Journal of Defense Studies and Resource ManagementISSN: 2324-9315

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Rabiul Ahasan

Editor In Chief

Rabiul Ahasan, PhD
Industrial Engineering and Management
University of Oulu Finland

Contact Rabiul Ahasan

Department / University Information

Interview

1. What makes an article top quality? 

Response: Validity, originality, insight and usefulness. The article should be demanding, well featured, well written, meet journal style, easy to read and easy to understand by multidisciplinary readers. The article should respect copyright laws, national regulations (if any. e.g. Chinese scientists can’t write anything they do research and from their findings), complies with the manual of style guidelines layout. It should address the main aspects of the topic focusing the title & abstract avoiding unnecessary detail, represent viewpoints fairly (without bias giving due weight to each.

2. Do you think that journals determine research trends?

Response: Sometime it does but sometimes not.

3. What makes a good position paper?

Response: It depends on issue criteria (e.g., is it a real issue with genuine controversy or uncertainty? can we identify distinctive positions in a position paper? are we personally interested in advocating one of these positions for our readers’ interest?). It also depends on analyzing an issue and develop an argument (contain current feature) to make the position paper lucrative, readable and useful. The paper should consider particular type of audience and their interests. A position paper should determine clear viewpoints, that keep academic honesty, no plagiarism, avoid copy & paste.

4. What are the qualities you look for in an article?

Response: Validity, originality, insight and usefulness. An article must have a good headline, lead sentence, good body, discussion (if any), and conclusion.

5. Can you give us a broad indication of the types of themes a scientific journal should cover?

Response: Original research papers should deal with current issues, matters, environment, occupation, life. The journal should publish articles on a variety of topics and research methods that interact between scientific communities and bridge the gap between research and practice by providing good information, excellent ideas/opinion. The journals must have peer review policy (initial editor screening, review by two anonymous referees) and guest editing(if any) by an acknowledged expert. Accepted papers should be featured. A second review is good(comments from the reviewers and the answers from the authors) before printing.

6. What sorts of research methods and frameworks do you expect people to use, and how will they balance conceptual and applied research?

Response: Observational methods, case-studies and/or survey methods depending on the topic and type of research and should briefly describe method, the advantages, and their drawbacks. This may help you better understand research findings, whether reported in the mainstream media, or when reading a research study on our own. The framework used may be based on different theories and various aspects of practitioner knowledge, depending on what the researcher can argue for. It should bring matters relevant and important to address about a research problem (hypothesis). I do expect practical frameworks that guide researchers by using “what works” in their experience of doing something good, useful for readers/users, and by those directly involved in it. Conceptual framework (argument that the concepts chosen for investigation) is okay if it is appropriate and useful given the hypothesis is under investigation. Conceptual frameworks are based on previous research (who told what? how it was told/explained) but we can use conceptual frameworks from an array of current and possibly far-ranging sources of information.

7. How will they balance conceptual and applied research?

Response: To answer this question, we can read few good articles (http://mmr.sagepub.com). Jack Meredith (1993) identified the significant role of conceptual research methods in theory building and contrasts. The theory-testing research currently prevalent in operations management research [see the International Journal of Operations & Production Management (vol. 13 Issue: 5, 3—11). Hence research stages of description, explanation, and testing are used to distinguish between theory building and theory testing. For balancing conceptual and applied research, the article should define relevant matters, describes different conceptual classification schemes, discusses the differences between conceptual models, frameworks, and theories and illustrates each method with examples from the literature. Applied research is done to solve specific, practical questions; for policy formulation, administration and understanding of a phenomenon. It can be exploratory, but is usually descriptive. It is almost always done on the basis of basic research. It should be carried out systematically having objective analysis and recording of controlled observations. These will lead to the development of generalizations, principles, or theories, resulting in prediction and possible control of events.

