Writing and Writing Instruction in Different Academic Contexts
MECHANISMS DRIVING THE WRITING AND PUBLICATION OF HIGH IMPACT SCIENTIFIC ARTICLES IN ROMANIA – A CROSSDISCIPLINARY STUDY
1 2 ,3 4 5 Rodica Lung , Mihaela Aluas , Andrei Kelemen , Camelia Moraru , Claudiu Filip
1
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Babes Bolyai University, Cluj, Romania Faculty of Physics, Babes Bolyai University, Cluj, Romania 3 Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Babes Bolyai University, Cluj, Romania Cluj IT Cluster, Cluj, Romania 4 Faculty of European Studies, Babes Bolyai University, Cluj, Romania 5 National Institute for Research and Development of Isotopic and Molecular Technologies (INCDTIM), Cluj, Romania 2
This article positions Romania's scientific output with respect to bibliometric data and presents current approaches of successful group leaders towards writing and publishing skills development within their groups. Scientometric data (Scopus; Thomson ISI) show a heterogeneous evolution of Romania's article and citation count between 20012013, with a higher growth rate observed between 2006 and 2010 (SilaghiDumitrescu & Sabau, 2014). Results are compared with the scientific output of Hungary and Norway, as countries with a similar number of researchers (Deloitte Researcher’s Report for 2013). Group leaders identified based on bibliometric data were interviewed regarding their current attitudes towards academic writing skills development in their groups. In the absence of formal academic writing training in Romania (Pavlenko et al. 2014), they shape the attitudes of young researchers towards writing based on their own personal experience. Although none of the interviewed subjects received formal training in academic writing, they would welcome such a service for their research group and consider that it would ease their work. Still, there are voices in Romania arguing that the current situation is satisfactory, as competitive students manage to acquire academic writing skills without structured institutional intervention. On the other hand, research group leaders are the foremost to evaluate the effect of an academic writing program as they immediately observe changes in the writing style of their group members. We conclude that in Romania a successful academic writing program should be developed in close collaboration with group leaders, considering them also as secondary beneficiaries for the program.
References
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Pavlenko, S. et al., 2014. Academic Writing. Global Views and Romanian Trends. Transylvanian Review , XXIII, pp.258–268.
SilaghiDumitrescu, R. & Sabau, A., 2014. Scientometric analysis of relative performance in a key university in Romania. Scientometrics , 99(2), pp.463–474. Available at: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s1119201412328 [Accessed January 20, 2015].