Strengthening Scientific Publication Literacy

Living in a world with all kinds of scientific challenges will hopefully not make the nation’s generation close their eyes or look at it from only one point of view. Science needs to be developed so that it remains relevant by the times. One way is to do research and then publish it to many readers. But if we stop at research and only become a manuscript. So, it can be said to be a failed research because no benefit is produced unless the research results are followed up with scientific publications to add new ideas and ideas to readers.

Scientific publications can be interpreted as efforts to disseminate ideas and ideas of science through scientifically explained research. Academics, lecturers, teachers, and students are very familiar with this. Currently, the government is also intensifying the number of publications so that more and more people contribute as scientific developers.

So what does this have to do with literacy?

Many people interpret literacy as an individual’s ability in the process of mastering reading and writing. In English, literacy means the meaning of letters or literacy. According to the American Library Association in (Suherman, 2013), literacy is a person’s ability to recognize when information is read to be needed, used, and utilized efficiently. This literacy ability is predicted as an indicator that has a massive influence on one’s success. People with good literacy skills are expected to help someone understand spoken and written information.

This literacy basis for a Muslim has been explained in the Al-Quran surah Al-Alaq (1-4), which sounds as follows:

“Read! In the name of your Rabb Who created, created man from a leechlike mass, Read! Your Rabb is the Most Gracious, Who taught by the Pen,”

Based on this quote, it can be interpreted as human beings who have been created so perfectly, ordered to read, define, understand, and rewrite it so that it becomes writing whose benefits are felt by people.

In addition, the power of literacy plays a major role in the development of human resources, so it is important to turn it on. This literacy becomes the capital in developing and building scientific discourse so that there is a movement of progress regarding ideas. So, the action of thoughts and ideas is the key to the ability to write, and scientific publications must begin with literacy capital as the main strong foundation. According to Yamin (2018), the reading and writing process is necessary to develop as a way of caring for culture to build civilization. Literacy is not necessarily interpreted as just reading activities but needs to be continued with writing skills and needs to be traditionalized so that what is the urgency of the subject of discussion benefits as a form of change.

Some things that need to be underlined be reviewed, such as:

• New findings to prevent plagiarism.

If you look closely at an article, the main thing is that there must be an element of originality, or another term commonly referred to as ‘novelty’. Novelty is a new finding that has been discovered by others yet. For example, there is a new method, knowledge, or solution. This is important because it aims to prevent the occurrence of the same results as the results of previous research. There are many cases where a research result is repeated and of little use. So that in the end, they just become articles that are less useful in research. Therefore, novelty is non-negotiable because it is a mandatory top priority in research to become a publication worth reading. In this situation, the literacy ability to recognize information, understand, compare, and even analyze is needed in discovering new findings.

• The benefits of the results for society.

The second indicator that should not be forgotten is the contribution of these results to many people. Through the new findings which explained previously, this section can become a liaison agent of change to society as a form of change. Thus, science will slowly develop following the times. The impact of this can make society grow according to global conditions.

• Scientific publication ethics literacy

The last thing which often overlooked is the ethics of writing scientific publications. Many times, authors ignore the publication writing template. Even though this neglect is urgent to pay attention to and reconsider before submitting. The two elements above are novelty, and the usefulness of the results is very qualified. But, because we neglected to submit it to the journal, we did not use a template, so it was rejected for publication.

The three elements above are the basic things and are very closely related to why it is necessary to strengthen literacy in scientific publications. Without a strong literacy process, the quality of scientific publications will be mediocre. Therefore, by strengthening scientific publication literacy by paying attention to publication ethics, new findings will emerge that will provide many benefits and can be published to society.

By: Arohmawati

Source:

• Al-Qur’an dan terjemahannya. 2018. Departemen Agama RI. Bandung: Diponegoro.
• Suherman. (2013). Perpustakaan sebagai Jantung Sekolah. Bandung: Literate Publishing.
• Yamin, M. “Kebijakan Literasi Untuk Meningkatkan Produktivitas Publikasi di Perguruan Tinggi”. Jurnal Analisis Sistem Pendidikan Tinggi. Vol. 2, no. 1. pp. 19-26. 2018.