Writing A Publishable Paper

Roberto N. Padua
 NOTES ON FORMAT OF
PUBLISHABLE PAPERS
• Institutional Format: this is the format that
your institution has adopted for use. This is
only good for your respective institutions.

• ISI (International Scientific Indexing): this is

the journal indexing or listing of
internationally-recognized journals e.g.
Thomson-Reuters, Scopus and others.
• CHED-JAS Indexing: this is the journal indexing
adopted for the Philippines by the
Commission on Higher Education. There are
two(2) categories: Category A (international-
equivalency) and Category B (for national
circulation)
 • To be ISI or CHED-JAS Indexed, we will follow
the international journal format for published
papers.
TITLE
Authors (no degrees)
Affiliation

ABSTRACT

No more than 100 words; one paragraph only. Give only the following information: 1)
what is the study about? 2) what method of analysis was done? 3) Main findings of the
study and (4) Conclusion

Keywords:

1.0 Introduction
2.0 Conceptual/Theoretical Framework
3.0 Research Design and Methods
4.0 Results and Discussions
5.0 Conclusion
6.0 References Cited
 Lecture 1: The Introduction
• Introduction ≡ introduces the topic and the background or
context of the study.
• Introduction consists of four (4) major parts:
• Part 1: What is the study about? State the main thesis of
the investigation. Why do you want to study the topic?
• Part 2: What do other authors say about the topic?
Summarize the major literature/studies conducted on the
topic.
• Part 3: What are the gaps in knowledge based on the
literature reviewed? Identify what has not been explored
by the other authors.
• Part 4: How do you intend to address these gaps? Outline
your plan to address these gaps.
• Part 1 deals with the thesis of the study.
• A thesis is a claim or assertion that you wish to prove
or disprove.
Example: “The study claims that people, regardless
of gender or age, generally take risks that maximizes
perceived returns rather than avoid risks with sure but
minimal returns”

• Every researcher study has a thesis. The presence of a

thesis differentiates research from simple surveys.
• Part 2 is a summary of what other authors say
about the topic.
• This is what is traditionally labelled as the
“Review of Related Literature.”
• Example: “It has been established that people
generally apply the principle of rational choice
when faced with options (Albert (1996), Smith et
al. (2003), Johnson (2007), Avery et al. (2010)). In
this principle, people choose the option that
maximizes benefits to themselves.”
• Part 3 indentifies what gaps or areas of analysis
have not been explored by other authors.
• Example: “The principle of rationale choice,
which had been extensively studied in the past,
claimed that people tend to choose options
which maximize benefits to themselves. However,
the connection between risks and “perceived”
benefits have not been studied at length.”
• Part 4 is an outline of your strategy to
address the gap.

• Example: “In this study, a social experiment is

set up to observe how people make decisions
given a risk and their perceived (not actual)
benefits for each options they take. This is
achieved by.....”
 Workshop 1
• Choose a topic of interest and do a literature
search on the topic.
• Write the INTRODUCTION of your paper based
on the four-part format.
Lecture 2. The Conceptual/Theoretical
Framework
• Conceptual Framework ≡ translates the
Theories into their component concepts
expressed at the Variable level.
• Example: “The Rationale Choice Theory ( )
avers that people choose options that
maximizes their personal benefits. In a
decision situation, a person asks “what will
accrue to me if I take this option? ” The
Rational Choice Theory is one of several
Choice theories that are currently entertained
including Pareto’s Choice Theory (a person
chooses on option that improves the lot of a
sector but does not make other sectors worse
off) and Contingent Choice Theory (based on
a person’s valuation of the options).”
• Example (Continued): “In the Rationale
Choice Theory, the choice (C) of an option
depends on a perceived reward (X) for that
option but ignores the risks (R) associated
with that option. As long as an option
provides the highest perceived reward (X),
regardless of the amount of risks (R), the
theory stipulates that a person will generally
prefer that option”
• The succeeding discussions will focus on the
main variables identified viz. C, X and R, and
other variables that may be of interest in
relation to the theory adopted.
• The section culminates with a discussion of
the relationships and inter-relationships of the
variables.
 Workshop 2
• Write the theoretical/conceptual framework
of your study.
 Lecture 3. Research Design and
Methods
• Research Design ≡ refers to the plan or outline
of the plan for the study
• Research Methods ≡ refers to the execution of
the plan.
• Example: “A social experiment is designed to test
the claim of the study. One hundred subjects
were asked to enter a booth. One after another.
In the booth, the researcher waits with three (3)
beautiful wrapped boxes and a ₱10.00 bill. Each
time a subject enters, the researcher offers to
give the ₱10.00-bill or offers any of the three (3)
boxes to be opened and its contents given to the
subject. The researcher notes the choice made by
the subject. ”
• Example (Continued): “The subjects of the study
were randomly chosen from University A
representing both genders with ages ranging
from 18 to 50. These participants were not
informed of the contents of the boxes and the
researcher’s intent for conducting the study in
order not to introduce bias.”
• Discuss how the values of the variable C, X and R
are to be obtained.
• Discuss how these values are going to be
processed to respond to the thesis.
 Workshop 3
• Write the methodology of your study
 LECTURE 4: RESULTS AND
DISCUSSIONS
This section has three(3) major parts:
Presentation of Results

