In continuation of its strong aim to learn, explore, network and collaborate, Asian Council of Science Editors conducted its 4th Annual Conference during August 13 and 14, 2017 at the Carlton Palace Hotel in Dubai, UAE. The conference brings an exploration of publications and its current trends that define Asia regardless of ideological, geographic and cultural boundaries. The theme of “Training Asia” attracts a high level of audience at The ACSE Annual Conference including researchers, reviewers, editors and publishers from all over the Asia.
August 13th, 2017: Pre-Conference Learning Sessions and Workshops
The first day was started with an interactive workshop on “An overview of publication ethics” by Philip Purnell, Director of Research & Publishing Services, Knowledge E, in which he discussed current ethical issues such as self-citations, citation cartel, fake peer reviews, etc and their solutions. The workshop was followed by an interesting lecture titled “A deeper look at COPE guidelines” by Mohamad Mostafa from Knowledge E. In continuation, Lars Bjørnshauge, Managing Director and Founder of the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), delivered another thought provoking lecture, titled “How to enlist a journal in DOAJ,” Lars enlightened the selection criteria used by DOAJ and explained the application procedure and reason behind increased rejection rate of application.
The first day was ended with a round of The ACSE Editors Café which was chaired by Dr. Anwar ul Hassan Gilani, Dr. Gazi, Dr. Mehmet, Dr. Zabta and Philip Purnell. The Editors Café at this Annual Conference proved to be another successful episode that contributed to the conference by bringing up new challenges faced by the Asian editors.
August 14th, 2017: Annual Conference
The morning started with the Welcome address of Dr. Gazi Mahabubul Alam, sharing a glimpse of efforts, opportunities and major outcomes of his presidential tenure (2016-2017) as well as Introducing, Dr. Anwar ul Hassan Gilani as the New President of Asian Council of Science Editors. The welcome speech was continued by Dr. Anwar ul Hassan Gilani admiring the beneficiations of Dr. Gazi Mahabubul Alam, former president of The ACSE, throughout his presidential tenure. The first lecture “DOAJ-Ambassadors Project” was delivered by Dr. Lars Bjørnshauge in which he focused the progress and future strategies for open access journals in the global south, under wide-ranging skill sets of DOAJ Ambassadors. Adding to the flavors of the day, Dr. Zabta Khan Shinwari came up with a very interesting session on “Responsible sciences under one health” By Dr. Zabta Khan Shinwari.
This was followed by another lecture on “What's broken in the academic publishing process from an author's point of view?” by Kakoli Majumder, Senior Writer & Editor at Editage Insights. Another lecture that fascinated the audience was “Journals are in the Assertions Business - Sustainable Model for Scholarly Publishing” by Jason de Boer, UK Client Development Manager at Aries Systems Corporation
The 2017 Annual Conference of The ACSE truly demonstrated its existence as an Asian learning and networking platform for publishing professionals, which is meant to explore new trends and technical tools in academic publishing as well as a discussion forum for the solutions of existing problems and building strategies for future challenges.
