Using technology-based tools in ensuring quality of publishable journal articles: the case of Chinese undergraduate research writing experience

摘要

Undergraduate student engagement in research publication facilitates their intellectual development and professional social interaction and leads to increased sense of self-efficacy and trust in science and recognition as a researcher. Scientific publication is a pillar which gauges intellectual human capital of countries in the global innovation index. This paper presents the effectiveness of using technology-based tools in ensuring the quality of articles for journal publication. It fundamentally employed pre- and post-test research design to determine the effectiveness of online technology-based tools before and after the intervention. It employed descriptive presentation of the different on-line technology tools used in the 21 specimens of student researches written in publishable article format. It examined the quality of references, level of readability, writing quality, originality, and grammar of the papers before and after the review process and interventions. The study highlighted that using online tools improved the quality of the papers with respect to grammar and lexical quality, similarity index, readability index, number of references, number of correct bibliographic entries for submission in high impact journals. A higher level of a cleansing process using the online technology tools ensures the quality of publishable articles. Implications of this study will facilitate journal article writing skill of academic community to effectively disseminate results of research studies with higher chances of being accepted in respected global databases as contribution to knowledge generation and development of the country.