Papers published in the Journal
by Eng. M
Chandrasekera/Qatar
This is not the first time I am writing about this matter.
However, the previous Editor chose not to publish my letter due to some
undisclosed reasons.
It is very unfortunate that the practicing Engineers do not
write articles about what they do in terms of designs, construction or Project
Management to the Engineer Journal.
This void is filled with the articles sent by the academics
in the Universities.
Ironically, matters presented in most of these articles have
no immediate practical application. Very often those articles are based on some
‘research projects’ carried out for fulfillment
of academic requirements by graduate/post graduate students. However, the
articles appear in the name of their ‘Project supervisor’ giving also the
indirect benefit to the Project supervisors to fulfill their publication
commitments.
On top of this, there are some academics who repeatedly
submit papers to IESL sponsored paper writing competitions and win ‘hat tricks
after hat tricks’ of certificates and cash awards. Very often, these ‘research
studies’ are, those conducted with back up funds too. Hence, it is morally not
correct for the same academic member to submit so many papers for these
competitions repeatedly.
I request the Editorial Board to adopt a suitable set of
guidelines to limit the excessive publication of such papers.
At the same time, I wish the Editorial Board to conduct a sustained
promotional campaign to encourage the practicing Engineers to submit papers for
the publication in the Journal.
Eng. M
Chandrasekera/Qatar
26th February 2013
Hear, hear! I agree with you Eng. Chandrasekhar and I too join to raise the issue about lack of articles by practicing engineers and due encouragement from the IESL to so. One of the most boring journals I have ever seen is the Engineer. It looks gloomy inside and outside.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the fault lies with both parties - IESL and its members - and not with the academics. They have found a way to get their objectives accomplished.
Credit should go to the current Editor, Dr. Nawagamuwa, who is an academic with an open progressive mind! He has given this forum to air our thoughts through SLEN online blog. Lets use this opportunity publish digitally feature rich articles with multi media from the field to get our points across more effectively.
Arjun Manamperi
M-2062
I too agree with both of you! And add to that, I see most of the articles are pivoting around Civil Engineering, which is pretty good but the non civil engineers who are practicing in the industry as well as the academics should contribute more towards the journal!
ReplyDelete