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Why Äcademic Paper"is so hard to write and get it published? 

Academic paper is another level of writing that takes a lot more effort, thinking, preparation, and many rounds of revisions. I have to admit that initially, I found reading academic papers to be boring, dull, and difficult. However, the more I learn and become familiar with reading academic papers and writing in academic tone, the more I understand the significant of academic papers. First and fore-most, it is very difficult to get papers to be published in academic journals especially those with high impact factors. There must be a reason why it is difficult? In my first PhD year, there was a course entitled: "Research Ethics" and the newly PhD students were all trained to follow ethical conduct and to be clear what is ethical and what is un-ethical behaviors including the consequences of such behaviors in the academic fields. 


The rigor of academic paper first and foremost comes from the integrity of the authors/researchers together with their peers who review their papers. Academic paper is difficult to read even though typically it is only 10 to 20 pages with very small font and sometimes several graphs or statistical data figures. Often times, these few pages, contain several years of serious research in certain field that needs to be presented in a condense form. Learning more to write academic paper helps me to appreciate others academic papers that already being published. I believe it is not an easy process and certain papers do change policy, practice, and even add to new theories. When I see the process and effort to write and publish academic paper together with the potential impact of publishing academic papers to society at large, I read academic papers with different attitude -though I can still fall asleep while reading it - now I respect and value the content and the seriousness of each research. 


This section, I will share my academic paper(s) that get published and I would like to thank my supervisor, Prof. Nirmala Rao who has been patiently guiding me to develop my academic writing. This is a skill that is very difficult to master and it takes time to develop. It is an honor and privilege to be guided by two experience scholars in this fascinating fields of "Early Childhood Education"- ECE. 


                                                                                                                                          (Ailin Iwan - May 20, 2015)

note: for further reading on research ethics, below is a link of an article by American Psychological Association (APA) entitled
"Five Principles for Research Ethics" 

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