On the declaration of novelty in scientific journal articles

As a researcher, I find it alarming how the Philippines seems to be steadily slipping behind the rest of Asia in terms of scientific productivity. In 2012, there were a total of 1,405 Scopus-listed publications from the entire country; this figure is well below the output levels of our ASEAN neighbors Malaysia (20,838), Thailand (10,824), Indonesia (3,231) and even Vietnam (2,836) in the same year. The tiny city-state of Singapore, home of two world-class universities but with less than one-twentieth of the Philippines’ population, produced 16,023 publications in 2012. As a result, we now rank 70th in the world in terms of scientific productivity, just below Cyprus and just ahead of war-ravaged Iraq (the interested reader can explore the statistics in more detail via the SCImago Journal & Country Ranks website at www.scimagojr.com/countryrank.php). While publication rates alone certainly do not measure all aspects of research activity, they are nevertheless widely regarded as robust, objectively measurable, proxy indicators of scientific productivity. Hence, we clearly have an untenable state of affairs, if we are to avoid being relegated to the status of a scientific backwater, while most of our Asian neighbors make major strides toward developing modern, thriving, knowledge-based economies.

Part of the burden falls on individual researchers, or research teams, to ensure proper dissemination of their research findings through globally accepted channels. By and large, scientific journals are the most credible venue for publication, while alternatives such as conferences, books and “gray literature” are generally considered of secondary importance. The roots of modern technologies we take for granted can often be traced back to scientific discoveries that originally were first reported in journal articles — take for example, solar PV cells, the Internet, GPS, etc. (the connections may not always be immediately evident, but the technological pedigrees of modern amenities can easily be found with a bit of effort and internet time). Thus, the main job of any researcher is to participate in this global accretion of knowledge, which often proceeds unpredictably, but which historically has been sustained by two main mechanisms: peer review to ensure quality-assured vetting of research findings, and dissemination to ensure that subsequent research can always be guided by prior work. Thus, it is important that Filipino researchers realize the essential value of publications as incremental (but potentially valuable) contributions to knowledge, which may be for the eventual benefit, not just of the Philippines, but also all of humanity.

How, then, can the rate of research publications from local institutions be improved? In this article, I will place emphasis on one often overlooked aspect of scientific documentation, which I like to refer to as “declaration of novelty.” This principle applies equally well to a broad range of disciplines, and if properly applied, can be useful to researchers at all developmental stages — from a Ph.D. student struggling to meet publication requirements for his/her degree, to an established researcher who needs published work for promotion or tenure purposes. It is based on the fundamental principle that the value of one’s research lies not in the degree of effort one puts into it; rather, the value of research lies in the novelty of the results.

It is thus incumbent on the researcher to highlight the novelty of his/her work when writing up a scientific paper. The novelty must be mentioned strategically, in the abstract, introduction and conclusions, as well as elsewhere in the main body of the manuscript where appropriate (of course, care must be taken not to be monotonous in repeating the claim; this is largely a matter of writing style that can be learned by trial and error, or by observing styles used in other scientific papers). The rule of thumb I use for my own work, and which I try to pass on to my colleagues and students, is that the introduction must (a) describe the overall context and justification of one’s work; (b) provide a concise but comprehensive historical account of relevant literature, describing related research, with a view to (c) being able to explicitly point out where one’s work fits into the “big picture.” This might seem obvious to seasoned researchers, but I find that the importance is lost on many young, aspiring scientists, who often focus most of their effort and energy on describing experimental methodology and results, while placing disproportionately less emphasis on writing a proper introduction. Doing so is a big mistake: I have, as a reviewer, recommended the rejection of many journal articles on the basis of badly written introductions that fail to highlight the scientific value (i.e., novelty) of the work.

Thus, to any researcher currently writing up a manuscript to be sent for peer review, I propose a few simple but effective suggestions that have worked for me over the past decade or so. First, do a comprehensive review of peer-reviewed literature in your field (this should be done during the conceptualization stage, in order to determine if a particular area is even worth investigating, and not as an afterthought). Second, identify key gaps where your own work can fit as your contribution to the global pool of human knowledge. Lastly, make sure your introduction ends with a decisive, confident declaration of novelty (after doing due diligence to ensure your claim will stand up to scrutiny). In my case, the final paragraph of the introductory section of any paper often begins with, “In this work, a novel approach to… is developed.” This simple but surprisingly effective approach has worked for me all these years, and I certainly hope it helps other aspiring Filipino researchers succeed in our collective effort to raise the bar for scientific productivity in the Philippines.

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Raymond R. Tan is a full professor of chemical engineering, university fellow and current vice chancellor for research and innovation at De La Salle University, Manila. His main areas of research are process systems engineering and process integration. He received his BS and MS in chemical engineering and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from De La Salle University. He is the author of more than 100 published and forthcoming articles in ISI-indexed journals in the fields of chemical, environmental and energy engineering. He currently has 120 publications listed in Scopus with an h-index of 25, is member of the editorial board of the journal Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy (Springer) and is editor of the book Recent Advances in Sustainable Process Design and Optimization (World Scientific). He is also the recipient of multiple awards from the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) and the National Research Council of the Philippines (NRCP) as well as commendations for highly cited papers in Computers & Chemical Engineering and Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) journals. E-mail him at [email protected].