Speak Out: Exploring Solutions for Issues That Matter
A series introduction.
Parts published under this series so far:
◇ Part 6 Visualizing Economic Impact: Oral Health in the Africa — This article explores the economic impact of oral health in the WHO African Region using Tableau visualizations. It reveals disparities in healthcare spending and productivity losses to encourage policymakers to prioritize oral health
◇ Part 5 Visualizing Health Disparities: Data Insights — In this article, I analyze data with Tableau visualizations to reveal the hidden factors shaping healthcare outcomes. Let’s challenge assumptions, and work towards a more equitable future.
◇ Part 4 Visualizing Africa’s Lead in Mobile Money Adoption — I used GSMA data to visualize mobile money adoption across six regions worldwide. Africa leads the fintech market, offering fintech companies growth opportunities while promoting financial inclusion for the unbanked.
◇ Part 3 Bridging the Financial Gap with Mobile Wallets — Looking at the latest available data to see that fintech solutions like mobile wallets have the ability to bank the unbanked.
◇ Part 2 The World’s Unbanked: Visualizing the Data — I have worked on visualizing the data of the variables discussed in Part 1 using Adobe Illustrator. The purpose was to visually analyze the data and build a case for investing in mobile money accounts for the unbanked.
◇ Part 1 The Unbanked: Why Some Adults Lack Bank Accounts — I identified some of the reasons why nearly 1.4 billion adults are still unbanked globally.
I will be updating this list as I go forward.
Why is publishing a paper in a renowned journal not for me? Working in public health you see everyone around you writing and publishing papers. I think mostly because they either come from an academic background or are planning to get into academia. And being a published author in an important journal with a great impact factor means a lot. Then there is the part about increasing their credibility and visibility in academia and it also helps them collaborate with other like-minded professionals. I also thought that if I write a paper about a topic, I’m passionate about, and get it published in a journal, I may also get the visibility and the opportunity to collaborate with the renowned professionals to bring ideas on paper into reality.
Publishing in a scientific journal isn’t easy
The cost and the question of affiliations
Turns out that publishing a paper is not as easy as it sounds. First of all, it is expensive! It easily costs hundreds of dollars in some cases. And then there is the thing about having affiliations. I learned that since I don’t have any so I’d be considered an “independent researcher”. You may get a discount if you are affiliated with an institute or also if you know influential people who you have as co-authors and can help with the paper getting attention.
First-time author’s lingering fear of rejection
I know this is not always the case and I know many independent researchers have been able to put out great work as first authors all on their own. However, my experience with trying to get a paper published in a journal dealing with humanitarian emergencies wasn’t that smooth. I never heard back from the editors of free/affordable university-run journals and the established ones needed a lot of money to get accepted for the initial review. And let’s not forget the agonizing wait of several months for the initial review. I thought I’d get in touch with people involved in the humanitarian field to read my paper and get their feedback so I’d know how to refine my viewpoint. That never happened. I must say, sending cold emails works and some of them do respond, but why would they read a paper written by a nobody out of courtesy that they don’t have to grade? Everyone’s time is valuable.
So, what do I do?
After letting my paper sit on my desktop for over a year and sending many follow-up emails to those who showed initial interest in my paper, I took a step back and asked myself why am I doing this. Do I want to publish my work in a journal to increase its visibility or do I want to get it published for credibility? If it gets published, it means it was reviewed by the editors and is “acceptable”. But will it be open to all to read free of cost? Many journals do not allow readers to access full articles for free. Would it matter how many times it gets cited or what was the impact factor? No. I wanted my paper out as I wanted to get my ideas and analysis out there so I could have people discuss it and give their feedback. Why? Because I want this to happen. I don’t want my words to sit in a journal and get cited in someone else’s paper. I want the topics to be discussed with urgency at some point. So, what can I do?
Introducing the Speak Out series
I have decided to publish my opinion pieces and analysis here on Medium, easily accessible to anyone searching this topic on Google (hopefully), and without any word limits. I have named the series Speak Out: Exploring solutions for issues that matter and will publish my opinion pieces and data analysis from time to time after doing my research and analyzing available data. I won't need to prove any affiliations for this as these will be my own opinions and viewpoints. With an open comment section, I will be able to engage with my audience and hear their feedback and comments which isn't possible with journals.
What are my topics of interest? I will be exploring global issues like health equity, poverty alleviation, improving refugees’ lives, universal healthcare, and much more. I will also try to analyze the available data and present data visualizations to build my case. My purpose is to engage as many people as possible in these conversations so that hopefully at some point, those who can do something about it may look into this.
