“Publish or not”: an output problem of higher education students

Publication is an important activity for students studying at university, especially for those who are completing their thesis or final project. The aim of this research is to know problems experienced by students during the publication process and students' perceptions about the output of article publications to obtain a master's degree in the English education master's department, is it better “publish or not”?. The researcher uses a descriptive qualitative method and interviews as a data collection technique for two students in Higher Education especially master’s students of English education. The results of this finding are there are several problems experienced by students during the article publication process: articles that were rejected by the journal, so they had to look for another journal and it would take a long time. It takes quite a long time to get to the publication stage because as said by participants, each journal has provisions for the publication stage how many times a year and wait for the article review stage which was quite long. And both participants chose "publish" because they thought that the English education master's department had made this policy for a reason and that reason would have a positive impact on students in the future, especially to support the careers of students who wanted to become lecturers and work in the world of education.


Higher education students, Output problem, Publish or not
Publication is an important activity for students studying at university, especially for those who are completing their thesis or final project.The aim of this research is to know problems experienced by students during the publication process and students' perceptions about the output of article publications to obtain a master's degree in the English education master's department, is it better "publish or not"?.The researcher uses a descriptive qualitative method and interviews as a data collection technique for two students in Higher Education especially master's students of English education.The results of this finding are there are several problems experienced by students during the article publication process: articles that were rejected by the journal, so they had to look for another journal and it would take a long time.It takes quite a long time to get to the publication stage because as said by participants, each journal has provisions for the publication stage how many times a year and wait for the article review stage which was quite long.And both participants chose "publish" because they thought that the English education master's department had made this policy for a reason and that reason would have a positive impact on students in the future, especially to support the careers of students who wanted to become lecturers and work in the world of education.
Wacana: Jurnal Penelitian Bahasa, Sastra dan Pengajaran, 22 (1), 77-91 DOI: https://doi.org/10.33369/jwacana.31703degree.The publication of SINTA articles has gradually become an important factor in the awarding of master's degrees to Indonesian master's students over the past decade, as the Indonesian government requires the publication of scientific publications for bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees (Fithriani and Salmiah, 2022).Publishing requirements put a lot of pressure on master's degree students, because if during their studies there are no scientific articles published in nationally recognized journals, students will not be able to meet the requirements for master's degrees (Fithriani, et al., 2023: 180).
The participants used in this research were master's students from the English education department.In the English language education master's program, each course must have an output and generally the output is in the form of articles published in journals with at least a GARUDA index and to qualify for a master's degree, each student is required to publish research articles in journals of national or reputation international.During the publication process, there were several problems experienced by English language education master's students, such as articles being rejected by journals, difficulties in finding journals that matched the researcher's research focus, paid journals and publication times in several journals which were only done 2 to 3 times a year.Therefore, some students feel pressured by the regulation that the output of the course is the publication of articles and to obtain a master's degree you must also publish articles.
However, the English education department will not make these regulations without a definite reason.Before making a decision, it must be discussed first what the positive impact of this publication will be for English language education master's students in the future, especially for career students (Gusmuliana, et all, 2022(Gusmuliana, et all, : 2390)).So in this research, the researcher will focus on one of the requirements for obtaining an M.Pd degree in the English language education master's department, namely the problem to publish at least 1 research article in a journal of national reputation (SINTA) or international reputation.The formulation of the problem in this article is: what problems did participants experience during the publication process?What are students' perceptions about the output of article publications to obtain a master's degree in the English education master's department, is it better "publish or not"?

METHOD Research Design
This study used qualitative research methods.In a sense, the qualitative method is an analytical mechanism that focuses on defining words and sentences that are structured intentionally and consistently, from data collection to research documentation and reporting.Qualitative approach is also descriptive where data is collected in the form of words or photos and not numbers (Bogdan & Biklen, 2007).However, the qualitative descriptive method can be interpreted as a purely and clearly described set of data gathering activities, the results of which are relevant to expert theories and opinions.A descriptive study with a phenomenological approach was used in this study as the researcher analyzed about publish or not: an output problem of Higher Education student.Martin (2017), points out that descriptive phenomenology is widely used in social science research as a way to study and explain individual life experiences.
Participants consisted of two students in Higher Education especially master's students of English education.Researcher believes that research participants can provide information that answers research questions.

