This Research Paper Written By 3 Senior Lecturers At A Local Uni Was Called A "Disgrace"
One of the authors' name was spelled wrongly.
By Jia Vern Tham — 19 Mar 2018, 06:07 PM
Islamic Renaissance Front (IRF) founder and lecturer at Monash University Malaysia Dr. Ahmad Farouk Musa criticised a research paper written by three senior lecturers at Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI)
According to Free Malaysia Today, the 19-page essay by the three human sciences senior lecturers is not only filled with grammar and spelling errors, even the name of one of the authors, Muhammad Atiullah Othman, is wrongly spelled as Muhammad Atiullah Ohtman.
In response to the research paper, which was published on 4 February, Farouk said he welcomed critiques to his views but questioned the academic quality of the paper and the credibility of the journal which it was published in.
The research paper criticised the IRF for demanding a shift from Islamism to "post-Islamism" with "liberalist" and "secularist" values
The paper also pointed out that Islamist slogans and "leadership of the Devine order" have been criticised for "unclear and uncertainty".
The authors went on to address "IRF critics against Islamism", claiming that they reject democracy, Islamist ideology and law, and recommended "secularism, human rights, freedom, and equality" in line with the Malaysian Federal Constitution.
Farouk said he will make an official complaint to UPSI's management over the research paper, and warned that Human Resource Management Academic Research Society (HRMARS) could be among hundreds of fake academic journals
"The issue is the paper is replete with grammatical errors and poor syntax or relationship between the words and phrases," he was quoted by Free Malaysia Today.
Furthermore, US-based Beall's List Of Predatory Journals And Publishers included publisher of the paper, HRMARS as well. The list was created by Jeffrey Beall, who is a well-known critic of the open access publishing movement.
Farouk said it is a "disgrace to the university" to have academics who produced such an "abysmal research paper".
"It is a disgrace to the university to have an academic of this standard who received a research grant but produced such an abysmal research paper," he said.