.Si., Ed.D. Two hundred and fifty registered participants attended the workshop. Dr. Nurma Yunita Indriyanti moderated the event.

In this event, Prof. Teo said that writing is an obligation for academics in Higher Education. A review article is one of the types of articles that are currently widely used. Some countries have difficulty obtaining primary data, so many have turned to literature review articles. The following is a summary of the lectures given by Prof. Teo.

 

Defining Review Article

• Empirical data are not collected
• Analysis of primary or secondary data is not required
• Rely on currently published and unpublished works

Types of Review Articles

• Text Driven (Scoping Review, Systematic Review, Literature Review)
• Number Based (Meta-Analysis, Systematic Meta-analysis Review, Research Synthesis)

 

Format of Review Articles

Introduction

• Clear focus
• Compelling argument
• Well defined problem
• Appropriate solution

Literature Review (not the actual review)

• Strong theoretical basis
• Clear operational definitions
• Citation of seminal and recent works
• Clear articulated research gaps
• Logical hypotheses
• Answerable research question

Methods

• Clearly defined article (e.g., types of sources)
• Adequately described criteria for inclusion and exclusion (e.g., year of publication, keywords)
• Sufficiently information on data analysis

Results

• Refer to the research questions
• Use appropriate analysis techniques
• Provide meaningful tables and figures
• Defer discussion

Discussion

• Answer the research question
• Highlight contributions of the study
• State limitation of the study
• Purpose future research

Conclusion

 

Sample Article (Two Illustrative Article)

• Text-Based Systematic Literature Review

Yu, S., Wang, B., & Teo, T. (2018). Understanding linguistic, individual, and contextual factors in oral feedback research: A review of empirical studies in L2 classrooms. Educational Research Review, 24, 181-192. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2018.06.001

• Meta-Analysis Review

Scherer, R. & Teo, T. (2019). Unpacking teachers' intention to integrate technology: A meta-analysis. Educational Research Review, 27, 90-109.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2019.03.001

 

Concluding Remarks

• Review articles have become important in recent years
• May be highly cited
• Will become a mainstay in traditional publishing
• Play an important part in theory building
• Show the past, describe the present, and suggest the future in research

 

In his closing statement, Prof. Teo emphasized three crucial things. First, writing is the responsibility of the academic. If we don't publish, then nobody else will. It is something that many people try to avoid. Writing and publishing an article is very difficult to do. It needs a lot of time and energy. It is also unpredictable because nobody can guarantee whether our manuscript will be accepted. Second, we have to write all the time. In the process of writing, we can learn a lot of things. Because we are not English native speakers, we learn about language, learn about writing, and develop our skills in a few areas (thinking clearly, communicating clearly, being very critical about ideas). Third, we have to stay humble, whether we published one or two hundred articles. Don't stop learning if we want to progress and useful to other people.