Data Collecting Procedure
In qualitative research, data is collected through in-depth interviews, document analysis, observation and analysis of audio-visual material (Creswell, 2012).Therefore, the data for this study were collected through interviews.To collect data from the results of the interviews the researcher made several procedures: 1. the researcher prepares the concept of questions to be interviewed to the subject, 2. the researcher interviews each informant, and 3. the researcher transcribes the results of the interviews.

Data Analysis Procedures
The data analysis procedures used in this study refers to the opinion of Miles & Huberman (1994:16) namely data reduction, data display, and conclusions.In data reduction the researcher summarizes, selects the main points, focuses on the things that are considered important and then looks for themes and patterns.Thus the data that has been reduced can provide a clearer picture so that it has been easier for researcher to draw conclusion.Then, data display in analyzing data, researcher need to present data with the aim that the information collected can be arranged systematically so that it is easier to understand.The last stage in data analysis is making conclusion by looking at the results of data reduction, still referring to the formulation of the problem and achieving goals.Information has been collected and compared to arrive at a conclusion as a solution to the problem.

FINDINGS Problems Experienced by Participants during the Publication Process
As the research explained above, in this study two participants were used, namely master's students of English education.From the results of interviews conducted by researcher with participants regarding problems experienced by participants during the publication process, the participants said: The first participant said that: "Mengenai masalah yang kaka alami selama proses publikasi artikel khususnya syarat untuk sidang ya dek karena minimal SINTA 3 jadi masalahnya itu kemaren artikel kaka di tolak oleh pihak jurnal sehingga kaka harus mencari jurnal lain untuk mensubmit kembali artikel kaka dan itu pasti membutuhkan waktu yang lumayan lama karena kan seperti yang kita tahu kalau jurnal ini tidak melakukan publikasi setiap hari udah ada ketentuannya kadang dalam setahun hanya 3 kali publish."From the statement above, it can be seen that the problem experienced by the first participant during the article publication process for the requirements for obtaining an M.Pd degree in the English education master's major was that the article submitted by the participant was rejected by the journal so they had to look for another journal and it would take a long time.It takes quite a long time to get to the publication stage because as said by participants, each journal has provisions for the publication stage how many times a year, sometimes it only publishes 3 times a year.
The second participant said that: "Kalau masalah yang kaka alami selama proses publikasi artikel kemaren artikel kaka pernah ditolak sekali trus kaka submit artikel kaka ke jurnal lain alhamdulillah masuk tahap review nah ditahap review ini menurut kaka juga termasuk masalah karna kita harus sabar menunggu pihak jurnal untuk ngereview artikel kita karena memang lumayan lama dan kaka harus ngecek email tiap hari untuk lihat notif dari pihak jurnal mengenai kelanjutan dari artikel kaka tapi Alhamdulillah sudah publish jadi untuk syarat siding aman la satu hehe." From the second participant's statement, it can be concluded that the problem experienced during the publication process was that the article was rejected, so one had to look for another journal to resubmit the article and wait for the article review stage which was quite long.
From the statements of the two participants above, it can be concluded that the problems experienced by the participants during the article publication process were articles that were rejected by the journal, so they had to look for another journal and it would take a long time.It takes quite a long time to get to the publication stage because as said by participants, each journal has provisions for the publication stage how many times a year and wait for the article review stage which was quite long.Students' Perceptions about the Output of Article Publications to Obtain a Master's Degree in the English Education Master's Department, Is it Better "Publish or Not"?
From the results of interviews conducted by researcher with participants, the participants said: The first participant said that: "Kalau menurut kaka mengenai kebijakan pihak jurusan yang mewajibkan kita melakukan publikasi artikel ke jurnal yang minimal SINTA 3 nggak masalah dek, karena kan syarat untuk sidang cuma 1 artikel yang wajib publish ke SINTA.Lagi pula, nantinya akan bermanfaat bagi kita khususnya untuk menunjang karir kita di dunia pendidikan misal kalau nanti kita jadi dosen maka jumlah artikel yang sudah kita publish akan menjadi pertimbangan untuk karir kita ke depannya.Kalau mengenai masalah yang dialami selama proses publikasi itu hal biasa namanya juga proses nggak boleh berharap semua akan berjalan mulus begitu saja.Intinya pande-pande dalam mencari jurnal yang tepat kalau bisa dapat jurnal yang fast response, fast review dan kalau memang berbayar bayarannya sesuai kantong mahasiswa hehe." From the participant's answer above, it can be seen that the participant chose "publish", because as stated by the participant, the policy set by the department regarding mandatory publication at least once in a journal of national reputation (Min.SINTA 3) will be useful for us in particular.to support a career in the world of education, for example, if we later become lecturers, the number of articles we have published will be a consideration for our future careers.The second participant said that: "Kalau menurut persepsi kaka, kaka milih publish dek.Pihak jurusan membuat keputusan pasti karna sudah dimusyawarahkan dan dipertimbangkan sebaik mungkin apakah dampak positifnya lebih besar daripada dampak negatifnya untuk mahasiswa ke depannya.Dan kita juga tau bahwa sekarang itu publikasi artikel, makalah, thesis dan karya tulis lainnya lagi booming khususnya dalam dunia pendidikan.Apalagi untuk kita calon dosen, berapa banyak karya tulis yang sudah kita publish ke SINTA, SCOPUS dan tempat publish lainnya itu akan menjadi penunjang untuk karir kita kedepannya." From the participant's perception above, it can be concluded that the participant chose "publish" because the participant believed that the decision made by the English education master's department was the best decision for the student and would have a positive impact on supporting the student's future career.
From the perceptions of the two participants above about the output of article publications to obtain a master's degree in the English education master's department, is it better "publish or not"?.Both participants chose "publish" because they thought that the English education master's department had made this policy for a reason and that reason would have a positive impact on students in the future, especially to support the careers of students who wanted to become lecturers and work in the world of education.

