Publish or Perish: The Process

"Publish or perish" in the academics originates from the fact that without publishing, researchers will not get promoted.   Nigerian researchers have three core duties: research, teaching and community service.  Publishing entails creating a novel idea, investigating the idea through analysis, getting the results accepted by your peers in the field.

What are the processes involved in publishing and how does it translate to promotion for researchers?  Let's start with the publishing process.

The Publishing Process

 After a researcher has conceived an idea, investigated the concept through "research" and reached a conclusion, a report of the entire process is written as a manuscript. This manuscript is sent to a Journal .  A journal can be part of a large publishing enterprise, an independent body, owned by a national or international association or an academic institution or unit within it.  The Editor, who oversees the affairs of the Journal (sometimes with the help of associate editors), decide whether the manuscript conforms to the journal template, fit into the journal's objective and focus, and of significant standards to merit publishing.  If he is satisfied, the manuscript is sent to reviewers, whose duties include scrutinizing the manuscript and proffering suggestions and corrections.  The reviewing process can be single blind, double blind, or open peer-review.   This process can take between one month to a few years, depending on several factors.  The manuscript can be rejected or sent back for minor/major corrections.  When the reviewers are satisfied with the revisions done on the manuscript, it will be accepted for publication.  Sometimes, we refer to this final product as paper.  A conference paper is based on presentations at a conference.  Academics also publish monographs, book chapters, books, and technical reports.

The Promotion Process

Nigerian Universities have similar promotion criteria and process.  The promotion process begins at the Department with the distribution of the Annual Performance Evaluation Form (APER FORM).  It is on this form you list your teaching, research and other activities for the period under consideration.  All your papers or publications, with the recent ones marked, are listed on this form.  An internal reviewer is appointed to consider your submission against a set of benchmarks.  Points are awarded for each of your publications which are then used in deciding whether you qualify for promotion or not.  The benchmarks vary from institution to institutions.  Some institutions require that the Journal volume must not be less than 40.  There is a limited number of articles you can publish in a volume of a journal and the journal itself.  There is a minimum number of articles for which you must be the first or sole author. Furthermore, there is a limit to the number of articles you published in the year of promotion.  A few institutions have blacklisted journal articles published in selected countries or even publishers.  Almost all institutions require that you have at least three publication since your last promotion. After the internal review, your application will be considered at the faculty and university level.  This process requires making lots of copies of your applications and publications. All the forms of publication have different points assigned to them.

For junior staff (Assistant Lecturer to Lecturer I), the University Appointments and Promotion Committees forward their recommendations to the Vice Chancellor.  However, for senior cadres (Senior Lecturers to Professors), copies of their publications are sent to three national and international reviewers.  Your promotion at this point depends on the report of these reviewers.

The challenges with these process is discussed in the article Publish or Perish: The Problems

Stoves, health and environment

How do we achieve Sustainable Development Goal 7 of affordable and clean energy?  Currently, majority of rural dwellers use firewood, which is cheap and readily available around them.  The use of coal is still prevalent in many households. These approaches poses a threat to the environment and life.  Users are exposed to poisonous gas and use of firewood degrades the environment.  Many of this cooking takes place in confined environments which increases the health risk.  Cooking gas, although subsidized is still beyond the reach of many families.  

Prof. Adedayo and his team at the Department of Physics, Federal University of Technology Akure considered this problem and came up with a plausible solution.  This work focuses on the design, development and construction of a forced-air, top-lit, updraft biomass gasifier stove.  To provide draft for the stove, the group incorporated an electronic fan which can be driven from the mains or solar powered.  The biomass fuel for the present design is palm kernel shell. A picture of the final constructed stove is shown below.

The research group compared the finished product with a kerosene and gas stove.  From the result (shown above), the constructed stove compares well with a gas stove in performance.  The stove was also found to emit less fumes than the conventional firewood stove.  This innovation can go a long way to combat diseases and deaths inhalation of dangerous gases during cooking.   There is the need to improve on this and involve policy makers in this development.

References

1.  Adedayo, K., Owoola, E. & Ogunjo, S. "The development of an enhanced biomass gasifier stove" Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., India, Sect. A Phys. Sci. (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40010-018-0570-y

Ozone, vegetation and our health

Ozone is a gas that is closely related to oxygen - yes, the gas we breathe in.  Is Ozone good or bad for us?  Well, it is both good and bad.  Ozone is a very bad gas to our health when it exist close to the ground.   However, beyond this region it is very good as it protects us from the harmful effect of the sun.    So, we want ozone in the upper atmosphere but not in the lower atmosphere.

