How can we boost Philippine research?

An educational visionary and a pillar of linguistics in the Philippines, the late Academician Br. Andrew Gonzalez FSC advocated the development of a research university in the country. From the late 70s to the 90s, serving as president of De La Salle University concurrent to his role as head of the first La Salle school system, he understood the crucial impact of research on national development. For his field, he conducted extensive studies on a culture-rooted language development, among many others; for his community, he made research a top priority and a way of life.

Some two decades since, DLSU has made big strides towards contributing to the body of knowledge not just for the country but also for the international community. To date, it is the most productive Philippine university in research, based on Scopus data.

On the global scale, however, DLSU and other Philippine universities have a long way to go towards the upper rung of the global university rankings, specifically on research production and impact. From such backdrop, a team of La Salle faculty researchers embarked on the construction and management of a growing system for quality assurance of Philippine research journals.

The project, the Andrew Gonzalez Philippine Citation Index (AGPCI)—their fitting tribute to the first Filipino advocate of a research university—aims to accredit local journals based on a set of criteria. The project team is headed by DLSU Publishing House Associate Publisher and Biology Department Associate Professor Dr. Jose Isagani Janairo and composed of faculty members Dr. Charibeth Cheng of the Computer Technology Department, Dr. Nelson Arboleda, Jr. of the Physics Department, and Dr. Feorillo Demeterio III of the Filipino Department, who is also director of the University Research Coordination Office.

In the course of their research, the team noted how most of research-oriented universities rely on giant citation indices, such as Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus, in measuring their research productivities and in identifying research journals to which their faculty members should publish. As these citation indices are predominated by journals published in North America and Europe, the team raised the question of why Filipino researchers are forced to publish in such journals, considering that these might have issues and concerns totally different from that of the local journals.

Taking inspiration from the creation of the Thai Journal Citation Index in 2001 and which led to the creation of the ASEAN Citation Index in 2011, the group noted the need to come up with a Philippine Citation Index (PCI). While there were earlier efforts to create such, sustaining the projects fell through the cracks.

“The Philippines has more than 500 academic journals, published mainly by higher education institutions. However, determining the quality of these local journals is difficult considering the absence of an active local quality assurance system for Philippine journals. AGPCI aims to fill this void,” Janairo says.

As the team identified the challenges that emerged in previous initiatives, they conceptualized the framework for AGPCI. In their study, they noted that if and when PCI will finally emerge, AGPCI may decide to fold up once AGPCI’s efficiency, scope, consistency, and sustainability are surpassed by PCI.

AGPCI currently collects bibliographic information of the journals and keeps track of their citations. In this way, AGPCI serves as a repository of information and provides a way for assessing the quality of Philippine journals. It also provides guidance, training, and assessment for the improvement of the scholarly quality of Philippine journals.

Last February 28, AGPCI organized at DLSU Manila campus a forum on journal management and best editorial practices for editors and scholars from various universities in the Philippines. There are already 13 journals recognized and accredited by AGPCI.

In the long run, the team hopes to boost the Philippine research community by helping journals meet international accreditation and improve the research productivity of the country.

The URL of AGPCI is www.agpci.dlsu.edu.ph

Contact: Dr. Jose Isagani Janairo | [email protected]