Author: Dr. Justina A. Onumah, Senior Research Scientist at the Science and Technology Policy Research Institute of the CSIR-Ghana
Publishing can be a daunting task
“I have authored and co-authored journal articles, this mentorship programme may not be for me.” These were my exact thoughts when I first heard about the AfricaLics Mentorship Programme. However, the journey of publishing an article in a reputable Journal can be an uphill task which can make authors to question their intellectual competence. This was the case during my latest attempt to publish an article in the Innovation and Development (I&D). Upon receipt of the reviewers’ comments, I asked myself a number of reflective questions: “Am I such a bad author and is it that I lack adequate knowledge to publish in this new research area that I am venturing into?” Notably, I am a quantitative researcher, and this happened to be my first purely qualitatively designed paper, with a little twist around quantitative social network analysis. Both the qualitative research design and social network analysis were two completely new approaches that I was applying in my research. I grudgingly admitted that I had some more learning to do.
Mentorship as a pathway to building relevant publishing skills
The editor of the I & D journal when communicating the decision on my article recommended the AfricaLics Mentorship Programme, that was supporting scholars from developing countries to develop their skills in the I & D research. The editor noted that through the programme, I could be guided in addressing and responding to the comments raised by the reviewers of my article which had been under review for about a year. He however cautioned that, resubmission of the article to the Journal would not guarantee acceptance, with or without mentorship support. This made me consider an alternative Journal, which would mean beginning the publishing process all over again. Fortunately, I had already developed a good working relationship with members of the AfricaLics network, and therefore I sought counsel on way forward. I was advised to consider the mentorship programme, and the subsequent resubmission of the paper to the same journal after addressing the reviewers’ comments. with the guidance of an assigned mentor. I applied for the AfricaLics Mentorship Programme, whereby I was assigned Prof. Edward Lorenz as a mentor. Prof. Lorenz was no stranger to me and my research work, since he was one of my mentors during my tenure as a Visiting Fellow Scholar in Aalborg, Denmark in 2018 under the AfricaLics Visiting Fellow Programme (VFP). He provided requisite mentorship during the fellowship period and in my PhD research journey, even after return to my Country, Ghana. I was therefore very elated when he was assigned to me as a mentor, specifically in relation to rewriting this journal article, since I was already confident in his expertise.
The mentorship journey
The actual interaction with my mentor entailed virtual meetings. During the first meeting, Prof. Lorenz shared his thoughts on the reviewers’ comments relating to my article. He was in agreement with most of the comments, and subsequently suggested new ways of tackling them towards revising the article. My previous non-acceptance of the paper as not meeting the standard for publishing in the I & D Journal slowly became a thing of the past. The original article focused on a comparative analysis of two commodity innovation systems because I perceived this to be a great contribution to literature since most of the studies on agricultural innovation systems focused on a single commodity. Arguably, the two-commodity system comparison was the genesis of comments from the reviewers. Prof. Lorenz recommended re-orienting the focus of the article towards a single commodity. Nonetheless, accepting to focus on one commodity implied revision of the entire paper from the title to the conclusion. This seemed difficult at the beginning, but I accepted the challenge and begun the rewriting process. I was so determined to get the paper published at all costs, so I pushed through it, and we had just about 2 weeks to turn things around. I recall Prof Lorenz saying, “you have just about 2 weeks before resubmission deadline, it is tough but if you really want to do this, you can do it.” That statement was my motivation every time I felt like giving up. I wasn’t ready to throw away the confidence my mentor had in me, so against all the odds, including taking care of my baby born at this time, coupled with pressure from work, I worked hard and got out a draft ready for his review.
A rewarding and fulfilling end
In the end, the paper adopted a new title “actor roles and linkages in the agricultural innovation system: options for establishing a cocoa innovation platform in Ghana”, instead of “Actor roles and linkages in the agricultural innovation system: Insights from the cocoa and maize networks in Ghana”. Obviously, the new title is more focused compared to the original title. This refocussing is due to the excellent expert guidance made possible by the AfricaLics Mentorship Programme. This notwithstanding, my mentor was so dedicated to the process and that inspired me a lot. The article was timely and very important for stakeholders in the cocoa sector as there have been efforts towards establishing a cocoa innovation platform in Ghana. I will not be surprised if I win for myself a good offer from the key stakeholders in the cocoa industry because of this timely publication.
The focus of the article at a glance – the abstract
Platforms promote interactions among actors in an innovation system and given the importance of the cocoa sub-sector to the Ghanaian economy, having an innovation platform is imperative for the promotion of increased innovative performance. Using qualitative data collection tools, we obtained in-depth information on the roles and linkages of actors to provide options for the establishment/strengthening of the cocoa innovation platform in Ghana. Findings from the thematic and social network analysis suggest that stimulating the participation of farmer groups, actors in research, extension, policy, and the private sector is important as this has the power to attract and sustain relevant actors to the network and hold the structure of the cocoa innovation platform together. The study contributes to the literature by being the first study that has applied the Social Network Analysis (SNA) tool to the cocoa innovation system in Ghana. The study also emphasizes the prominent role farmers and private sector actors play in such networks. You can access the full paper using this link
Conclusion
Truly, every scholar needs mentorship since there is still so much to be learnt. Debatably, and depending on the field of research, mentors are ready and willing to make that learning process feasible for mentees. When an opportunity of mentorship comes knocking on your door, especially for early and mid-career scholars, grab it and watch how it transforms you by making your research journey easy and focused. The AfricaLics Mentorship programme is available to everyone, l would strongly recommend it to any aspiring innovation scholar. You do not necessarily have to wait to receive “discouraging” review comments. If I had sought for mentorship before submission, knowing this was a new area I was venturing into, maybe the article would have been published in 2020 and not 2021. It took me a total of 1 year and 5 months to get the paper published. Maybe, just maybe, it could have taken less than a year. Mentorship shortens the learning period, and ultimately the publishing period, so, why not take advantage and ride on expert’s experience to make your writing journey smooth? Get mentorship and aim to become a mentor too.