ABSTRACT

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1. 1. Background of the Study

As the need for automated systems increases in our social, business and educational sector. There is also need for automated systems in the Research and Publication area, so as to make their activities easier and automated. Journals are mostly used by Researchers to publish their researches so that many people around the world can use the research for several purposes.

Automated journal (or e-journal) is defined as any journal, magazine, e-zine, webzine, newsletter or type of electronic serial publication which is available over the Internet and can be accessed using different technologies (Arora, 2001). Electronic Periodicals are accessible to all users regardless of geographic location. Anyone in the world with services and the proper computer software and browser services can access online journals. This accessibility leads  to a  more  diverse audience  throughout  the world  as  well  as a  readership  that may include not only academics, but students and lay people (Saxena, 2009).

Journals have been very important source of scholarly communication among research scholars and scientific communication among scientists and researchers. They serve as an input to ongoing research activities. A scholarly journal has got certain functions in the scientific world no matter in what format it is published or distributed.

According to Lambert (2005), the functions of journals lay in four distinct areas which are to make the results of original research available to the widest possible audience; provide a permanent record or archive of research which has been carried out and enable an individual scientist or technologist to establish the fact that, he was the first person to make a particular discovery, the process being formally known as the assignment of priority and to ensure a guaranteed standard of quality in the papers accepted for publication, this being achieved through the refereeing system.

Tenopir and King (2015), found ample evidence that scholarly journals are not only widely read, but are extremely useful and important to scientists' work, whether it is teaching, research, administration, or other activities. Despite its benefits to the academic and research community, the printed journal has been subjected to criticism from many angles such as the peer review process, delays in publication, lack of storage space, escalating costs, lack of selectivity, stoppage of subscriptions by libraries and commercial publishers holding copyrights. Limited access like only one user can use a particular issue at a time and they can only be access within the library during the library hours, loss and mutilation are also some serious problems associated with printed journals (karwan, 2016). Thus due to these issues, the academic and research community is trying to maintain research communication through newer channels like automated journals.

With the emergence of the internet, publishing has become very easy, quick and cheap in a medium that can be accessed easily by everyone from anywhere. With the steady growth of automated journals on the internet, it was found that creativity and productivity has also improved due to network technologies. Scholars have understood the power of automated journals and seem to have accepted the new medium for communicating research ideas and results among fellow professionals. The internet is reshaping the way in which scholars communicate with one another, changing the characteristics of scholarly communication.

Automated Journal systems are designed for the purpose of reducing stress made by the contributors, journal managers and other researchers by converting the manual processes to online processes. Records and details of all activities carried out on the system can be traced easily and effectively.

1. 2. Statement of the Problem

It is quite evident that the publication of the Nigerian Journal of Technology and Human Development has posed a lot of challenges especially the time constraint taken to carry out the publication processes. The question therefore is, should the institutions continue to run the journal system at the current level or should the process be automated? Although this problem is not restricted to only the Nigerian Army Institute of technology and environmental studies (NAITES), in recent time, the quest for automated system has been in view in various sectors of endeavor. Some of the Problems associated with the current journal system includes; human errors such as typography and redundancy, publication timing, Loss of manuscripts before or after the assessment, Contributors that are not near Makurdi experience difficulties in submitting their articles for publications, because articles are only sourced out for publications when conferences are been held by the Nigerian Army Institute Of Technology and Environmental Studies (NAITES) Makurdi.

The existing journal system is unable to tackle the situation where many researchers may not even know when there is call for submission of articles for publication because the current manual system does so majorly with conference fliers. Also, the existing system do not create room for other researchers who are not contributors or students and thus they have difficulties in using the journal because only contributors, staffs and students are given single copies of the journal after publication.

 1.3    Aim and Objectives of the Study

The aim of this project work is to develop an automated journal system. The specific objectives include;

i. To design a system that will allow online submissions of articles for contributors and researchers instead of the manual system of submission.

ii. To allow contributors to track their submissions i.e. every contributor can view all his submissions.

iii. To enable the administrator to view and download all submissions made by contributors for the purpose of assessment before publication.

iv. To allow the administrator to upload all published papers online according to their volumes or Editions.

v. To enable all contributors, students and researchers to view and download all published articles online.

1.4     Significance of the Study.

This research work will help in tackling the problems involve in the manual publication of the Nigerian Journal of Technology and Human Development by Nigerian Army Institute of Technology and Environmental Studies (NAITES).

The management software is relevant in the following ways:

i.   The designed computer driven Journal system will help to facilitate timely Publications of journals and articles.

ii.  Providing an avenue by which researchers, contributors, students can have access to published journals.

iii. Providing a platform by which contributors within and outside of makurdi can submit articles for assessment and publication.

1.5     Scope of the Study

This project will be centered on the basic processes in the Journal Publication of the Nigerian Journal of Technology and Human Development which is published by Nigerian Army Institute of Technology and Environmental Studies (NAITES) Makurdi.

The basic processes includes; Assessment, compilation of articles and the printing of the journal, for the growing number of staffs and students which has posed a lot of problem in the publication of the journal, especially with the high cost and time consuming task of compiling and printing of the journal.

1.6     Definition of terms

JOURNAL: A journal is an academic magazine published on a regular schedule. It contains articles written by experts in a particular field of study, based on research or analysis that the author, or authors, did.

EDITOR: A person having managerial and sometimes policy making responsibility related to the writing, publication, and revision of content for a publication firm or for a newspaper, magazine or other publications.

ARTICLES: A piece of writing included with others in a newspaper, magazine, or other publication

CONTRIBUTOR: A person who writes articles for a magazine, journal or newspaper.

SUBMISSION:  The act of giving something for a decision to be made by others, or a document formally given in this way

 EDITORIAL BOARD: These are group of experts, usually at a publication, who dictate the tone and direction the publication's editorial policy will take.

PUBLICATION: The preparation and issuing of a book, journal, or piece of music for public sale.

RESEARCH: Research comprises creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of humans, culture and society, and the use of this stock of knowledge to devise new applications.

WEB-BASED: A web-based application is an application that is made available via the World Wide Web.

AUTOMATED SYSTEM: The technique, method, or system of operating or controlling a process by highly automatic means, as by electronic devices, reducing human intervention to a minimum.