A two-day workshop was jointly organised by the Higher Education Commission’s National Digital Library Programme (NDLP) and Emerald Publishing Group at the HEC Secretariat. Emerald Publishing Group Vice President (Middle East, Africa and Turkey) Alastair Cook was the resource person for the workshop while HEC (IT) Director General Anwar Amjad chaired the opening session. Over 60 participants from universities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi attended the workshop while another 120 from 32 universities took part via video conferencing, says a press release issued here by the HEC. In his talk, Alastair Cook highlighted various aspects of publishing. He provided an insider’s view on what happens at various stages of publishing and what factors authors need to take into account before they submit their article for review. His focus on ‘Publish or Perish’ provided an eye-opener for the audience. He also announced a two-month free trial for every institution in the country.
The event also included awards for institutions in terms of the highest number of articles published in Emerald journals during 2011 and the highest usage by the institutions. Among the highest articles published during 2011, University of the Punjab, Lahore was on top with 54 authors, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, with 52 was second, while Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) was third with 20 authors.
The highest usage awards, during 2011, went to the Higher Education Commission, Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology (SZABIST), COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, International Islamic University, Bahria University, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Fatima Jinnah Women University, University of Management and Technology, Air University, LUMS and Islamia University.
The second day session was completely conducted via video conference by connecting 24 universities. Cook informed the participants of the usage of Emerald website and how to use it effectively for the scholarly benefit.
The NDLP and Emerald were founded in 2006. Currently, 50 institutions are accessing e-journals from Emerald’s platform. Emerald publishes contents in business, management and economics, library and information studies, social sciences, engineering, language and linguistics and transport.
