The Journal of Environmental Science and Management (JESAM), a Web of Science-indexed journal of the School of Environmental Science and Management (SESAM), conducted a journal management seminar-workshop at University of Eastern Philippines (UEP), University Town, Catarman, Northern Samar, on July 29 to 31, 2019.

This is part of JESAM’s Journal Management Mentoring Program which aims to assist universities and colleges in the general aspects of journal management by training-workshop on peer-review process; database management; journal lay-outing and formatting; similarity checking and other support services; to assist the journals in applying to indexing systems (Web of Science, Scopus, etc.); andto train faculty members on how to write scientific articles.

Dr. Rolando A. Delorino, President of UEP, stressed the importance to produce quality journal articles to lift the status of UEP, the first state university in the Visayas. “This is our priority now, I want to challenge our faculty members to write and publish their research outputs”, Dr. Delorino said during the opening program of the seminar. Dr. Delorino is an alumnus of SESAM, he graduated MS Environmental Studies in 1989 under the UPLB-Ford Foundation Fellowship Grant.

For his part, newly-appointed Vice President for Research, Development and Extension, Dr. Tito M. Cabili, said that he is excited for the rebirth of the Pacific Journal of Science and Technology (PJST). “I am looking forward for the new articles that could be included in the relaunch of the PJST after this seminar”, Dr. Cabili said. “The revival of the journal is my first goal as VP and I want it to be sustainable and hope to be indexed soon”, he added. An alumnus of SESAM, Dr. Cabili graduated PhD Environmental Science in 2009.

The JESAM team, led by the Managing Editor and SESAM Assistant Professor, Dr. Rico C. Ancog presented lectures on writing technical articles for scientific journals. Dr. Loucel E. Cui, University Researcher and JESAM Editorial Assistant, discussed the elements of a publishable journal article content, structure and form, particularly on the review of related literature and materials and methods of a scientific article.

On day two, Dr. Thaddeus P. Lawas, University Extension Specialist II and JESAM Production Editor, presented the practical guide to getting published research journals. Dr. Ancog also presented the principles in publication ethics. After lectures, the participants conducted a workshop on the application of the elements of publishable article. They were grouped based on their respective disciplines, as the authors worked on how to improve their articles for the future issue of PJST.

Day three highlighted the journal management part of the seminar, with Dr. Lawas presenting about JESAM: Role of journals and the importance of Peer Review Process and Clarivate analytics-Web of Science; Dr. Cui discussed similarity checking on journal articles; and finally, Ms. Cherry C. Padilla, University Research Associate II and JESAM Editorial Assistant, lectured on how to manage a journal database and scientific paper formatting.

More than 30 faculty and staff of UEP attended the seminar, representing the nine colleges, including the Catubig and Laoang campuses. More than five articles were prepared and ready for peer review for the next PJST issue.