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SEGUNDO, JEMILYN C. BSBA-HRDM 1-2N

ENG1023 NOV. 14, 2014

THE REAL CRISIS IN OUR EDUCATION AND RESEARCH

By Dr. Flor Lacanilao

There is nothing wrong with wanting heroes in science, but we should understand the

criteria used to select those whom we are asked to revere.Robert Marc Friedman, professor of

the history of science at the University of Oslo

Dr. Isagani R. Cruz discusses improving academic journals, saying these need scholars

and specialists to manage and that we have some of the brilliant minds. He missed the

importance of internationally accepted criteria in evaluating performance and deciding

institutional leadership or assigning functions. Our usual practice is to rely on known

personalities that we often refer to as scholars and specialists.

For example, he speaks of how to promote research by improving academic journals

through (a) following international editing practices, (b) observing declared schedule of issues,

(c) editorial board of scholars, who regularly attend conferences abroad and with history of

publication citations, etc.

But Cruz fails to give the useful criteria to qualify for such functions.

Further, he supports his above views with, We have some of the most brilliant minds on

the planet. Just think of Conrado Dayrit, who wrote in The Philippine Journal of InternalMedicinein 1992 about the benefits of virgin coconut oil. Because that journal had a very limited

circulation, Dayrit was not credited worldwide with this discovery.

Will these claims stand the test of established international standards, or simply the

accepted measures of performance?

The absence of clear performance indicators, and the doubtful validity of proof, will just

lead to another failed program. It takes properly published researchers to manage academic

journals and review manuscripts. We dont have enough of them in various major fields and

specific disciplines. The best way to produce them is to publish in peer-reviewed international,journals, covered in widely-used indexes like Thomson ISIs major indexes. They are

the Science Citation Index(SCI), Social Sciences Citation Index(SSCI), andArts and

Humanities Citation Index(AHCI). (High-cited journals are covered here. The other ISI indexing

products cover also low impact journals, which make up most of ISI-indexed journals, like

ourPhilippine Agricultural Scientist.)

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The validity of the claimed proofs to support views can be verified through the number of

publications and citations listed in such indexes. These have been widely used indicators for

evaluating research and S&T performance when ranking nations, universities, and individuals.

The results have been published in scholarly journals like the leading

publications ScienceandNature.

We have yet to catch up on the basics of how to improve academic research. We have

first to learn how to publish properly; that is, adequate peer review of manuscripts and wide

accessibility of published results for international verification. We dont have enough capability

for both. Hence, with their present state, we cannot rely on RP journals in learning how to write

and publish valid papers. Only a few RP journals meet the criteria for coverage in the most

respected indexesnone in SCI (with 3776 journals covered), only a few in SSCI (2876), and

none that I know of in AHCI (1551).

ThePhilippine Journal of Internal Medicinementioned above is not covered in SCI.

Hence, the published paper on virgin coconut oil, which Cruz refers to above, is gray literature

not adequately peer reviewed, poorly accessible, hardly verifiable, and not taken seriously. How

then can the discovery be credited worldwide? (The medical journal PJIM was dropped from SCI

coverage in the early 1980s, and no Philippine journal has since met the coverage standard of

SCI.)

Under the Philippine condition of unpublished researchers, why do we have hundreds of

academic journals? Why is CHED still promoting publication of new journals and encouraging

researchers to publish in them? How can such managed journals help our researchers do research

properly, teach better, and improve education in the country?

Note that, based on education reform studies in developed countries, Nobel laureate in

physics Carl Wieman says, It is doubtful that great progress can be made at the primary and

secondary levels until a higher standard of science learning is set at the tertiary level.

Are the CHED officials familiar of this?

If you want to know the real score, find out by Google Scholar search, and know who

among our journal editors, academic leaders, research and science administrators, and our

brilliant minds have valid research publications. You will be disappointed to find not many of

them, past and present.

The picture presented here shows the real crisis in our education and research, and

explains why it has gotten worse. I think it is the social responsibility of every natural and social

scientist to help overcome this crisis thats largely in leadership. As Steven Wiley said in his

article Mind Your Manners inTheScientist.com, Asking for manners is probably not the most

effective way, even though the call may seem warranted in some cases.