The document discusses the process of crafting and publishing scientific research. It begins with an introduction on insights from an author and reviewer. It then discusses five key success factors for publishing in high quality journals, including emphasizing significant contributions and developing hypotheses based on sound theory. The document also provides an example research study on the effects of CSR reporting regimes and financial conditions on willingness to invest in CSR. It outlines the research objectives, conceptual framework, hypotheses, and results. The conclusion emphasizes finding interesting topics and exposure to peers.

1. 1
Crafting and publishing scientific
research
Simon Fraser
University
Canada
jjermias@sfu.ca
Johnny Jermias
STAN 79
Research Seminar
Politeknik STAN
Jakarta, Indonesia
August 15, 2016
POLITEKNIK STAN AUGUST 2016

2. 2
Outline
Introduction1
Scientific research
2 Publication in high quality journal
3
Example: Research in CSR4
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5 Conclusion

3. 1. Introduction: Background
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Insights from an author and an editorial
board member/reviewer

4. 1. Introduction: Background
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• Recent published papers.pdf

5. 1. Introduction: Background
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•Editorial board member/reviewer:
– Contemporary accounting research (Canada)
– Journal of international accounting research
(USA)
– Management Accounting Research (UK)
– JAKI (Universitas Indonesia)
– GAMA IJB (Universitas Gadjah Mada)

6. 1. Introduction
• “You submitted your best work to a
journal. Your hopes are high: the results of
your research are consistent, significant
and interesting. After several weeks, the
reviews arrive. When you read them, you
are heartbroken. The reviewers and
editors didn't get it! Your paper was
rejected! What went wrong?” (Peracchio
and Escalas, 2008).
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7. 2. Publication in High Quality Journals
5 Key Success Factors:
•1. Emphasize on significant contributions to the
existing literature
•2. Develop hypotheses based on sound theories
•3. Tell a convincing story with consistent and logical
flow of thought
•4. Focus the story on the constructs and variables
•5. Proofread the entire document (Free from
grammatical and other errors/omissions)
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2. Publication in High Quality
Journals
Path to publication:
1.Idea generation
2.Formalization of research ideas
3.Data collection and analyses
4.Writing the manuscript
5.Presentation at workshop/seminars to solicit
feedback
6.Journal submissions with lengthy review
process (average 3 years)
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2. Publication in High Quality
Journals
Characteristics of topics that have a
good chance to be accepted:
 Address real world/societal problems
 Fills significant gap/advances theory
 Produce novel/new/unexpected results
 Address hard to solve research
issues/introduces new procedures
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2. Publication in High Quality
Journals
Effective ways to learn how to publish in
high quality Journals:
 Follow the process of your D4/Master/PhD
thesis
 Collaborate with experienced and
successful co-authors
 Ask for guidance from experts in your field
 No access or difficult to find
 Experts are extremely busy
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2. Publication in High Quality
Journals
Two factors to generate significant/
meaningful topics:
1.Process to generate research ideas
 Following and critically looking at the literature
 Keeping up to date of real world issues
 Working with colleagues
1.Ability to differentiate significant/meaningful
topics
 Awareness of existing literature
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2. Publication in High Quality
Journals
Role of senior colleagues/co-authors:
 Minimize the risk of undertaken research topics
that have little chance of successful completion
 Help to obtain correct data on the first attempt
 Eliminate outcome dependence research
 Reduce the temptation to abandon the main
research topic as the research progress
 Set the time schedule for each milestones
(literature review, hypotheses, research design,
data collection, data analyses, first draft, final draft)
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3. Conducting Scientific research
Purpose:
• To understand, predict, or control some
aspects of the environment by testing/refuting
existing theories or by developing and testing
new theories
• To help policy makers
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3. Conducting Scientific Research
Fundamental questions:
1. What are the problem statements
(research questions)?
2. Why are they important? Do we really
care? Why? (relate to your contributions)?
3. How do you address the research
questions?
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15. Framework for Scientific
Research
5.Data
Interpretation
1. Initial
Inquiry
(Research
question)
2. Hypothesis
3. Designing
Tests
4. Data
Collection
Scientific
Inquiry
Add Your Text
6.Drawing
Conclusions
7. Further
Inquiry
(Extension)
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Example: Research in CSR
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17. Yasheng Chen
(Xiamen University-China)
Johnny Jermias
(Simon Fraser University-Canada)
Jamal Nazari
(Simon Fraser University-Canada)
The Effects of CSR Reporting Regimes and Financial
Conditions on Managers’ Willingness to Invest in CSR