DISCUSSION
From the findings above, we can see that there are several problems experienced by students during the article publication process to fulfill one of the requirements for obtaining an M.Pd degree in the English language education master's department.These problems are: articles that were rejected by the journal, so they had to look for another journal and it would take a long time.It takes quite a long time to get to the publication stage because as said by participants, each journal has provisions for the publication stage how many times a year and wait for the article review stage which was quite long.And then about students' perceptions about the output of article publications to obtain a master's degree in the English education master's department, is it better "publish or not"?.Both participants chose "publish" because they thought that the English education master's department had made this policy for a reason and that reason would have a positive impact on students in the future, especially to support the careers of students who wanted to become lecturers and work in the world of education.
From the discussion of the findings above, there are differences between this research with the previous research.For the first previous research, written by Rahmah Fithriani, Benni Ichsanda Rahman Hz, Rita Seroja br Ginting (2023) entitled ""Publish or No Degree": Cultivating a Scholarly Writing Group for Indonesian Master's Students of English Education".The research carried out by researchers in this study indeed discusses the word "publish" where this word is related to the results of students' academic writing, but if studied more deeply it can be seen that this previous research had a different research focus from the research carried out by the researcher in the article.Where the researcher focused on researching the problems experienced by students during the article publication process and students' perceptions about the output of article publications to obtain a master's degree in the English education master's department, is it better "publish or not"?.Automatically, the results will be different from previous research.Previous research results indicate that writing groups function as flexible groups and participatory COPs that produce critical and lasting changes in identity as writing scholars among participants.Specifically, their perceived transition to becoming academic writers involved three aspects: knowledge of the values of scientific publication, construction of a scientific identity, and demystification of the publishing endeavor.The research findings can be used to inform other master's and doctoral programs, as well as academic professionals seeking interventions to aid their students' productive writing.
From the discussion above, it can be seen that this research and previous research discuss "publish" relating to the academic writing of English language education master's students, but there are differences in the focus of the problem to be researched so that in the research results there are differences between the research results in this article and research results in previous research.CONCLUSION From the explanation above, the researcher conclude that there are several problems experienced by students during the article publication process to fulfill one of the requirements for obtaining an M.Pd degree in the English language education master's department.These problems are: articles that were rejected by the journal, so they had to look for another journal and it would take a long time.It takes quite a long time to get to the publication stage because as said by participants, each journal has provisions for the publication stage how many times a year and wait for the article review stage which was quite long.And then about students' perceptions about the output of article publications to obtain a master's degree in the English education master's department, is it better "publish or not"?.Both participants chose "publish" because they thought that the English education master's department had made this policy for a reason and that reason would have a positive impact on students in the future, especially to support the careers of students who wanted to become lecturers and work in the world of education.