The Department of Computer Sciences, University of Lagos (UNILAG), on Monday, August 11, 2025, commenced a 5-day workshop aimed at strengthening the academic writing skills of early career researchers in Nigerian universities.
Titled: Building Academic Research Writing Capacity in Nigerian Universities, the programme is designed to equip participants with the knowledge and tools needed to produce high-quality scholarly work suitable for publication in reputable journals.
The opening day featured a welcome address and a session on setting expectations for the week, led by the facilitators – Dr. Christine Feak (University of Michigan) and Dr. Sola Edagbami (UNILAG).
Hacking the Publishing Game
With her presentation on Audience, Purpose, and Strategy in Research Writing, Dr. Feak facilitated a highly interactive session that encouraged participants to share their challenges in efforts to fulfill their research obligation as academics and researchers. On the basis of that, she steered the conversation in the direction of insights, tips, and tricks which participants could apply to improve their research writing and publication game.
“There is a place for every journal, you just have to keep looking till you find it”, she said, while addressing the challenge of unfavourable paper reviews and submission rejections.
From an editorial perspective, Dr. Feak shared with participants how journals determine the suitability of their submissions, using the framework of Titles, Abstracts, and References. She urged them to “have your desired journal in mind before you start writing. Look at the past five issues of that journal because that will show you its focus, thus making you determine its suitability with your research interests.
“Let it make Sense”
While taking participants on the differences between a technical report and a journal article, Dr. Feak tasked participants on the need to frame their research communication in a way that readily commends itself to the reader with relatability, and not just as a compilation of facts.
Her words, “Let it make sense to the reader. Let the reader see why they should care to pay attention to what you have written. Tension, and not necessarily the absence of research, sells for top journals. If you will commend your research submission to a journal editor, what is counterintuitive in your framing?”
The timing of article submission, structure of research presentation, and the adoption of Wave Pattern of writing which makes for a good reading experience were some of the other tips that the facilitator from the University of Michigan shared with participants.
A Greater Purpose
In bringing the day’s session to an end, Dr. Sola Edagbami disclosed that the purpose of the week-long workshop is to “create a research training hub which will raise resource persons competent enough to pass the knowledge on to other faculties and other universities.”
He charged participants to be consistent, assuring them of their emergence as better researchers at the conclusion of the training.
The training workshop which will end on Friday, August 15, 2025 will offer participants insights in areas such as:
Effective titles and abstracts,
Writing introductions,
Conducting literature reviews,
Ethics in publishing,
Choosing the right journals, among others.
Report: Isaiah Kumuyi
Photography: Ayo Oloyede