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Outline
 Introduction
 Research objectives
 Conceptual framework and research hypotheses
 Research method and sample characteristics
 Results and discussion

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Introduction
 CSR reporting is now mainstream
 In 2013, most Global Fortune 250 firms issued
voluntary stand-alone CSR reports, compared to only
39% in 1999.
 Most CSR investment is less profitable than other
investment opportunities
 Companies are reluctant to invest in CSR activities

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Introduction
 Previous studies: focused their investigations on the
impacts of CSR disclosure on decision making of
external users.
 We do not yet fully understand managers’ incentives or
motivations to invest in CSR.
 We argue that managers’ willingness to invest in CSR
activities is influenced by the CSR disclosure regimes.

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Conceptual Framework – Legitimacy
Theory
 In order to survive and succeed, the company’s
operations should be perceived by society to be
complying with the terms and requirement of the social
contract.
 Companies will take various actions to ensure that the
society perceive that their operations are legitimate.
 Adopt either a passive strategy to comply with external
pressures or take a proactive strategy to engage in
managing the external pressures.

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Three CSR Disclosure Regimes:
 Footnote in financial statements.
 CSR Stand alone report
 Integrated reporting

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Research Hypothesis- Stand Alone CSR Report
When managers prepare both annual financial statements
(FS) and stand-alone CSR, the managers have the
opportunity to mitigate the effect of the less profitable
CSR project through the disclosure of these projects in
the stand-alone CSR report.
H1: Managers’ willingness to invest in a CSR project will
be higher under the CSR stand-alone reporting regime
as compared to that in the FS reporting regime.

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Research Hypothesis- Integrated Reporting
• Despite its conceptual appealing, IR has not yet been well developed
and rarely used in practice.
• IR tends to be cumbersome and deviate significantly from the existing
accounting frameworks.
• According to a survey of CSR reporting practices by PWC (2013), while
499 of the S&P 500 companies provided sustainability disclosure, only
seven used IR to report their CSR activities. IR framework is still far
from a quality that can be adopted as a mainstream reporting system.
H2: There will be no difference in managers’ willingness to invest in a
CSR project under IR reporting regime as compared to that under
financial reporting regime.

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Research Theory & Hypothesis- Financial Conditions
• While external factors and pressures play an initiating role in motivating
corporate behavior toward social/environmental performance, internal
resources are becoming increasingly important to maintain and expand
these activities.
• As per RBV & NRBV, companies with higher financial resources and
superior financial performance are more likely to pursue proactive
environmental strategies. In line with this theory, we propose the
following hypothesis:
H3: Managers in profitable companies will be more willing to invest in
a CSR project than those in unprofitable companies.

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Data analyses: Logistic regression
iiii PROFITIRCSRLogit 321)( βββαπ +++=






−
=
i
i
i LogLogit
π
π
π
1
)(
The assumed relationship between πi
,CSRi
, IRi
and PROFITi
is as
follows:
W
here,
(1)
(2)

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4. Conclusion
Useful for preparing a manuscript
(thesis/dissertation):
 Are the theory and hypotheses reasonable?
 Are there any other variables that might have
significant effects on the dependent variables?
 Is the magnitude of the hypothesized effect
plausible?
 Are all important competing explanations
adequately addressed in the plan?
 Are the proposed test appropriate?
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4. Conclusion
Useful to evaluate others’ paper (reviewer):
 What are the dependent, independent, control
variables?
 Are they appropriately addressed in the paper?
 What are other variables that might have important
effects on the dependent variable?
 Are there better ways
 to measure those variables?
 To analyze data?
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Main Takeaways
 Find interesting topic, significant contribution to
the existing literature
 Find good co-author(s)
 Know the target journal (journal have different
styles)
 Expose your work to your peers (present in
good conferences)
 Don’t be defeated by reviewers’ comments
 Length from idea generation to first draft: 1-2
years
 Length of review process: 1-4 years
Good luck
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Thank You !
POLITEKNIK STAN AUGUST 2016