8. How would you describe the journal’s mission and editorial objectives to our readers?

Response: Currently, the journal provides a dual mode of publication; open access and subscription. Its mission is to facilitate wider reachability and visibility of the published materials but I am wondering about ideas/thoughts of giving our readers the tools and information they need to build rewarding practices and improve their skills. It is also important to maintain editorial excellence and readers’ trust by dedicating ourselves to the journalistic principles of accuracy, fairness, and balance. I would like to see how to keep authors/readers’ needs in constant focus in a range of options to purchase our articles and also permits unlimited Internet Access. I would like to see how editorial objectives should help readers/ writers/authors and enhance their skills in all aspects of practice balancing the demands of professional and personal life. Journal of Defense Studies & Resource Management is a hybrid, peer reviewed, scholarly journal but its mission should be constructive, inclusive, optimistic, and solution-focused while acknowledging the economic and administrative challenges of practice. It is to move forward to actions by publishing articles and tools those are immediately useful.

9. If you could be granted dream articles, what would they be on?

Response: Dream articles are not always bad. There are many readers because of its scientific merits. Superhero Roleplaying in a World on Fire, 1936-1946 was published by Hobgoblynn Press is a good example. Some editors take the position that a dream article probably has no function but I will accept the paper on the basis of its current view of dreaming and its possible functions. The basic idea of accepting the article is its activation pattern and forming the physical basis for our minds. The dream article should appear to be somehow connecting up or weaving in the new material in our mind, which may suggest a possible function. This sort of function may have been important to our ancestors who probably experienced trauma more frequently and constantly than we do at present. Thinking this way, we may get more readers’interest on the dream articles.

9. Are there any particular areas which you would like to see, or expect to see, collaborate?

Response: Errors in military occupation, cognitive neuroscience, human factors and ergonomics, vulnerability and protection.

10. How does the research published percolate through to practitioners?

Response: By application, practical implementation, and through problem solving issues and matters in military occupations.

11. How can a publisher ensure the authors/readers a rigorous peer review and quality control?

Response: A publisher should ensure the authors or readers a rigorous peer review and quality control other than other than managing the submission, editing, printing, and sale the product (printed materials). Authors and readers confidence is must. The communication must be rapid, frequent, and clear between a publisher and editorial board, and between authors and the readers. A publisher should promote rigorous peer review process for quality control but instead of managing every aspect of the promotional activities. Small amount of promotional funds to the author is good.

12. Your editorial policy is to be eclectic and welcome perspectives from other disciplines and schools. How does this translate into the types of contributions you encourage?

Response: We have had editorial policy for this particular journal but I want to see the submission from welcoming perspectives keeping a target of production per year. I will consider manuscripts from multidisciplinary perspective of military service management by recognizing, respecting and adhering to the ethical conducts acknowledged by our peer review process and production (printing) target per year.

13. What do you see as the merits of journals, as opposed to book series, as a means of scholarly communications?

Response: As a means of scholarly communication, someone may argue that the journal merit should have all types of access to ensure publishers to be adequately compensated for printing articles. Open access can sustainably support the journal infrastructure in the long term remains to be seen. Book series are sequence of books having certain characteristics in common that are formally identified together as a group. Book series can also be organized in different ways (e.g. written by the same authors or marketed as a group by their publisher) but it is not obvious in case of a journal.

14. How do you differentiate Journal of Defense Studies & Resource Management with other journals in the field?

Response: This journal disseminates results of studies and research in the field of defense and military resources management. Military issues are different than civilian issues/matters that can be ambiguous, complex, uncertain, volatile, and extreme. These issues/matters require a set of reasoning tools related to military management practice, decision-making theory, military logistics, etc. The contents and contexts of manuscripts(texts, figures, photos) of armed forces, it is not belongs to civil society matters. So, there are differences in the code of conduct of military issues, authors’ responsibility of writing(facts and figures too sensitive! ), and the authors’ ethical behavior is thus most important.

Publications