YOGYAKARTA-Tradition of publishing scientific papers or research work in Indonesia is not yet well established. For example, there are still many students who copy books from the lecturers. As a result, the books become pirated materials. This was stated by Chairman of Bio-anthropology and Paleoanthropology Laboratory of Faculty of Medicine UGM, Prof. drg. Etty Indriati, Ph.D., in International Journal Paper Writing Workshop, organized by LPPM in Multimedia Room, UGM Main Office on Wednesday (20/7). "This is a challenge for researchers in Indonesia so that their works can be published and continue to be maintained," Etty said.
In addition, Etty assessed several other challenges are the lack of adequate support for information technology (IT), causing limitation of classic, rare reference, and the absence of loans between library. On the other hand, there are issues of limited funding or specific areas of funded projects, the English which sometimes is not mastered by all researchers well. "The thing to remember, scientists/researchers are the manufacturer of science. Without publication, the ‘product’ is not documented and widely accessible and its position is not known internationally," Etty said.
In front of workshop participants, Etty added that to achieve international position / recognition can be taken in many ways, among others, the need to work hard in writing research proposals, apply for research funding, conduct research and publish it in international journals. Cooperation in parallel position with overseas scientists in the same discipline, according to Etty, also needs to be done. The important thing is trying to present research at an international seminar of mono-disciplinary expertise association. "Trying to be the first author in international journals could be a way for us to be recognized internationally," she said.
Meanwhile, faculty of Department of Chemistry, UGM, Prof. Drs. Mudasir, M. Eng., Ph.D., in the event admitted the low contribution of Indonesian researchers in the international arena. He pointed out the data from the Scientific American Survey (1994) which mentions the annual contribution of Indonesian Scientist and Scholars on knowledge, science, and technology is only 0.012%. That figure is much lower than the contribution of Singapore to reach 0.179%. "And it is so small compared to the contribution of U.S. scientists that reached more than 20%," Mudasir said.
Although acknowledging the low interest in writing scientific articles, Mudasir still encourages for culture of writing to be continuously tried from now on. Many reasons for writing culture must be grown, such as forcing someone to work harder and getting good results. In addition, it is as well as helping formulate the results of the research being done and plan the next steps of the research.
The workshop which lasted for two days, 20-21 July 2011, was attended by about 70 participants, coming from Faculties and Centers of Studies at UGM, as well as participants from outside UGM.