Prioritise local science journals

SCIENCE journals have become a prime medium to expand scientific knowledge. They have been deployed since the early beginnings of scientific research. We cannot deny the fact that knowledge can only grow through the sharing of the fruits of research. Knowledge will have problem growing otherwise. And in the pursuit of scientific knowledge, journals perform an important function of curating and validating the findings generated by scientists. Over the years, journals have undeniably demonstrated their worth as effective platforms for the communication of science among peers. It is through such communication that new ideas are born. It is also through the writings in the science journals that scientific theories are enriched and improved to eventually develop into technologies which are consequently harnessed by societies for their betterment.

In the West, science journals have been transformed from a free for all scientific publication in the early years of scientific discourse to one that now command attractive and even lucrative business value. There is money to be made in the management of science journals. Many of the so called Tier 1 branded journals even charge publication fees for articles submitted for inclusion in their publication. The fees are not inexpensive. In Malaysia, because of the KPIs imposed by universities in their quest to be ranked high, much has been spent to load science articles by their lecturers and professors in such journals. Inadvertently, such journals, a majority of which reside in the more developed countries, become even more valuable in the eyes of the scientific community. The unfortunate part of it all is that local journals are largely ignored. They are mostly put on low priority.