Constraints in journal publishing and international research collaboration in the Asia Pacific Region

Abstract

International research collaboration is when researchers from various nations working together to achieve the common goal of producing new scientific knowledge and internationally co-authored papers are used to measure collaborative international research activity. The benefits of international research collaboration includes sharing of developed scientific knowledge and skills, and improve research quality, while in terms of collaborative journal publishing, it could contribute to publications in high impact journals and, increase the citation and visibility of researchers. International collaborative research activity and publishing is beneficial particularly to low-resources countries such as those in the Asia Pacific region. However, Asia Pacific region holds multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, populous, poor and growing ageing populations and these factors posed limitations to international research collaboration and journal publishing such as: lack of resources in terms of financial, institutional and government support; geographical distance; language barrier; lack of research skills; the challenge of acceptance into international journals; the lack of journals which represent the Asia Pacific region and lastly issues in managing the journals including financial, establishing a peer review and journal management, and operation guidelines. Efforts to address the challenges and promote journal publishing and international research collaboration in the region are warranted.