The duo has already visited several Schools in the University, including School of Business and Economics, School of Arts and Social Sciences, School of Education and the School of Public Health, Biomedical Sciences and Technology to sensitize staff into embracing the spirit of the campaign. They reported that when they started the campaign, it was tough and they faced various challenges, however, they are glad that different schools at the University are embracing the idea. Dr. Ochieno encouraged professors to join them in the campaign. “Professors should come out and be on the front-line for the success of the campaign,” said Dr. Ochieno.
‘Avoid Dr. Kanda’s Dustbin’ campaign aims to help scholars publish their research work in credible journals which eventually minimizes the chances of having a vicious circle of quack scholars. “This dustbin project aims at ensuring that MMUST staff publish their scholarly and research work in renowned journals associated with platforms such as SCOPUS and Web of Science in order to improve the web ranking of our University,” noted Dr. Kanda, during an interview at the Directorate of Corporate Communications and Marketing.
Dr. Dennis Ochieno articulating a point during the interview
Speaking during the interview, Dr. Ochieno pointed out that good research will receive publication for free, adding that there is a need to have faculty of wide journals that have a good review process such as a diverse editorial board with professional review processes. To make it even more effective and efficient, he advised that supervisors should guide their students to publish in the right journals.
“We are in the process of creating an article pre-submission advisory committee to enable MMUST post-graduate students and researchers to identify publishing platforms whose articles are credible and avoid having their work ending up in Dr. Kanda’s dustbin,” stressed Dr. Ochieno.
The University is already funding staff to carry out research through the Directorate of Research and Postgraduate Support. Clearly such incentives can act as a motivator to this crucial project. University Research Fund (URF) for instance should be used as a tool for facilitating the process of publication and success of publications in the right journals that will give visibility to the University.
The campaign is key not only in promoting ethical issues but also to encourage adherence to the requirements of the Committee on Publications Ethics (COPE). COPE fights lack of integrity in publishing as well as research misconduct which includes three major misconducts; Fabrication, Falsification and Plagiarism (FFP).
