“International scientific article” is not just “international journal article”According to Professor Hoang Anh Tuan, equating “scientific articles” with “magazine articles” is inaccurate and detrimental to some scientific fields, especially social sciences and humanities.
“Scientific article” is not only a journal article. A scientific article can be a journal article, or a book chapter in a monograph. Equating a scientific article with a journal article would be both deficient and unfair to many researchers in scientific activities.
"A prestigious international journal article is rigorously reviewed. A book chapter in an international monograph published by a prestigious publisher is also rigorously reviewed, so the scientific quality is very high. The process of reviewing and completing an international monograph manuscript is quite long. I used to be an independent author and also co-editor of monographs published at Brill (Leiden) and Routlege (London), the proofreading and editing took about 2.5 years.
For a long time, social science and humanities researchers have highly valued the publication of articles as book chapters in monographs on a particular topic. For them, the publication of a book chapter in a monograph published by a reputable publisher is no less valuable than the publication of an article in a specialized journal.
Up to now, many researchers have chosen to publish their articles as book chapters in a monograph co-written with prestigious researchers, instead of publishing them in specialized journals. This practice is not only common in Vietnam but also in many international academic backgrounds until today," shared Prof. Dr. Hoang Anh Tuan.
Therefore, Prof. Dr. Hoang Anh Tuan believes that it would be both inaccurate and unfair if a prestigious international book chapter was not recognized as a prestigious international scientific article. The prestige of a book chapter is determined by the prestige of that international publisher, similar to the way we determine the prestige of an international journal.
Prof. Dr. Hoang Anh Tuan, Rector of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi
International journals ranked by WoS, international publishers ranked by SENSE
There are several journal ranking systems in the world, the most popular being ISI and SCOPUS. Similarly, international publishers are also ranked by several scientific organizations, such as SENSE - Prof. Dr. Hoang Anh Tuan raised the issue.
SENSE ranks international publishers (with peer review) into 4 groups, in which group A includes only 10 publishers from prestigious universities (Cambridge, Columbia, Harvard, John's Hopkins, MIT, Oxford, Princeton, Stanford, Chicago, Yale), group B includes only about 70 publishers (including Routlege, Brill, Nomos...), group C includes about 180 publishers...
SENSE itself is also very objective when recommending “credit points” for a book chapter published by the respective publishers: publisher group A: 4 credit points, B: 3, C: 1 and D: 0.
Decree 27/2020/ND-CP does not deny the international book chapter
"There are some arguments that current legal documents on science and technology define "international scientific articles" as "international journal articles". I do not think so", Prof. Dr. Hoang Anh Tuan shared.
He analyzed that Decree 27/2020/ND-CP (amending Decree 40/2014/ND-CP and Decree 87/2014/ND-CP) mentioned the phrase "scientific article published in an international scientific journal" 7 times, but it does not imply a "definition" that a scientific article is just a journal article as some people think.
Decree 40/2014/ND-CP itself also mentions the phrase “scientific article published in a specialized scientific journal” twice, but it does not imply a definition to deny the book chapter. The problem is, if the documents have not “covered” all the conceptual content, we must be responsible for adjusting it based on scientific theory and practical work.
Decision No. 37/2018/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister on academic titles has an unreasonable point when it stipulates that "a scientific article is a scientific work of the author that has been published in a scientific journal with an international standard code ISSN" (Clause 3, Article 2). The format of a scientific article as a journal article is not sufficient because it excludes book chapters.
"In my opinion, Clause 3, Article 2 of Decision No. 37/2018/QD-TTg should be adjusted to: "a scientific article is a scientific work of the author that has been published in a scientific journal with an international standard code ISSN or a book chapter in a monograph with an international standard code ISBN". The level of prestige of a book chapter - as mentioned above - depends on the level of prestige of the publisher, similar to the way we are determining the level of prestige of a journal", Prof. Dr. Hoang Anh Tuan expressed his opinion.
Prof. Dr. Hoang Anh Tuan believes that it is time for science management agencies to soon add “prestigious international book chapters” and “prestigious international monographs” to legal documents on science and academic titles, placing them in parallel with “international journal articles”. Doing so will both perfect the content of the regulations and ensure the very legitimate rights of scientists in professional councils, especially at the National Science and Technology Foundation (Ministry of Science and Technology) and the State Council for Professor Titles (Ministry of Education and Training).
