PUP-COC launches Talastásan E-Journal, strengthens research agenda
The Polytechnic University of the Philippines — College of Communication (PUP-COC) launched the ‘Talastásan: A Philippine Journal of Communication and Media Studies’, a peer-reviewed e-journal, via Facebook Live and the Wix website last June 25, 2022.
The Talastásan features articles that emphasize issues on communication and its intersection following the field of health, public policy, disaster management, and digital technology, by providing innovative theories, methodologies, and designs that are applicable to the multidimensional communication contexts.
Its editorial board, Prof. Jeffrey Ancheta, the Editor-in-Chief of Talastásan, and Managing Editor Prof. Christian Jaycee Samonte, was enthralled after they formally unveiled the e-journal to the public last month.
“In line with building the research awareness across the university and to also increase the research productivity across the stakeholders, the College of Communication most especially through the efforts of our faculty researcher Prof. Jeffrey Ancheta, we decided to come up with our very own double-blind review process na journal natin,” Prof. Samonte said when he led the opening remarks.
He emphasized in the launch that popularizing communication and media research should not end in presentations at various conferences and webinars as he had hoped that the research work would land in numerous local and international journal publications. One of the objectives of Talastásan is to serve as an avenue for PUP-COC faculty and its student researchers to disseminate their research.
In addition, the journal also welcomes submissions from faculty and student researchers from other institutions as it aims to help the publication and the college attract more readers, potential collaborators, citations, and recognition.
For his part, Dr. Rudolf Anthony Lacerna, Chairperson of the Department of Communication Research emphasized the importance of knowledge generation through research as a means to amplify the concept of an epistemic community, “But without disseminating the research result, walang mangyayari, nawawala ‘yung konsepto ng development.”
This comes as the college strives to strengthen its research agenda by publishing theoretical and empirical studies in communication and media. Moreover, the Talastásan enables students to practice the research culture and embody an epistemic community within the college.
According to Janelle Molina, a fourth-year BA Communication Research student, it has been a dream of hers to publish her work in journals since her first year in college. And with that, she was beyond grateful for the launch of the Talastásan. Molina added that aside from the expansion of literature, it may also inspire and encourage future researchers to continually pose challenging questions in society.
“I remember being so jealous of UP for having e-journals, publications, conferences and calls for papers because it’s beneficial for students like us to utilize related literature. I’m delighted to have Talastásan because we finally have something we can call our own,” she said.
Meanwhile, in an interview with Dr. Hemmady Mora, the Dean of PUP-COC, she shared how she envisioned COC to be known for research production and to lead in communication research in the academe — particularly in the field of media and communication, geared towards achieving the objective of establishing an epistemic community for nation-building.
“My message to students is to passionately choose research topics under our research agenda and conduct them with the ultimate goal of publishing them so as to be able to share their findings and research results to academics and practitioners in the industry. This way, they may even be cited, or better still, their research could be utilized by organizations and media companies for a greater end,” Dr. Mora said.
The journal is currently accepting papers until August 31 for the second volume, which is scheduled for release in December this year. Interested researchers may click the following link to be redirected to the instructions for submitting manuscripts: https://Talastásan.wixsite.com/Talastásan/submissions
