On 20 May 2021, Researcher Song Zhigang, vice editorial director of The Journal of World Economy, visited IIDPF for an academic exchange. Director Song had an in-depth discussion with the base faculty and students on the selection, writing, anonymous review and submission strategies of journal articles. The lecture was chaired by Professor Lu Yuanping, Executive Vice Director of the IIDPF. More than twenty faculty members and students attended the lecture, including Associate Professor Chen Kecui, Researcher Associate Professor Tian Binbin, Associate Professor Zhao Ying, Associate Professor Yang Guochao, Dr. Wan Qian and Dr. Gao Sihan of Northeast University of Finance and Economics.
Researcher Song Zhigang first introduced the basic information and development history of the journal, and then gave a detailed explanation on the review process, paper composition and paper selection of The Journal of World Economy. He pointed out that as scholars writing articles it is important to have both scholarly articles and popular science articles that are easy to understand and more widely disseminated. The abstract section of the paper should be concise and the length of the paper should not be too long. It is important to highlight the marginal contribution of your thesis, i.e. the 'point of innovation', in the overview section. Researcher Song Zhigang highlighted the issue of choosing a topic of dissertation. He shared his insights from the perspective of an editor of a national-level core journal, taking into account economic phenomena in daily lives. He emphasised that good selections come from life and that one should look for selections from the stories around them. Therefore, we should always keep a sensitive heart to the things around us and be attentive everywhere in our lives. In the meantime, we should also be cautious in our selection of themes for highly uncertain topical issues. Finally, he showed the relevant selections from The Journal of World Economy 2021 for reference.
At the end of the lecture, researcher Song Zhigang gave some suggestions to the students and faculty on the spot based on his many years of experience in reviewing papers, including the topic selection techniques, theoretical mechanisms, argumentative methods, heterogeneity tests, regression analysis and presentation of results. After the lecture, students and faculty members interacted actively with researcher Song Zhigang and had in-depth exchanges on specific problems encountered in the process of writing and submitting papers. By combining the results of their theses, Associate Professor Zhao Ying and Associate Professor Yang Guochao conducted targeted discussions on the selection of thesis topics and data acquisition.
Researcher Song Zhigang has been working in the editorial board of The Journal of World Economy for many years and has extensive experience in reviewing manuscripts. In this lecture, Researcher Song Zhigang shared his valuable experience accumulated over the years with the audience in a humorous language and lively expression, which is a realistic guidance for IIDPF faculty and students in publishing high-level papers in the future.