PENANG, 1 November 2016 - Six renowned journals with editors in-chief comprising of academicians from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) have been accorded the Current Research in Malaysia (CREAM) status by the Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) based on the standards of excellence evident in the journals.

First in the list is the Bulletin of the Malaysian Mathematical Sciences Society which is in its second year running ever since the CREAM status was introduced, being among the journals portraying standards of quality and indexed in Web of Science (WoS).

The next two journals also listed in the SCOPUS category are the Asian Academy of Management Journal of Accounting and Finance (AAMJAF) (Editor in-Chief: Professor Dato' Dr. Ruhani Ali) and the International Journal of Asia-Pacific Studies (Editor in-Chief: Professor Dr. Ooi Keat Gin).

Three other journals which made the list in the Potential Journal category are the Journal of Physical Science (Editor in-Chief: Professor Dr. Abdul Latif Ahmad), Malaysian Journal of Medical Sciences (MJMS) (Editor in-Chief: Professor Dato' Dr. Jafri Malin Abdullah) and Journal of Construction in Developing Countries (Editor in-Chief: Professor Sr. Dr. Abdul Rashid Abdul Aziz).

The Editor in-Chief of the Malaysian Mathematical Sciences Society, Professor Dato' Dr. Rosihan M. Ali expressed the feeling of excitement being accorded the status, and hopes to continue the streak of excellence after taking over the helming of the journal in 1998.

"Many achievements have been made at various levels throughout the process of promoting this bulletin and surely the accolades would be for USM, USM Press and the USM School of Mathematical Sciences which have truly supported this publication since the beginning.

"In order to ensure that the journal would be indexed in WoS, there are various criteria and assessments that needed to be fulfilled, and clearly with the commitment of many parties, the first attempt at being indexed with ISI has been successful and we have made the record to become the fourth journal in the country to be successfully indexed," he said.

Meanwhile, Ruhani stressed that the journal which she headed since 2005 has seen a consistent growth and has also been indexed in the ESCI (Emerging Sources Citation Index) as among the journal of quality with the potential to be indexed in ISI.

ESCI is managed by Thomson Reuters and journals indexed in ESCI are yet to be at ISI level of standards, although they show the quality and having potential to be indexed in ISI as the next step forward.

"AAMJAF was indexed in Scopus in 2009 in its first attempt and until now, we still receive substantial contributions of articles from academics within the country."

"Although we have yet to be in ISI, we are proud with the feedbacks received in saying that the quality of articles in AAMJAF are equal to ISI standards, giving us the confidence to place ourselves in the ISI group," she said.

Being listed in the Potential Journal Category, the Editor in-Chief of MJMS, Jafri stated that his office is committed in continuing with the excellence in publications and is hoping for a team that is committed towards fulfilling the high criteria requirements. 

"For the continuity in the publication of an international journal and indexed in ISI for example, it requires a strong commitment from various quarters including the editorial, publisher, article contributors and many others," he said.

For Professor Dr. Abdul Latif Ahmad, this recognition is an incentive to all those who have worked tirelessly to produce this journal (Journal of Physical Sciences), and judging from the quality of articles published, he believes that it will one day make it to the ISI listing.

In the meantime, the awarding of the CREAM status introduced by MoHE serves as an incentive in encouraging the writing and publication of research outcomes by local scholars in journals of repute, influential and renowned in the international arena.

It also functions as a form of recognition with the Publication Encouragement Scheme accorded to local journals resulting from current research activities and which aimed at enhancing such journals to be indexed in the databases of international journals such as WoS or Scopus, while ensuring that the indexed journals would remain in the database and the citation impact would be improved.

Translation: Mazlan Hanafi Basharudin