BPK RI holds Comparative Study to Learn about Constitutional Journal Development
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Head of the Center for Research, Case Review, and Library Management Kurniasih Panti Rahayu and BPK RI delegate, Herny Yanuarni, when benchmarking journal management with the Court's "Constitutional Journal" and "Constitutional Review", Thursday (11/28/2024). Photo by MKRI/Bayu.


JAKARTA (MKRI) —  In the context of benchmarking journal management with the Court's "Constitutional Journal" and "Constitutional Review", eight representatives from the Supreme Audit Agency of the Republic of Indonesia (BPK RI) visited the Court on on Thursday, November 28, 2024. Head of the Center for Research and Case Review, and Library Management, Kurniasih Panti Rahayu, as well as Mery Christian Putri and Abdul Basid Fuadi who are Expert Assistants to  Constitutional Justices warmly welcomed the group at the MK Library, MK Building 2.

In his remarks on the visit, Kurniasih said she was very happy to have the opportunity to share with the BPK delegation regarding the development of legal journals at the Court. Kurniasih acknowledged that the publication of the MK legal journal, which is under the Center for Research and Case Review, and Library Management (Puslitka), cannot be separated from efforts to embody the vision and mission designed by the MK Puslitka. These efforts include the availability of substantive references in order to safeguard the upholding of the constitution through a modern and trustworthy judiciary by creating quality research and case study results as references for the panel of judges as well as creating library references based on technology and information.

Kurniasih said that the "Constitutional Journal" was first published in 2004. As the time process, and various efforts to advance this scientific journal, the Court began using OJS in 2010 and made efforts to publish it four times every year, namely in March, June, September and December. This effort made good result, including in 2018, the "Constitutional Journal" received Sinta 2 accreditation and on June 29, 2024, it was legally indexed by Scopus and on November 19, 2024, it received Sinta 1 accreditation. Apart from that, the Court also has a "Constitutional Review" which first published in 2015 with a publication period twice a year, namely in May and December. In the development of this English language journal, it has achieved Scopus indexing in 2021 and on April 7, 2022, received Sinta 1 accreditation.

"Beside having scientific journals in Indonesian and English, the Court is also active every year, especially in the last five years, to publish many scientific papers by producing books by Justices and the Court employees. "At least the Court is making every effort to provide substantive references to safeguard the upholding of the constitution through a modern and trustworthy judiciary and increasing the culture of scientific writing which can be read and studied further by the wider community," stressed Kurniasih.

Building a Law Journal

In addition, the BPK RI delegate, Herny Yanuarni, in her remarks, stated that as part of the management of the BPK RI Legal Information Documentation Network, she came to the Court to study the steps that the Court had taken in establishing and developing its scientific journal. Herny admitted that BPK hasn’t had a scientific journal specifically for the field of law because so far it only has the Journal of State Financial Governance & Accountability (Jurnal TAKEN). This journal is BPK's effort to increase literacy in the field of state financial governance and accountability. Therefore, in the upcoming June 2025, the BPK RI Team hopes to have a special journal in the field of law. Through a presentation entitled, "FGD Management of Law Journals with the Constitutional Court", BPK RI wants to initiate the publication of the "Share Journal (legal study on state and regional finance)" which is expected to be published twice a year.

"For this reason, we went to the Court because we wanted to know the business process of publishing and managing legal journals at the Court, how the Court determines the focus and scope of its legal journals, how to obtain article contributions for each edition of a legal journal publication, the criteria used to determine the suitability of articles published in the legal journal, and what is the Court's strategy in obtaining the Scopus index," said Herny to the Court’s Journal Team.

Sharing Journal Management Experiences

On this occasion, Mery Christian Putri and Abdul Basid Fuadi as Expert  Assistants to Constitutional Justices who are part of the MK Journal Management Team shared various things related to the efforts that the MK has taken to be able to publish a journal that is recognized in the world of scientific research. Merry said that long before today's achievement, the MK Journal Team experienced problems in journal management. These include a lack of coordinator commitment, a lack of human resources who can manage the journal, a lack of funding, a lack of manuscripts, and a lack of review partners who can equally help validate the scientific work that has been produced by the authors. In line with efforts to improve the quality of scientific journals, the Court continues to make improvements, especially for "Constitutional Review (ConsRev)", including restructuring the Journal Management, recruiting full time staff, evaluating websites and OJS, adding reviewers (international editors), and holding international symposium/conference.

"Because of these efforts, it is hoped that in the future ConsRev can achieve and improve SJR (Scimago Journal Ranking Q4 to Q1), achieve Sinta-1 accreditation at BRIN-RistekDIKTI, add a new segment: Book Review and Dissemination of Constitutional Court Decisions, publishing is not only appropriate time but faster than normal standards, recruiting Language Editors (foreigners, native speakers) and special lay-outers, disseminating Call for Papers and ConsRev results to external networks everseas, continuing the International Symposium, improving the quality and diversification of articles, expanding membership and international indexes, and maintaining the commitment and passion of the management, especially the fundamental changes to the status of researchers at the Constitutional Court post-BRIN," explained Merry.

Meanwhile, Abdul Basid Fuadi shared stories about the development  of the "Constitution Journal" in the process of growth and development until it received the proud title of managing a scientific journal. Fuad explained that in building a scientific journal, apart from the need of a joint commitment to build and manage it, there are challenges that must be faced together, including various post-accreditation obligations; improving the quality of manuscripts; suitability of the substance of the manuscript with the focus of the journal; prevention of plagiarism; duplication/replication/salami; accuracy of publication time; as well as OJS-based management and personnel support who are highly committed to maintaining the quality of accredited journals.

"The Constitution Journal has made various preparations towards indexation in Scopus, including improving the quality of journal management; improve the quality of article substance; improving metadata in OJS to make titles and abstracts available in English; clarify focus and scope for specific differentiation with ConsRev; and carry out an initial evaluation via the Ready for Scopus site," said Fuad. (*)

Author         : Sri Pujianti
Editor          : Lulu Anjarsari P.
Translator     : Donny Yuniarto (NL)

Disclaimer: The original version of the news is in Indonesian. In case of any differences between the English and the Indonesian versions, the Indonesian version will prevail.


Thursday, November 28, 2024 | 16:37 WIB 53