On March 26, a lecture entitled “Writing Academic Papers” was delivered by Jiang Shan in WHU’s Information Science Library, one of the three libraries aside from the main library. Jiang Shan, an experienced librarian working in the Department of Information Science, has delivered many lectures concerning academic papers. Lectures of this kind introduce the means of utilizing various resources provided by the university library and have been proven to be very useful to students and faculty on campus.
A glimpse of the lecture
The lecture was mainly divided into two parts: academic writing and academic publication. Jiang Shan started with the principles of academic writing. The primary focus was on how to write an academic paper well or, in other words, what makes a good academic paper. First, one should determine the subject areas and figure out the ideas to be conveyed in the article before writing. This requires a great deal of reading, research and thinking to ensure the paper’s authenticity and originality. The next step is to set about writing. Note that a good academic paper should follow the normative patterns and format of academic writing. Great importance is attached to the purpose of highlighting innovative ideas. During the writing stage, it is wise to utilize various resources like relevant books, document databases and other research materials available in libraries.
Following academic writing, Ms. Jiang turned to the means of academic publication, both at home and abroad. Here, it is of utmost importance to choose a journal that is in accordance with one’s own expectations and which fits the paper’s subject, content and style. It is recommended to search for suitable journals through databases such as China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Journal Citation Reports (JCR) and Web of Science (WOS), all of which are available on the library website. Besides, brief introduction and submission guidelines are provided for each database. These suggestions help to clarify academic publication procedures for students and faculty.
Furthermore, Ms. Jiang strongly emphasized to the audience the need to pursue originality in academic papers. “The value of an academic paper lies in innovation, otherwise it will be worthless. Also, this is the basic method to avoid academic dishonesty,” she said. During the lecture, she used the screen not only to illustrate her ideas but also to show the audience how to search for academic resources in practice.
The lecture mentioned is one of several 90-minute thematic training sessions organized by the WHU library. It is also a vivid example of the university’s efforts to help students and faculty effectively make use of library resources. Aside from various training sessions, the library also provides information retrieval courses, Massive Open Online Courses, embedded trainings and freshmen orientation. The courses and programs are arranged primarily by subject librarians. They are dedicated to the schools of the university and aim to help trainees take advantage of the resources and services offered by the library.
Photo by Zhou Siyan
Edited by Geng Jinwei, Zheng Yayun, Shi Weiya & Hu Sijia
