TWO ARTLET faculty members were among the top research scientists in this year’s Alper-Doger Scientific Index (ADSI).
Director of UST Center for Creative Writing and Literary Studies Professor Emeritus Cristina Pantoja-Hidalgo, a renowned essayist and fictionist, was cited for her research on women’s literature, autobiographical writing by women, and Philippine literature in English.
Hidalgo, a doctorate degree holder for Comparative Literature, has been recognized as an Outstanding Thomasian Writer and a Hall of Famer for the International Publication Award. She was also a recipient of the Carlos Palanca Grand Prize for the Novel.
The index also cited UST Research Center for Social Sciences and Education (UST-RCSSED) assistant director and journalism Asst. Prof. Jeremaiah Opiniano for his research on international migration and development, remittances, migrant philanthropy, and journalism studies.
The index also included 35 other Thomasian scientists from various research fields.
However, Opiniano said the index’s algorithm has limitations and that humanities may be underrepresented in the rankings.
“Many other more published Filipino researchers are not included in the said index. The index used an algorithm that is linked to Google Scholar. And friends who do not have Google Scholar accounts have more work than I do,” he told The Flame.
ADSI is a ranking and analysis system based on the scientific performance and added value of the scientific productivity of individual scientists. The index uses the i10 index, h-index, and citation scores in Google Scholar.
Opiniano said researchers like him are not conscious about rankings and that citations from their works are “a mere bonus.”
“We are conscious if our studies respond to the issues in society that we confront. For the scholarly researcher, we hope more voices from the Philippines across the disciplines get heard and published in scholarly journals,” he added.
Opiniano cited the need to conduct more studies and urged the younger generation to produce research that benefits the society.
“Research currently saves lives, and may that stir interest for young people to do research. It begins with thesis writing courses; if young people get interested in it and excel through graduate study and opportunities to do research, that will be great,” he said.
Opiniano was appointed as the assistant research director of the UST-RCSSED in October last year. F – Arthur N. Apostol
