The Master in Economics and Development Studies Program (MESP), Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB) Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) Surakarta held a webinar in ‘Method in Economic Analysis and Academic Writing,’ 25-26 May 2021.

Two international speakers from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) were invited to share some insight through the webinar, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tamat Sarmidi (Deputy Dean of Research and Innovation, Faculty of Economics and Management, UKM) and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Norlin Khalid, the Cluster Head at the Center of Sustainable and Inclusive Development Studies UKM Malaysia.

In her speech, the Vice Dean of Academic, Research and Student Affairs FEB UNS, Prof. Dr. Izza Mafruhah, SE, M.Si, representing the Dean of FEB UNS, conveyed the importance of this workshop because statistical analysis tools are always developing both for the qualitative and quantitative analysis.

According to Prof. Izza, writing published articles has always been an obstacle for postgraduate students. This condition happens because students are often too focused on the process of writing the thesis, while the process of publishing a research article is quite time-consuming and is often forgotten. Learning from experts will greatly assist students in publishing articles.

The speaker on the first day, Assoc. Prof. Tamat Sarmidi (Deputy Dean of Research and Innovation, Faculty of Economics and Management, UKM), explains about Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Dr. Tamat explains the basics of the principal component, how to determine the adequacy of data to carry out the explanatory factor analysis process, interpreting the results, and the principles of reliability analysis PCA in the STATA program. The discussion is followed with Propensity Score Matching and concluded with Quintile Regression.

On the second day, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Norlin Khalid starts the discussion with the material related to academic writing and publication, followed by Recent Research in Covid-19. Dr. Norlin explained why article publication is important in educational institutions, partly because of the demands for the fulfillment of performance indicators, demands for academics’ contribution to their scientific development, and an attempt to develop networking between educational institutions.

Some stages of the publication process must be passed by students who want to publish their articles in reputable international journals. These stages are writing a literature review, determining research objectives, determining the contribution of the articles written or research conducted, as well as the proofreading process by native speakers to ensure that the articles written meet the writing standard in English or other foreign languages.

Articles that are ready to be published can first be presented in scientific forums such as seminars or conferences to get input and suggestions for article improvement. The last step that needs to be considered is the determination of the journal. This is the stage where the author should choose a journal publisher with similar scope to the topic of the article.

Dr. Norlin added that authors should be able to collaborate with well-established authors or researchers in the field of study to increase the possibility of publication, “Invite prominent authors for collaboration,” she said.

Further, she also explains in detail the strategy for students to prepare well-written articles by preparing an interesting abstract because the abstract is the first impression of an article to attract the reader’s attention.

Reporter: Aulia
Editor: Humas FEB