Flaws in Research Report Writing: An Evaluation of Research Reports Submitted for an International Conference on Education

Abstract

The present study was undertaken to assess papers presented during the 5 th International Conference organized by the Collaboration of Education Faculties in West Africa (CEFWA). This was done with a view to revealing participants' deficiencies in research report writing. The sample for the study comprised of 65 research reports submitted for peer review process by the conference participants. Data sources include reviewers' assessment of research report using the CEFWA Research Report Rating Scale (C3Rs-a five Likert scale) and reviewers' comments and suggestions on the weaknesses and strengths of the research reports. Based on these data sources, both descriptive statistics (e.g., mean) and content analysis of reviewers' evaluation comments were used in the data analysis. The results of the study revealed that (1) the journal-conference proceedings rejection rate was 47.7% (2) the Introduction and Discussion were rated as weak; Literature Review, Methodology, Results and Conclusion were rated