Applications of ‘Pitching Research’ in an Emerging Economies Research Journal: Insights and Reflections

Abstract

Research Question: Can we create a highly structured (but practical) abstract, which communicates the essential elements demanded by an expert scholarly reader? Motivation: A key aim of this journal is to enable “relevant information exchange and communication”. Information overload mean that readers are easily lost. Right at the start, poorly designed abstracts can fail to “hook” readers. Lost readers: is bad for authors, editors and for the journal. What’s new? While structured abstracts are not new, the “synergistic” combination of elements, combined with succinct guidance on content, is where the novelty lies. So what? Engaging readers in this way should lead to more journal activity – more reads, cites, submissions – and, ultimately, to an enhanced profile/reputation in the scholarly community. Idea: Building on Faff (2015, 2017) and Faff et al. (2017e) [“reverse engineering” and “pitch sparring”], we adapt the “Pitching Research” [PR] framework to create a structured and engaging abstract. Data: The “experimental” setting involves a sample of six high-performing non-research students, who signed up to an intense 4-week “research scholar” program over Winter 2017, at University of Queensland. Tools: The “Winter Scholars” are first taken through an “immersion treatment” on the PR framework. During this process, the students form three teams and each team is assigned an article to “spar” a reverse-engineered pitch summary-abstract. There are several iterative rounds of abstract design. Findings: The original pitch is limited to 1,000 words, an initial condensed abstract aims for 400 words and the final version is modified to 350 words. Three examples of the final structured abstract are created in Accounting, Finance and Management, providing “soft” “proof of concept”. Contribution: By creating a simple, focused and structured new abstract design adopted by this journal, we enhance the ability of the journal to meet its primary aim of enhancing “relevant information exchange and communication”. Over time, with growing use and application in this journal the reach of this contribution grows too. More generally, we argue that this novel abstract design increases awareness of the broader PR framework, helping readers and especially novice researchers better understand, describe and ultimately design their own scholarly research.

Making Data Reports Useful: From Descriptive to Predictive

“…A paired t-test was applied to test the significant similarity between forecasted outputs and what really happened during the month of August 2020 (the true data). Waikato Environment for Knowledge Analysis (WEKA®, University of Waikato, New Zealand) machine 1,2 learning software was used to visualize the forecasting results and to test the degree of accuracy of the models by classification.…”

“…Exploratory research helps scientists develop initial hunches or insights [1]. However, the tradition in medical science research presentations is descriptive analytics.…”

… More on the use of research templates

“…Indeed, a primary example of this entreaty is the qualitative adaptation of Lodhia (2019). Further, other variations of the research template design include: (i) the Pitching Research for Engagement and Impact framework (Faff et al, 2020), (ii) language translations (Faff et al, 2018) and (iii) journal article abstracts (Hale et al, 2018;Faff, 2019b).…”

A critical examination of the use of research templates in accounting and finance

“…The first group of users is novice or junior researchers, the original intended audience of this template. This user group typically utilises the template to plan their research, conduct a targeted literature review (e.g., via reverse‐engineering of prior literature to identify new research ideas), and develop a structured abstract (Faff et al ., 2016; Nguyen et al ., 2017; Salehudin, 2017; Hale et al ., 2018). Manchha (2018) suggests that the RF template is a learning tool that enables researchers to build their own research skills ‘their way’.…”