Young staff with international publications: Need to be patient and listen to criticism!

-What is the meaning of VNU's incentive policies for staff and young staff in scientific research, especially in publishing international research results, to you personally in your scientific research activities?

Since 1997, when I started working at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, VNU, I have realized that this is the first time VNU has had a special policy to encourage and reward young scientists with international publications (articles published in international scientific journals listed by ISI, Scopus, or with high IF index). Such an incentive policy certainly has a very special meaning for me personally. Not because of the amount of bonus I received, but because a dedicated research article of mine was published and then received valuable support and encouragement from the VNU Development Fund. For me, this is a great honor and encouragement.

- In your opinion, what is the significance of international scientific publications to the self?gratitude to scientists, and more broadly to VNU?

As we all know, publishing research works is a very necessary thing for each individual scientist in general and young scientists in particular. Therefore, each scientist tries to publish his research works domestically and internationally. International scientific publication has an even more important meaning because a domestic work will be known by many international scholars abroad. Therefore, just one scientific article by a young staff of Vietnam National University, Hanoi (VNU) published in a foreign scientific journal with an ISSN index means that the staff has contributed a small effort to affirm the "brand" of VNU in the international "marketplace". In that sense, the incentive policy of VNU this time, in my opinion, is a "strategic" policy of VNU leaders to build and develop VNU into a leading research university, ranking directly with prestigious universities in the region and the world.

In my opinion, the most important condition is the “quality” of the published work. Most publishers want more and more readers to subscribe to and read the journal, more and more scientists to submit articles to their journal, so they pay great attention to maintaining and improving the quality and reputation of the journal. Therefore, each article, in addition to ensuring sufficient conditions such as: language, form, submission procedures ... must be articles with quality content and scientific novelty.

The first time I published an article, I did not send it directly to the journal, but I submitted it to an international scientific conference. About a month after the conference, the conference organizers sent a notice that my article was selected to be published in a specialized journal, but it had to be edited according to the comments if I agreed to publish it.

The second time I sent my article directly to the journal and this time I was criticized twice, finally my article was published after nearly 1 year since the submission. My experience is that to be published in an international journal, you should accept the criticism of scientists, patiently edit the article and wait for the results from the editorial board.

I still focus on my research on my strengths. In addition, in the recent Cafe Program No. 4 in Ba Vi, a group of young scientists from the University of Social Sciences and Humanities discussed and proposed some common research directions. Next, we will work together to complete the proposal to submit to the leaders of VNU for approval and implement it together if approved.