Analysis of the Results

Interpretation of the Results and Analysis

 PRESENTATION OF THE RESULTS
• Results are often displayed in summarized
tabular forms or graphs.
Table 1 shows the results of the social experiment conducted:

Age
Young Middle Age Old Total
18-29 30-49 50-above
Male Reward 5 3 4 12
Option 14 13 12 39
SEX Female Reward 3 5 5 13
Option 14 13 9 36
total Reward 8 8 9 25
Option 28 26 21 75
 ANALYSIS OF THE RESULTS
• Guides the reader on the components of the
results that are interesting

• Breaks down the results into smaller

meaningful components.
Table 1 shows the results of the social experiment conducted:

Age
Young Middle Age Old Total
18-29 30-49 50-above
Male Reward 5 3 4 12
Option 14 13 12 39
SEX Female Reward 3 5 5 13
Option 14 13 9 36
total Reward 8 8 9 25
Option 28 26 21 75

ANALYSIS

Tabular values reveal that those who opted to take the reward (and thus, avoided risks) are fewer
than those who opted to take the option of choosing among the three boxes (and thus, took the
risks) across sexes and across ages. Across genders, male respondents are slightly more risk
takers than female respondents. Across ages, the younger respondents are observed to be the risk
takers in comparison to the older respondents who tended to be on the safe side by immediately
opting for the sure reward. On the whole, the respondents of the study generally took the risk of
choosing from among the three boxes rather than make the safe decision of getting the sure
reward.
INTERPRETATION OF THE RESULTS
• INTERPRETATION = to give meaning.
• This is necessarily subjective because the
author gives his own interpretation or
meaning to the results obtained based on his
own expert opinion.
• PRESENTATION and ANALYSIS are the
OBJECTIVE PORTION of this section;
INTERPRETATION is the SUBJECTIVE PORTION
of the section.
INTERPRETATION

The results of the social experiment conducted appear to support the claim that “people generally
take risks because of the “perceived” greater benefits to be derived from the available options
regardless of sex and age”. This is consistent with the Rationale Choice Theory provided that
“perceived benefit’ is equated with “actual benefits”. In the present case, however, the benefits
to be derived from opening the boxes are unknown viz. we were not informed as to the contents
of the boxes, but the reward for not opening them is clearly given viz. P10.00. Clearly,
“perceived benefit” is different from “actual benefit” in the situation.

The results obtained can be explained by a mis-application of the principle “The greater the risk,
the greater is the reward”. The respondents thought that by opening the boxes (rather than
avoiding the risk by taking the small sure reward of P10.00), they were actually going to get
greater reward. What is applicable in the situation , however, is the contrapositive of the
principle, namely” “ If the reward is not known, then do not take the risk” i.e. “No reward, no
risk.” The Rationale Choice Theory is applicable only in situations where the rewards are
KNOWN and NOT just PERCEIVED.

Corollarily, had we increased the sure reward to P10,000, then the respondents would have
surely opted to avoid the risk of opening any of the boxes and took the sure reward. This
highlights the need to establish a “Risk Edge Formula” to guide decision making in the future.
 WORKSHOP 4
• Write the RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS portion
of your study.
 LECTURE 5: CONCLUSION
• CONCLUSION = general statement about the
implications of the findings to the
THEORETICAL /CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
• General Framework :
• IF :
• Finding 1, Finding 2, Finding 3
• THEN
• Conclusion
FINDINGS OF THE STUDY

1. Male and female respondents are generally risk takers by opting to open the boxes whose
contents were unknown rather than by taking the sure reward of P10.00;
2. Younger and older respondents are also generally risk takers;
3. Majority of the respondents (75%), regardless of gender and age, opted to open the boxes
(whose contents were unknown) despite the offer of a P10.00 sure reward if they do not
open the boxes.

CONCLUSION: (Choose the best conclusion)

A) People are generally risk takers;

B) People are not rational when it comes to decision making;
C) People opt to take risks when the alternative reward is small;
D) People make use of the Rational Choice Theory but substitutes “perceived reward”
to”actual rewards”.
E) People do not know when to take calculated risks.
 WORKSHOP 6
• Write the CONCLUSION of your study.