A seminar held on the issue entitled “Publish and flourish" that focuses on why ‘publication’ matters in HEIs & on enhancing DU Hosted Journals”

The editorial boards for Ethiopian Journal of Environment and Development (EJED) and African Journal of Health Sciences and Medicine (AJHSM) in collaboration with the Research and Dissemination office organized half-a-day publication seminar
……
Dilla University (DU) August 11, 2021 the half-a-day seminar undertaken by the editorial boards of DU hosted journals in collaboration with Research and Dissemination Directorate aimed to announce EJED and AJHSM and attract potential authors and reviewers. The editor-in-chief for EJED, Dr. Abiyot Legesse and editor-in-chief for AJHSM, Dr. Tadesse Alemu shared their outstanding experiences in publications and winning mega projects and presented academic writing and publication related issues - what to publish, how to publish and where to publish research findings to the academic community and senior researchers.
The managing editor for EJED Mr. Dargie Tsegay explained the progress, challenges and achievements of Ethiopian Journal of Environment and Development. He presented the aim and scope of the journal, the authors’ guidelines, publication procedures, peer review processes, communication ways, manuscript acceptance and rejection decisions, a profile of the editorial and advisory board members, journal promotion approaches, online accessing sites, and incentive mechanisms for authors who publish in EJED. He finalized his presentation by charging a positive energy of “Publish and Flourish or Perish”.
The managing editor for AJHSM, Mr. Robel Hussan, also reported the status, progress and challenges of the African Journal of Health Science and Medicine.
Fruitful open discussion also held on the way forward to tackle the current and future challenges of EJED and AJHSM. The main challenges raised by both the editorial board members were poor paper quality, lack of reviewers’ interest to review a manuscript and delayed response that could discourage authors, withdrawing manuscript after received valuable comments from editors and reviewers and submit to another journal and lack of awareness in publication.
On the way forward, the editorial board and participants agreed to work in collaboration and booked annual publication day that will be held in October every year to encourage researchers, create publication awareness, and promote the journals.
The Research and Dissemination Director, Dr. Habtamu Temesgen, emphasized on the best strategies to improve Dilla University hosted journals and assured to support DU staff to participate in publications. He cemented that the research office will work with the editorial board in ways that assure the growth of the journals including the newly established DU journal, Dilla Journal of Education (DJE). He also briefed on the internationalization of the journals and rewarding schemes that assures the privileges entitled ተ the publishers, and answered key questions raised by the participants.