Seminar on the Presence of Vietnamese Social Science in the Global Arena
By Doan Thi Ngoc
The Institute for Research on
Educational Development (IRED) organized a seminar on "The presence of
Vietnamese Social Science in the International Arena" on 9 August, 2012.
Professor Nguyen Van Tuan from the University of New South Wales, Australia was
the presenter, who is a well-known medical professor worldwide and nationwide
specializing in osteoporosis. In addition to a passion for medicine, Professor
Tuan is very interested in statistics and education. He spent a lot of time and
effort in researching the presence of Vietnamese social science articles from the
years 1996 to 2010 in the journal, Scopus,[1] and found reasons why Vietnam has
such few social science articles published in international scientific
journals. The seminar attracted participants from various research institutes,
universities and colleges in Ho Chi Minh City.
A Modest Global Presence of
Vietnamese Social Science Articles
According to Professor Nguyen Van
Tuan, the field of social sciences is very close to our daily life; however,
comprehending social science thoroughly is not at all easy. Social science
studies are vitally crucial for Vietnam in the process of partnering with
neighboring countries as well as developed countries around the world.
Statistical analysis data from Scopus indicates that the number of
international research articles published from Vietnam during 1996 to
2010 was only 354 articles, while Malaysia published 1836 articles, Thailand
1437 works and the Philippines 789 approvals. The majority of the Vietnamese
research papers published in international scientific journals over the
last 15 years were concentrated on geographical areas of study (accounting for
21% of the total), developmental science (16%), health (12%), sociology (11%),
along with anthropology (5%), political science (5%), demography (4%), and
archeology only 7 papers (1.4%). Compared with other countries in Southeast
Asia, more than 80% of Vietnam’s scientific research work was performed
with international cooperation or support from international scholars,
which proportion accounts for about 40%. Though Vietnam ranks 69 out of
200 countries that have announced international social sciences work, it is
lagging behind countries such as Malaysia (41/200), Thailand (43/200), and the
Philippines (50/200).
As the matter of fact, Vietnam has
numerous completed domestic research work that was presented at various
workshops in the country, yet those articles are not in peer-review journals
nor are they recognized by international scientific journals. This indicates
that "Vietnamese write, Vietnamese read", Professor Tuan said. Based
on these findings, the Vietnamese people are obviously able to visualize the
complete picture of social science research in Vietnam that appears very bleak,
dim, and fragile when compared with the global outlook. According to
scientists, international scientific works are a grand measure of internal
strength and bring great influence to the scientific development of every nation,
of every institute, of every research center, of every scientist and potential
scholars. Given such an important role, social sciences as well as other fields
in Vietnam are very modest, limited and we will know where and how Vietnam will
position itself in Southeast Asia Region as well as the international arena.
Reasons Why Vietnamese Social
Science Publications are too Few and Unqualified
Professor Nguyen Van Tuan shared his
perspective that Vietnam needs to identify the issues and openly acknowledge
its limitations and challenges in order to plan roadmaps and direction for
future social science development. The reasons are many, however, the following
points are key:
- First, the level of scientific research activities is
too low. As evidence indicates there were only 354 articles published in
international scientific journals over the last 10 years. Some constraints
are the lack of experts, manpower, finance; lack of knowledge on how to
fund research grants’ procedures and foundations; lack of understanding of
international funding mechanisms; lack of knowledge-based research; and
many more. reasons.
- Second, the research studies in Vietnam were
essentially performed by foreigners or by international cooperation
organizations. In other words, the studies were "local knowledge but
dependent on outsiders." This proves that the internal strength of
Vietnam scientists in general is "weak" and too little.
- Third, the quality of the majority of the Vietnamese
research works is generally low due to very poor research methodology,
improper or invalid sampling selection, and poor data analysis, ending in
poor research results which are not statistically significant. This is
followed by the lack of skills in presenting a scientific report according
to international standards, and perhaps mainly not being familiar with
scales, peer-review, and objective assessment. Evidence also shows that
for Vietnam 50 percent of its domestic scientific research is in social
science, however, only 5% of the work is internationally published in
peer-reviewed journals.
In addition, many Vietnamese people
consider that writing books is more important than writing a peer-reviewed
research paper. However, in narrow areas of the disciplines, it would be
preferable to write a scientific paper than to write a book. In fact, there are
many interesting and potential social issues in Vietnam that foreigners, when
in Vietnam, can figure out and conduct research which could impact the entire
world. A typical example is that Kimberly Hoang, who earned her sociology Ph.D.
at UC Berkeley in 2011, won the American Sociological Association’s “best
dissertation” award for her doctoral dissertation on "New economies of sex
and intimacy in Vietnam”[2].
Finally, scientific research papers
have to be written in English, however, there are not many researchers in
Vietnam qualified or fluent-enough in English to write a scientific research
report according to international standards. To write or logically describe
scientific research is not easy because the papers are time-consuming, take a
lot of effort, must be knowledge-based, require human and financial resources,
etc. Many people misinterpret that completing a doctorate or PhD abroad gives a
person the ability to write scientific papers in English. "It is totally
wrong", Professor Nguyen Van Tuan stressed.
In conclusion, the seminar was short
and yet at the end many questions echoed in the attendees’ minds as to who now
is knowledgable about the presence of Vietnamese social sciences throughout the
regions of Vietnam and the world. What should they do, where should they start,
what should they learn in order to contribute their knowledge to Vietnam,
particularly social science research and the development of society? How should
they, along with experienced nationwide and worldwide researchers and scholars,
as well as new graduates with bachelor’s and master’s degrees, work together
and participate in research where in Vietnam does not lag behind other
countries in the world and at least in the South East Asia region? Are these
questions answerable if Vietnam does not know which approaches to take, which
assessment tools or measurements to use, which educational philosophy for
social science research and educational leadership to follow?
References
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scopus_(journal)
[2] http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2012/05/09/best-dissertation-award/
http://gas.hoasen.edu.vn/en/gas-page/seminar-presence-vietnamese-social-science-global-arena
