Pijar/USER, Medan. The celebration of Indonesian Independence Day on 17 August 2017 held at the University of Sumatera Utara (USU). At the celebration, USU extend an appreciation to some outstanding academicians. In line with the appreciation, the 1st International Conference on Computing Applied Informatics (ICCAI) organized by the Faculty of Computer Sciences and Information Technology had won an award of the First Best International Conference Organizer. ICCAI is regarded as the best, winning over other similar international conferences held by the Faculty of Public Health (the 1st Public Health International Conference) and the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences (The 1st International Conference on Social and Political Development) in 2016.
This award, as the first time conducted, is aimed at bringing pride to the committee and also triggering more international conferences to be held in the future. The ICCAI organizer received a Certificate of Merit and cash money with a total amount of IDR 10,000,000 provided by the sponsorship of USU and of Tanoto Foundation.
The Vice Rector III Drs. Mahyuddin K. M. Nasution, M.I.T., Ph.D, confirmed that Scopus indexing has been recognized by the Ministry. “ICCAI committee only accepted full papers, so there is no abstracts submission. From more than 200 papers, more than half of which were rejected. As a result, only 98 selected papers accepted for Scopus indexed publication due to their quality,” he said.
The conference aims at increasing the number of scientific publications indexed by Scopus. The number of published papers from USU is relatively low when compared to other Legal Entity State Universities, and one of the ways to maintain the quality of the papers is by publishing them in Scopus-indexed journals. In this conference, USU acts as the organizer, IOP serves as the publisher and Scopus as the indexer. Furthermore, he explained that USU provides a subsidy of IDR 50,000,000 as an initial funding support for each international conference. “The procedures for conducting an international conference should be in accordance with the regulation set forth by the Ministry. The committee must comply with the applicable regulations, be selective in accepting paper and be consistent in rejecting incomplete papers. Instead of making profits through registration fees, a strict procedures and selective paper publication will have an impact on the university image. Transparency in conducting the conferences and its financial report is really important,” he added.
Confirming the statement of the Vice Rector III, the Technical Chair of the conference Romi Fadilah Rahmat, B.Comp, Sc., M.Sc. said “What distinguishes ICCAI from other conferences is the Scopus-indexed proceeding, while ICOSOP and PHICO are indexed by Thomson Reuters,”. Scopus is the largest library database in the world that includes tens of millions of scientific literatures published since tens of years ago until today.
To increase USU scientific publication, the Vice Rector III has initiated the conference. He then explained, “After the conference presentations, all accepted papers were collected and further reviewed. Next, the reviewed papers were submitted to IOP Publishing based in Bristol, Great Britain,”.
The time to prepare the conference is considered very short, which only took three months. The short preparation does not make the committee unable to perform at their best. On handling the conference, students and lecturers worked collaboratively to make it a successful event. Japan, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia are three of the eight countries that took part. “Yes, we work with IOP to publish the papers indexed by Scopus. Scopus-indexed proceedings and publications serve as a selling point and eventually lead to a good impact on the university ranking issued by the Directorate General of Higher Education. This directly supports our university ranking since ranking system assesses the number of publication indexed by Scopus,” said Romi.
This conference ended with an award presentation to the Best Paper and the Best Presentation. The conference was closed with a City Tour package around the city of Medan. “We do have the potential to write articles, but writing for a reputable publication requires more intense efforts. Therefore, this conference is very beneficial for the researchers and contributes significantly to the accreditations of the study programs, faculties and universities.” Romi explained. “To make an international conference a success, it should be well-planned, supported by the faculty, made under a good network (building relation), and conducted in gradual phases. In addition, make sure that the reviewers are competent and the accepted papers are free from plagiarism,” he stated. (Dinda Nazlia Nasution/Pijar/rds)