Boladale Mapayi, the principal investigator, established a girls’ research club and organised of a 4-week intensive workshop on research methodology titled: “Raising the dead: improving the quality of manuscripts submission by female researchers.”
Available research evidence has shown that though women do research and write manuscripts, they are often satisfied to submit to lower rated journals (Mayer & Rathmann, 2018). One of the reasons for this may be concerns about not wanting to get a manuscript rejected, or a leeway out of multiple manuscript rejections. Yet, publishing in uncompetitive journals reduces the rating and ranking of female researchers; affects opportunities for grants, and reduces visibility in the research space.
Thus, in consultation with my institutional mentor, Professor Morenike Ukpong, I (Dr Boladale Mapayi) started a girls research club and organised a 4 week intensive training on research methodology. This was in a bid to foster comradery and a learning collaborative for female researchers, to learn, build capacity and provide support.
The prerequisite for the 4-week training was having a manuscript which had been rejected that the participant was willing to work in within the 4 weeks of the training. It was designed as a skills training space specifically dedicated to enable female researchers get their rejected manuscripts published if there was no methodological flaw in the design and implementation of the research. It will also enable female researchers acquire the skills to write and submit manuscripts for Q1 and Q2 level journals.
It was a virtual workshop and over 100 female researchers registered. They were divided into 4 groups and each group had a WhatsApp chat room where information could be shared and questions answered. The workshop started on the 18th of August 2022. 1 hour per week and participants were encouraged to work on their manuscripts in between and bring questions into the WhatApp space.
The Girls research club as a learning collaborative has a wide array of researchers with diverse interests supporting one another. The Twitter handle is @girls_research.