Masters publishing requirements akin to ‘academic extremism’

Research is one of the core activities of most universities across the globe. It is no different at Ethiopian public universities, where every higher education institution has the responsibility to undertake research.

However, expecting especially masters students to publish in reputable journals could be seen as ‘academic extremism’ that disregards international experiences, the national context and students’ interests.

Different institutions across the world engage in different types of research. However, more than any other type of institution, publishing is one of the major tasks of higher education institutions. There are several reasons for universities to emphasise publication, including social responsibility (addressing the problems, challenges, and gaps), publicity, reputability and prestige.

In some universities, publishing is one of the major responsibilities of faculty, and may be a contractual requirement. In Ethiopia, faculty are expected to spend at least 25% of their time on research-related activities (60% for teaching and 15% for community services activities). In some universities, publishing is also a requirement for graduate students – often PhD students.

Publication requirements differ

Experience from elsewhere in the world indicates that students can complete their PhDs with or without articles. The decision of choosing a monograph-based or an article-based dissertation is often left to the colleges and departments and, in some cases, it is entirely up to the candidate.

Studies indicate that social sciences, the arts and humanities tend to prefer monographs, whereas natural sciences tend to prefer article-based dissertations.

This indicates that the choice is also associated with disciplines. At Addis Ababa University (AAU), the oldest, largest and one of the BEST research universities in Ethiopia, in addition to the monograph, a PhD candidate is expected to publish or produce evidence of acceptance for publication of at least two articles in reputable journals before defending a dissertation.

It is uncommon to see a university-level hard and fast rule regarding publication requirements, irrespective of disciplines, interest, and other significant factors such as contexts.

The AAU senate legislation also states that, in a masters degree programme that requires thesis work, a candidate is required to produce at least one publishable manuscript which should be presented during the thesis defence.

Masters students who have the research skills and knowledge could come up with sound research findings and publish their results in a journal. However, a masters thesis is mostly a hands-on academic activity that students carry out to experience conducting research as partial fulfilment of a masters degree in their respective fields.

Pressure of publication requirement questioned

In many countries and universities, an article-based dissertation consists of peer-reviewed articles or accepted manuscripts as well as a general introduction and conclusion section or chapter.

A monograph-based dissertation is an original scholarly work on a single topic, often with different chapters, and the format varies from university to university and department to department. At AAU, the two articles are required in addition to the monograph-based dissertation. There is no question that this requires a lot of time and effort.

In a country like Ethiopia, where there is a serious lack of research funding, and in a university where there is a lack of academic support to publish in peer-reviewed (reputable) journals and where most PhD programmes require at least two years of course work, expecting students to publish two articles puts students under huge pressure. For many reasons, faculty have also questioned the applicability of this one-size-fits-all institutional policy.

The university does not have a strong rationale for requiring a publishable manuscript of masters students. This decision is not feasible because of three major reasons.

First, most of the thesis-based masters programmes at the university are two-year programmes, but there are also 18-month masters programmes. All masters programmes require a minimum of one year of course work, which implies that students have a maximum of one year or less to complete their thesis and prepare a publishable manuscript.

Most masters students could have the capacity to finish their thesis in that time, but for most students it is very difficult to prepare a publishable manuscript.

Second, most students do not have the necessary knowledge and skills required to publish their research findings.

Third, some of the thesis supervisors may not have the experience of publishing in a reputable peer-reviewed journal, and it is difficult for the student to get the necessary support and guidance in relation to scholarly publication.

Experience has shown that many departments find it difficult to implement this publication policy. Hence, in consultation with their respective colleges, they are employing temporary, unconvincing and unnecessary exit strategies to help their students finish their masters programmes.

Although many colleges expressed their dissatisfaction about the publication requirement and faced challenges implementing this policy, the university does not seem keen to reconsider this policy.

Strong justification needed

As a pioneer university, it is good that AAU brought in the issue of publication as part of a PhD programme. However, imposing two publications as a requirement for all PhD programmes and one publishable manuscript for thesis-based masters programmes could certainly be labelled as ‘academic extremism’.

AAU does not have a policy that requires faculty to publish, but it encourages and incentivises those who do publish their research findings in reputable journals.

This approach has resulted in increased research output for the university. In a similar vein, it is better if the university leaves the publication issues to departments and colleges to decide on and encourage and support those who introduce publication as a PhD dissertation requirement with strong justification.

The university needs to reconsider the rationale and feasibility of introducing a publishable manuscript as a requirement for masters students. If not, it will either lose a significant number of potential masters students or continue inconsistent implementation of a decision that significantly compromises faculties’ professional integrity.

Dr Abebaw Yirga Adamu is an associate professor of higher education at Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia. He is a Global Dialogue fellow of the Association of International Educators (NAFSA) (2019-21) and a former International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX) university administration support programme research management fellow. He can be contacted at abebaw.yirga@aau.edu.et.