Hawassa University has conducted a capacity building training for HU OA Journals editors and reviewers. The training was supported by the finance from the eifl-Knowledge without Boundaries, the Netherlands.
In his opening remarks, Prof. Mebratu Mulatu, the delegate of the Vice President for Research and Colleboration and the coordinator of the project, mentioned that the research journals of the university are under the jurisdiction of their respective hosting colleges, yet the office of VPRC has taken the initiative to empower them as part of its aspirations to enhance their quality and proceed to the international indexing. He explained that the goal of the training for editors, associate editors, reviewers and managers was to ensure the quality of the journals so they meet the contemporary global scientific standards in a sustainable way. Prof. Mebratu pointed out that HU has eight nationally accredited journals, which is commendable, yet the plan is to strengthen the two remaining journals and secure national accreditation, and the senior ones get indexed in international databases.
The training was focused on sharing rich practical experiences by two senior scholars. The first trainer, Prof. Busha Jaleta from University of Gondar, has over a decade experience as the Editor-in Chief of “the Ethiopian Renaissance Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities (ERJSSH)” which has been indexed in Scopus for the last nine years. The other trainer, Dr. Abunu Arega from Ethiopian Journals Editors Association, focused on issues related to National Scientific Journals Accreditation procedures as compared to International Standards, and Institutional Culture.
The training was delivered through an interactive approach where participants were engaged in reflective sessions to enrich their experiences in handling/managing submissions and over all activities of their respective journals.
The training was part of the goal to ensure Continuous Professional Development in capacitating new and emerging editors.
