Writing papers for publication in reputable international journals is a crucial skill for academics, especially MESP students. This process not only requires authors to clearly convey their findings, but also requires them to meet the quality standards set by the journal to which they submit the article. Therefore, an in-depth understanding of the structure and important elements in academic writing is the key to producing acceptable papers.

Monday, July 29, 2024, at the Bachtiar Effendi Building Teleconferencing Room, MESP invited Dr. Suziana Hasan, a lecturer from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, as a keynote speaker at a workshop entitled “How to Write an Outstanding Manuscript for A Reputable Publication.”

On this occasion, Dr. Suziana introduced several reputable international journals such as Scopus, Elsevier, Web of Science, and Springer. Further, she mentioned that in preparing a good paper, the article must be prepared in accordance with the format determined by each journal; negligence in preparing the article can be one of the reasons for reviewers to reject our paper. An AI-assisted paper writing is common nowadays, but the author must maintain due diligence and be careful in understanding the results provided by AI. This will ensure that the article content remains in accordance with the desired purpose and maintains the originality of the writing.

Additionally, before the paper is sent, it is important that the author proofreads to ensure that there are no errors in both writing and research content. Another suggestion is to include a cover letter during submission, allowing the editor of the journal to briefly understand the submitted paper and understand the reason the paper deserves to be published in the journal.

In determining the research problems, Dr. Suziana states that it is possible to draw from the limitations of previous research, where the research topic selected is expected to have the potential to make significant contributions to the community. Afterward, it is advised that the title of the article should not exceed 10 words, thus, it will be interesting to read. Further, the abstract of an article usually consisted of between 150-200 words. This section includes background, problem formulation, objectives, methods, results, suggestions, implications, and limitations (make an effort to reveal the implementation of the results of the research in other countries or research).

At the end of the presentation, Dr. Suziana did not forget to provide motivation to participants, especially to students who were still in the process of preparing theses and journal articles, to remain enthusiastic about writing and contributing to the development of empirical research.