DEng 804

Unit Description and General Aims

Publication of one’s work in international, highly esteemed, peer-reviewed journals such as Nature, Scientific American, and corresponding journals focused on engineering, is seen to be vitally important by career researchers. Indeed, to have one’s work accepted by high-profile peer reviewers is an acknowledgement of the value and significance of that work. But international peer review is of equal importance in assuring the engineering community of the quality of that work and the confidence that the community can have in adopting the findings from that work.

There is a progression of development of the candidate’s communication and information literacy skills in this degree, from DEng603 to DEng700 to DEng802 to the present unit DEng804, with the whole culminating in the capstone doctoral dissertation unit DEng900. The present unit, therefore, provides a vital link in this development.

The key focus of this unit is the preparation by the candidate, as the first author, of a paper considered at an acceptable level for submission to a suitable internationally recognised peer-reviewed journal with at least a moderate impact factor. Submission of the paper would be encouraged; however, the publication is optional due to the time constraints of review and publication.

The unit explores many of the issues of journal publishing, such as journal selection and the role of impact factors, structuring and writing a paper suitable for journals, and the sometimes-difficult process of responding to detailed feedback from multiple reviewers of high standing internationally.

There is some time spent also on the process of converting a conference paper into a journal or peer-reviewed paper, with the intention that the work conducted in DEng700 (Research Project  Proposal) and the conference paper prepared in DEng802 (Doctoral Dissertation Research Paper 1) in preparation for DEng900 (Doctoral Dissertation) will be the foundation for the journal paper. To that end, the unit allows some weeks to be devoted to the candidate conducting literature searches that will be needed to update and extend the literature to be drawn upon in the journal paper.

The journal paper using the same dissertation topic will be required to be of a standard that will meet the rigorous standards required by journal publishers and applied by their panels of reviewers. Factors such as originality and significance of the work, independence of argument, completeness of the paper, length, clarity, contribution, the relevance of outcomes and reasoning, quality of writing, and likely level of readership interest will be of vital importance in the assessment tasks in this unit.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this Unit, students are expected to be able to:

1. Evaluate and compile research outcomes, data, reports and dissertations into a publishable form.

Bloom’s Level 6

2. Hypothesise and critique the process of journal paper review.

Bloom’s Level 6

3. Devise and plan the process of submitting a journal paper, as first author.

Bloom’s Level 6

4. Demonstrate comprehension of the importance and relevance of journal selection.

Bloom’s Level 3

Student assessment

Prescribed and Recommended Readings

Required Textbook(s): There is no required textbook for this unit. Please refer to the reference materials.

Reference Materials

Cargill, M. and O’Connor, P. (2009) Writing scientific research articles: strategy and steps. Blackwell Publishing, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, UK. ISBN: 978-1-4051-8619-3

The required textbook provides a number of important references in each chapter. These references and those provided by the instructor will form the basis of the reference materials. Additionally, a number of useful texts, peer-reviewed journals, and websites may be found online. Suitable information may also be found through the following resources:

Conference and journal paper rankings and impact factors

• http://www.scimagojr.com/index.php
• http://researchguides.uic.edu/c.php?g=252299&p=1683205
• http://researchguides.uic.edu/ld.php?content_id=20778502
• https://www.researchgate.net/post/Is_there_any_official_and_credible_conference_ranking_or_impact_factor_list

Formal review of technical papers

• https://homes.cs.washington.edu/~mernst/advice/meier-paper.review.html
• https://journals.jsap.jp/wp-content/uploads/how_to_write_rev_rep.pdf
• https://www.ieee.org/membership_services/membership/students/reviewer_guidelines_final.pdf
• http://www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/ias/pub-dept/revform2.html
• http://editorresources.taylorandfrancisgroup.com/reviewers-guidelines-and-best-practice/

Reference Manager Software options: (for constructing reference lists, bibliography)

Zotero: https://www.zotero.org/

Mendeley: https://www.mendeley.com/

EndNote^TM (www.endnote.com)

Students are free to use any other relevant reference manager software as per their preference.

Unit Content

Meetings 1 and 2: (To be completed by week/topic 4)

Meeting with supervisor/s to discuss and finalise the following items: research paper title, research plan, suitable conference/journal for publishing, and the due date of submission.

Meetings 3, 4, 5: (To be completed by week/topic 10)

Meeting with supervisor/s to discuss paper writing progress: e.g. Introduction, Literature search, Methodology, Experimentation, Discussions, Conclusions, Future Scope. Submit the draft paper when it is due.

Meetings 6 and 7: (To be completed by week/topic 12)

Final meetings with supervisor/s: Review, refine and submit the paper.

Software/Hardware Used

Software (Any one of these)

• Zotero: https://www.zotero.org/

• Mendeley: https://www.mendeley.com/

• EndNote^TM (www.endnote.com)

• Students are free to use any other relevant reference manager software as per their preference.

Hardware

• N/A

Unit Changes Based on Student Feedback