Key to Successfully Publishing Articles in the SCI/SSCI-indexed Journals: A Practical Framework from NTUST Taiwan Tech

Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) is one of the “flagship” citation indexes in the world in addition to the Science Citation Index (SCI) and the Art & Humanities Citation Index (AHCI). These citation indexes are governed by the Web of Science Core Collection Journal Selection Process: 24 quality criteria and 4 impact criteria. Every SSCI-indexed paper undergoes strict reviews by their expert-in-house editor using specific objectivity and selectivity processes.

SSCI-indexed paper cites over 122 million references that’s connected all around the world. Furthermore, SSCI-indexed paper is one of the key graduation requirements for obtaining the Ph.D Degree. Nevertheless, this requirement is also applied to Ph.D students in all Taiwan universities as well.

Taiwan is ranked the 19th best in the world in terms of publishing research articles with an average of 37,000 articles every year. Some of the articles are published by one of their top technology universities in the country, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (NTUST). According to the 2021 Times Higher Education-QS World Rankings, NTUST’s ranking continues to rise due to the increased number of SCI/SSCI/AHCI-indexed papers from their students and faculty members.

NTUST provided their best services and facilities to help students in doing research in different areas. The university provides scholarships to students from abroad applying for admission to English-taught programs for master’s and doctoral degrees as full-time students. Furthermore, the diversity of students from various countries will add inspiration and nuance when starting to do research.

How is NTUST publishing research articles in SCI/SSCI-index journals? This is the behind the scenes of the process: First, every department should divide research interests for their professors based on their expertise. Second, master and Ph.D students can join each research interest which includes a professor as their advisor and lab. Third, the whole research process begins from each lab.

For instance, in the Information Systems Innovation Lab managed by Prof. Yu-Qian Zhu, students from this lab have a lab meeting every two weeks. In this lab meeting, two students will present an SSCI-indexed paper related to their interest and end by presenting their research plan. Teachers and other students will give students feedback, suggestions, and advice to make their research plan more comprehensive by adding some variables, changing their research object, and/or how important that research is to the recent theories/knowledge.

The diversity of students’ countries of origin in the lab also provides benefits for lab members. Every input comes from different countries that make their point-of-view more varied. It will not occur if the lab members come from the same countries. “One of the benefits of the lab meeting is that when one student presents his idea, another student provides input, recommendations and suggestions. This is the meaning of knowledge-sharing in this lab,“ said Prof Zhu during a lab meeting.

After the lab meeting, more detail about their research plan will be sharpened during face-to-face discussions every week. The professor is responsible for bringing each paper to the current state-of-the-art of the field, has more experience on how to choose a good angle, as well as how to tell the main contribution of a paper to knowledge. Futhermore, students complete the role of professors by providing statistical reports from the data taken, interpreting the results, and providing details to complete as standard of SSCI-indexed papers.

“Usually, in the term process of writing a SSCI-indexed paper, the professor will give us the chance to finish this research first. After several discussions and improvements, final touches will be done by the professor: how the writing angle is taken, the small details that must be completed in each section before the paper is submitted to a certain SSCI-indexed journal,” said Saide, Ph.D, alumni of Information Management NTUST.

The process of getting published in an SSCI-indexed journal is not only limited to writing processes, but also the funding assistance during the process: starting from data collection, to the proofreading process.

“For my first paper, my professor covered the proofreading fees,” said Palopak, student of Information Management NTUST.

To conduct high quality research articles need support systems to assist in every progress of the research. NTUST has a system that allows students and professors to comfortably conduct research, allowing the number of articles published in top-journal articles to increase every year. Hence, the above processes will be a key lesson for students of various countries, while the students who have already graduated will be able to apply the process in their respective countries in getting published in an SSCI-indexed journal.

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