Why are Vietnam 's international publications still small?

Language restrictions, stagnant nature, financial difficulties . are reasons for Vietnam to have little international publication.

Although the number of international articles of Vietnam has grown rapidly in the past five years, it is still far from the regional countries such as Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. According to experts, the main reason is the management system and the scientist itself.

Research orientation and environment

Professor Nguyen Van Tuan, University of New South Wales (Australia), said that domestic science lacked research orientation, so he struggled on the topic that others did. Old topics are often difficult to publish.

Meanwhile, science funding agencies at the departmental, ministerial and state levels do not raise international publication issues as criteria for funding and acceptance. This makes scientists feel no need for international publication. Besides, the "administrative" environment also undermines the will of so many young researchers.

According to Professor Truong Nguyen Thanh, Vice President of Hoa Sen University, international publication is considered one of the main results of scientific research, but the investment budget is not commensurate. Good scientific research environment requires elements: infrastructure, particularly laboratories; budget and clear management mechanism; human and development support system.

"Overseas scientific research activities often focus strongly on universities, Vietnam is mostly in research institutes. On the other hand, support mechanisms for young lecturers in universities or research institute is very little, " said Professor Thanh.

Vietnam has lagged behind in international publication from the inertia of the previous difficult period.(Illustration).

Professor Pham Duc Chinh (Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology) frankly pointed out that Vietnam has lagged behind in international publication stemming from the inertia of the previous difficult period. This inertia makes many scientists, including those who have been trained abroad, but not under the pressure of following international standards, gradually fall back on talent. Therefore, the State should create a policy mechanism to "pressure" Vietnamese science to follow international standards.

Science culture

Not only has the cause of the management system, Professor Tuan pointed out the limitations of internal research. Vietnamese scientists are not familiar with the international publication culture, are not aware of the importance and necessity of this. Some people even argue that basic research is just published internationally, and the application is not needed.

Science or any industry needs someone to go ahead to guide "juniors", enabling them to have the opportunity to continue their careers. Vietnam lacks instructors with experience in scientific research. This leads to the fact that young scientists have the enthusiasm and talent to do research but have to " give up".

Limited language

Another barrier that makes Vietnamese publications less appear on ISI is the way to write scientific and limited articles in foreign languages. In fact, many young scientists want to publish research on international journals, but don't know how to write scientific papers in order to reach the standard.

Some people know how to write, but English is not enough to write a complete manuscript. The foreign language ability of Vietnamese authors is poorly thought to be one of the main reasons for the articles being rejected by the journal.

Process of publishing articles in international journals

According to many scientists, it is "common" for research projects to be rejected by journalists because of a rigorous review process. After the project is sent to the journal, the editor-in-chief will look over the topic, the summary and decide to assign a deputy general assistant to decide whether to reject or send it out of the review. If they refuse, they will send a letter to the author.

If it is possible to publish, the project will be sent to at least 2-3 experts who are reviewers with extensive knowledge about the topic of the project. If the majority of the reviewers agree to post, the editorial department will contact the author to suggest modifying, supplementing or clarifying the issues requested by the reviewer. If the author corrects too much after the first comment, the editorial staff will send a further review. Finally, the editor-in-chief relies on the decision of the deputy editor and peer reviewer to inform the author.

The probability of rejection depends on the impact index impact factor (IF) of that journal. The higher the file with IF, the higher the rejection rate. For example, journals like BMJ (the world's leading medical journal) receive about 1,000 manuscripts a year, they refuse 70-95% of the manuscript. Of which 50% of articles were rejected at the first step, ie no need to send out the review, 45% were rejected after the first review and 5% rejection after the second review. .