Publishing research in the international context. An analysis of Egyptian social sciences scholars’ academic writing behaviour
| Published date | 01 October 2018 |
| Pages | 910-924 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/EL-01-2017-0005 |
| Date | 01 October 2018 |
| Author | Ahmed Maher khafaga Shehata,Metwaly Ali Mohamed Eldakar |
Publishing research in the
international context
An analysis of Egyptian social sciences
scholars’academic writing behaviour
Ahmed Maher khafaga Shehata and Metwaly Ali Mohamed Eldakar
Department of Library Information Science, Minia University, El Minia, Egypt
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of a study to explore the Egyptian social
science scholars’academicwriting behaviour in localand international context. Understandingthe challenges
that scholars in social scienceand humanities face while publishing in the international outletswould help to
suggeststrategies to improve academic writing in non-Arabic journals.
Design/methodology/approach –This study deployed mixed methods approach. The quantitative
data were collected usingan online questionnaire. Interviews were conducted with a group of scholarsin the
five facultiesto elucidate the publishing behaviour of the sample.
Findings –The interviews and the questionnaireshowed that social science scholars in Egypt prefer local
publishingoutlets. The number of scholars who publish internationallyis very low compared to scholars who
publish locally. Scholars who tried to publish internationally faced many challenges, such as language
barriers,lack of academic writing skills and lack of appropriatetraining.
Research limitations/implications –This study was conductedin one university in Egypt. While the
results can be generalised to Egyptian and Middle East universities, it cannot be generalised to non-Arab
communitiesbecause of the differences in culture and educationsystem.
Originality/value –This study provides insight on publishing practices in the international context
among socialscience scholars in Egypt using a mixed methods approach. This helpedto capture the scholarly
publishing practices and the attitudetoward international publishing and the main challenges that scholars
face who attempttopublishininternationaloutlets.
Keywords Scholarly publishing, International publishing, Publishing in Egypt
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Global publishing of research findingsisan important standard for scientific advancement
and promotion in academia.However, the domination of English journalsas an international
publishing platform has placed a burden on non-English speakers who are attempting to
share their research findings in the international context. In the past few years, there has
been increasing pressure on researchers and academics in Egypt to publish internationally
instead of publishing in local journals, as this would improve the ranking for Egyptian
universities (Abd-Elazik,2015). Even though the higher education system in Egyptstill does
not disqualify academics who are not publishing internationally, visible changes are being
made to the promotion system to encourage academics in all fields to move into the
international context. The move to international publishing outlets is thought to gain
researchers more visibility(Gea-Valor et al., 2014;Hamel, 2007;Martín et al., 2014). Scholars
are encouraged to share their findings in international outlets, as most of the esteemed
journals are available in the English language. However, non-English speakers face
EL
36,5
910
Received7 January 2017
Revised13 May 2017
28June 2017
7 September2017
20December 2017
Accepted17 February 2018
TheElectronic Library
Vol.36 No. 5, 2018
pp. 910-924
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0264-0473
DOI 10.1108/EL-01-2017-0005
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0264-0473.htm
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