Real-time Inflation Index

The Billion Prices Project is an academic initiative that uses prices collected from hundreds of online retailers around the world on a daily basis to conduct economic research. This project was designed by the M.I.T. economists Alberto Cavallo and Roberto Rigobon (for more information, click here and here).

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UMS for RU

When I took my Competence Level Assessment V (PTK5) at the end of 2010, one of the assignments was on “Fulfilling Universiti Malaysia Sabah’s Aspiration of Attaining Research University (RU) Status”. Since this is a small-scale project paper and not those research articles that I normally wrote, the content was purely descriptive. For instance, the assignment first evaluated the criteria outlined in the Malaysian Research Assessment Instrument (MyRA), and then discussed the overall performance of UMS in this self-assessment exercise. As usual, SWOT analysis was performed which generated a long list of recommended strategies.

What went missing in the above project paper was a benchmarking exercise in which the research performance of UMS is compared against the leaders. It is indisputable that UM, USM, UKM and UPM are the top 4 universities in Malaysia. To conduct a comparative analysis, I follow the recent trend to define research quality in terms of publications in journals indexed by Thomson ISI/WoS.

The analysis proceeds as follows:

  • Access Web of Knowledge via institutional login (click here);
  • Search “Univ Malaysia Sabah” in Address;
  • Set Timespan = All Years;
  • Set Databases = SCI-Expanded, SSCI (since most universities are interested in those journals with impact factors).

The process is repeated for “Univ Malaya”, “Univ Sains Malaysia”, “Univ Kebangsaan Malaysia”, “Univ Putra Malaysia”. The results are summarized in the attached table and figure (for raw data, click here). It is worth highlighting that those numbers represent the lower bound as there could be missing data. For instance, some researchers might report their affiliations as “Malaysian University of Sabah” (instead of “Universiti Malaysia Sabah) or “National University of Malaysia” (in place of “Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia”).

The statistics clearly show that the research output for the top four universities has improved significantly in the last 3 years of the sample period. Notably, UM and USM were able to break the ‘resistance level’ of 1000 in 2009-2011. Even though no formal analysis is conducted, I have no doubt that the financial incentive introduced by these RUs is a key determinant (click here, here, here). Drawing from the literature, Heywood et al. (2011) exploit a unique setting at The Southwestern University of Finance and Economics (SWUFE) where the piece rate for peer-reviewed articles increases five-fold. They report a significant 50% increase in research productivity associated with the piece rate increase. However, the scheme appears to raise the productivity of those who were already research active but does not motivate the research inactive to publish.

Coming back to UMS, the university’s total publications over the past 14 years are less than the annual productivity of these RUs. If UMS were to introduce the same reward structure, it would require a huge financial allocation. For instance, a simple calculation for UM shows that the university spent about RM3 million for publication incentive (assuming average piece rate of RM3000 and annual productivity of 1000 articles). Given the financial constraint, what UMS needs to do is to identify the threshold point above which the scheme will provide the desired incentive effect (for example of threshold analysis, see Hansen, 2000). I am sure that this threshold level won’t be RM100 per article (coming soon)!

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My Non-Technical Writings

In the early years of my career, I was asked by The Technical Analyst to share my knowledge with the practitioners. This UK-based magazine is a publication devoted to technical analysis for trading and investment professionals.

I have contributed 4 articles as follows:

  • Kian-Ping Lim (2005) New theoretical light for technical analysis, The Technical Analyst, 9 (March/April), 38-39. 

  • Kian-Ping Lim (2004) When does technical analysis work …and when doesn’t it? The Technical Analyst, 6 (September/October), 36-38.

  • Kian-Ping Lim and Venus Khim-Sen Liew (2004) Nonlinearity favours nonlinear TA techniques, The Technical Analyst, 4 (May), 38-40.

  • Venus Khim-Sen Liew, Kian-Ping Lim and Chee-Keong Choong (2004) South-East Asian stock markets follow a non-random walk, The Technical Analyst, 2 (March), 38-39.

It is indeed a good learning experience for me in writing non-technical articles. A sample can be downloaded here.

Web of Science: How to rectify data error?

I noticed that there was an error when Web of Science (WoS) recorded my paper published in Physica A. The Elsevier’s website reported two affiliations, namely Universiti Malaysia Sabah and Monash University. However, only the latter appeared in WoS. Since this error has implication on institutional search, I decided to contact the technical support team at Thomson Reuters.

To submit a request for data change, you can directly fill in this online form (click here). The entire data change process took about three weeks, and the error has finally been rectified.

 

 

 

 

Using Dropbox for Research

I have been using Dropbox for more than a year now, and have nothing but praise for this software.  Among the benefits that I reap are: (1) It provides online backup of all files in addition to my iMac Time Machine; (2) I am working using multiple computers- PC (at office), iMac (at home after office hour), and Netbook (while traveling). Dropbox will automatically update the files to the latest version in all computers; (3) I can easily share folders with big files with colleagues, collaborators and my postgraduate students; (4)  When I didn’t bring computers with me (especially in conferences), I still can access my files via iPhone.

I have recommended this software even to my undergraduate students, and they found it perfect for group projects. Dropbox also received good reviews from Prof Rob Hyndman (see here, here and here).

Do you still need more time to consider?

If you are using someone else computer, you still can access your files as long as there is internet connection

 

If you are working at home (iMac), office (PC) or traveling (Netbook), you can sync them via Dropbox

 

You can share your folders with colleagues, students or collaborators

 

Dropbox folders in my iMac

 

Sharing your folders with others via Dropbox

 

My Contribution to UMS Publications in ISI/WoS

At present, many Malaysian universities define research quality in terms of publications in journals indexed by Thomson ISI/WoS. An earlier posting has compiled all my publications in the above database via the portal ResearcherID (click here). 

It then prompted me to find out how significant my contribution is to my home university’s publications in ISI/WoS. To do that, I proceed as follows:

  • Access Web of Knowledge via institutional login (click here);
  • Search “Univ Malaysia Sabah” in Address;
  • Set Timespan = All Years;
  • Set Databases = SCI-Expanded, SSCI (since most universities are interested in those journals with impact factors).

The search results then display 519 documents, which comprises of 456 articles, 29 meeting abstracts, 24 proceedings papers, 21 reviews, 9 editorial materials, and 3 letters. This number is really meager (you can compute the number of article per staff per year) if the university aspires to be a Research University (I will do an analysis for other RUs in future posting- Now available, click here)

Next, I perform a simple analysis based on authors (and quantities). I am ranked 18 (not exactly as there are 5 authors with the same number). My ranking will improve as I have 5 papers not yet recorded by Web of Knowledge (click here for my in press/forthcoming papers). It is indeed shocking to learn that I am the top contributor in the social sciences category as recorded by SSCI, considering that I am still a senior lecturer.

I have dedicated a separate page for monthly updates on the top 25 authors in UMS. Click HERE for monthly updates starting June 2012.

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