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The 6-day Workshop on Academic Paper Writing organized by HERD in collaboration with Research Consortium on Educational Outcomes and Poverty (RECOUP) and University of Edinburgh, UK ended on April 8. This is also marked an end to the Workshop Series (altogether three workshops) organized since 2012. The three phases of this workshop series included:

• Phase 1 – Understanding Qualitative Research and developing proposal (2012)
• Phase 2 – Qualitative Data Management and Analysis (2014)
• Phase 3 – Writing Up Qualitative Data (2016)

Phase 3 of this workshop series was facilitated by Dr Alice Street and Dr Jamie Cross from University of Edinburgh, UK. The participants included researchers involved in qualitative research representing organizations such as Health Research and Social Development Forum (HERD), Social Science Baha, Transcultural Psychological Organization (TPO) Nepal, Possible Health, International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and International Nepal Fellowship (INF).

  

The closing day included several interesting sessions. The first session included an activity where the participants were asked to write down their titles and the suitability of the titles in terms of delivering the intended message was discussed by the facilitators. on choosing an appropriate title for their papers, an interesting session on Why We Write where the facilitators and participants discussed the benefits of producing academic papers and its contribution to the academia and research fraternity. Another interesting session was on giving final touch to the academic papers in terms of referencing, sorting out authorship and acknowledgement issues and preparing for final submission following journal guidelines. The facilitators also discussed briefly about the future career prospects with regular engagement and interest in writing and publishing.

Word Cloud representing various topics selected by participants for their academic papers

Dr Sushil Baral, Executive Chairperson at HERD and the chief architect in terms of conceptualizing this workshop series facilitated the last session where he sought suggestions and views from the participants about how to take this momentum forward. He highlighted the need to think research beyond the research project and engage furthermore with wider stakeholders so that the evidence generated helps in informing policy and changing practice. 

We would also like to acknowledge the contributions made by Dr Ian Harper, Dr Roger Jeffery, Dr Helen Elsey, Nabin Rawal, Kapil Babu Dahal, Dr Jeevan Raj Sharma, Rekha Khatri and Sudeepa Khanal for facilitating various sessions during various phases of this workshop series.

At the end of the workshop, reactions from the facilitators and the participants about the workshop were documented:

Dr Alice Street, Facilitator:

Preparation for the workshop

Coming into the workshop, we were aware that the researchers came from diverse backgrounds and their level of skills and experience were also different. We had set up ourselves two goals: making researchers realize that academic writing is not a rocket science and helping them draft an article. We found them enthusiastic and willing to learn the nuances of academic paper writing. Initially they were anxious for first two days but they gradually picked up from day 3.

Processes and Approaches applied during the workshop

Through our presentations and engagement with the researchers, we had to demystify the writing process to the participants. We broke down the writing process into small tasks so that the participants would learn and understand the processes step-by-step. We were closely mentoring them so that they are closely engaged during each step. We also supported them to discover other relevant literature through various literature search techniques. All this was done to familiarize them with the already existing body of literature on the topic.

All throughout the workshop, we applied an iterative and flexible approach. We did have a workshop schedule but we adapted and made changes to our schedule based on the need and interest of the participants. Peer review was one of the key features of the workshop as it allowed for sharing the work among the participants and get feedback not just from the facilitators but also from the participants.

Way Forward post the workshops

Such workshops on academic writing will help the researchers to incorporate their learning into own research organization and expand the scope of research organizations in terms of technical capacity with sharpened critical analysis and writing skills. In the longer run, there is greater scope for promotion of academic writing practice in research organizations in Nepal.

Workshop Participants:

Sanjay Sharma, ICIMOD:

I very much liked the modality of the workshop where as participants we were able to share our work with other co-participants contributing to peer learning. We also benefitted from understanding how bits and pieces of academic writing can be consolidated into a good academic paper.

Ashwin Chand, Social Science Baha:

These 6 days have been a great learning experience for us. We realized that writing is much more simplistic than we thought it to be. The session on short writing bursts really helped us to understand to write so much in limited time slots if we are clear in our head what we want to write. The organization I am associated with really promotes academic writing and therefore it becomes easier for me to incorporate my learning into my work place with my comfort.

Prashansa Subba, TPO Nepal:

As a novice, taking initial steps in qualitative research, I found the workshop to be really helpful. Initially I was stressed out thinking the workshop would be very intensive and challenging but gradually I picked up with very cooperative participants and facilitators. I found the session on future career for researchers very helpful for somebody like me who is just beginning to understand the nuances of qualitative research.

Sambriddhi Kharel, Social Science Baha:

Overall, my experience of participating in this workshop has really been good. I have participated in many workshops where there is a lot of pressure and too many sessions are stuffed into the schedule. This workshop was conducted in a more relaxed manner where the facilitators went on in the process of normalizing the writing process with really good hands-on tips. We realized during the writing process how we take many components of analysis and writing for granted.  

Dr Jasmine Lama, Possible Health:

I found the workshop to be really exciting with the opportunity to learn various sorts of research being conducted by various organizations. Personally, for me I learnt a lot especially getting tips on writing better. These sorts of workshops, if conducted on a regular basis would really help in continuous engagement of researchers.

Regina Basnet, INF:

The overall management of the workshop was really good with the sharing of institutional practices in qualitative research. I particularly liked the sessions on career guidance and handling authorship issues, which I think will benefit me while developing academic papers in the longer run.

Amrita Limbu, Social Science Baha:

I  had the privilege of participating in all three phases of this workshop series. This time around, I found the workshop being conducted in a more relaxed fashion. I noticed that unknowingly, I had been practicing some academic writing processes inappropriately, which this workshop and the facilitators helped me to identify. Given my professional experience working in a research organization, I am also very well aware that all the aspects of academic writing discussed during the workshop might not be relevant and utilized to full extent but certainly as a way forward to promote academic writing and institutionalize the good practices, we need to encourage such workshops to be held more often.

Way Forward 

During the last session of the workshop conducted by Dr Sushil Baral, the participants committed for continuing the momentum for encouraging good practices on Qualitative Research in Nepal through:

• Networking and informal sharing of qualitative research works between organizations in order to share information and insights about various aspects of qualitative research being implemented or in the pipeline
•  Promoting formal tie up between organizations as institutional collaboration to come up with such workshops and other initiatives in the future to promote and encourage better quality and quantity of qualitative research works being conducted in Nepal

Thanking all the participants and facilitators for their valuable time and engagement to make the third phase of RECOUP Qualitative Research Workshop Series such a grand success, Rekha Khatri, Manager – Qualitative Research at HERD hoped for continuous interest and participation in such initiatives, even though through a small meeting or an informal chat between few researchers so as to build on to a very good platform set up through RECOUP workshop series.