There are a lot of things that remove ozone from the upper atmosphere.  One of them is the amount of trees or vegetation we have on the ground.  This is one of the reason people concerned about the environment ask that we plant trees around us.  How exactly does the amount of trees affect the total ozone in the atmosphere?  This was the focus of the research by Ogunjo and other researchers [1].

To do this, there is the need to assign numbers to trees.  Impossible? Using satellite data, regions with very high amount of trees and vegetation are given the number 1 while places with no trees or vegetation get the number 0.  This method constitute the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI).   From a similar satellite, the amount of ozone in the atmosphere was also gotten.  The authors now conducted an analysis over West Africa.  Their result can be seen in the figure below.

Figure 1:  Linear relationship between NDVI and total ozone column [1]

The authors found out that as we cut and burn trees in West Africa we reduce the amount of ozone available to protect us.  It could be seen from their figure that if the amount of vegetation increases, the total ozone column also increases and vice versa.   They discovered that regions with high amount of vegetation also have high amount of ozone.    The rapid population growth in West Africa (especially Nigeria) is increasing the demand for housing, clothing, feeding, and other necessities.  All these place demand on our vegetation.    The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the next best time is NOW!  There is the urgent need to protect our future by increasing our vegetation.  This is not a job for one but for all.

References

[1]  Ogunjo, S., Fuwape, I., Rabiu, B., Oluyamo, S., & Owoola, E. (2019). Assessing the Impact of Vegetation Cover on Total Column Ozone Over West Africa. In Advances in Remote Sensing and Geo Informatics Applications (pp. 231-233). Springer, Cham.

Executive Order 5: Implication for Nigerian Academic Institutions

In recent times, the Nigerian academic landscape has been witnessing increased agitation for better funding.  This was necessitated by obsolete research facilities, increasing number of students amidst inadequate teaching and learning resources and poor funding of institutions.  It is no longer news that the current model of educational funding in Nigeria must be discussed with the participation of all stakeholders.  

President Muhammadu Buhari

On 5th February 5, 2018, President Muhammad Buhari signed into law "Executive Order 5".  This executive order, though not as popular as Executive Order 1 which addresses the ease of doing business in Nigeria, has significant implications for higher institutions in Nigeria.  Although it addresses the planning and execution of projects, promotion of Nigerian content in contracts, science, engineering and technology, it can bolster the quality of education in Nigerian Universities if they can look beyond the free money. 

Minister of Education: Mr. Adamu Adamu

The vision of the executive order to "promote the application of science, technology and innovation in all sectors of the Nigerian economy" positions Nigerian institutions of higher learning for significant gains.   The executive order "gives preference to Nigerian companies and firms in the award of contracts" (Section 1(1)), firms with verifiable plan for indigenous capacity development (Section 1(2)), "adopt local technology" (Section 1(6)), and "preference granted to domestic manufacturers, contractors and suppliers (Section 3(1))".   

In my own opinion, it is high time academics started creating spin-off companies from their researchers and Universities go beyond producing "pure" water and bread to competitive bidding for building and construction contracts, national security projects and national training programmes.   Just as institutions came together to form the Joint University Preliminary Examination Body, they can come together to build large scale industries.   Academics need to look up from their chalkboards and manuscript to see opportunities such as the funding proposed in Section 5(5) of Executive Order 5, incentives for building and infrastructural development material (Section 9(1c)), and tax incentives in Section 10(2).  With the disqualification from contract based on year of incorporation frowned at in Section 6, university-driven industries can compete favourably with established organization in bidding for contracts.

Executive order 5, like other Nigerian laws, have its obvious lacuna.   Section 5(4) encouraged the inclusion of public procurement process in the Secondary School curriculum!  Does our University curriculum cover the public procurement process?  This executive order has been in existence for over nine (9) months, do we know the secretariat of the Council at the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology (Section 12(1a))?   Section 12(6) listed members of the Presidential Monitoring and Evaluation Council with representatives of the academic community missing.  Nigerian academic are central to this executive order and deserve a place in the decision (or monitoring and evaluation) committee.