DRB-HICOM Aidil Fitri Open House

Thanks to DRB-HICOM for inviting ARI to the company's Aidilfitri Open House today. The grand event was held at the Istana Hotel, Kuala Lumpur. One of ARI's post graduate student, En Lukman is the Group Chief operating Officer of the conglamorate. Thanks to him for the special invitation.

What Causes Road Accidents?....

I was watching the television this morning and heard a discussion by the host and a senior police officer on a topic related to road accidents. It was indicated that the number of fatalities have increased during the recent "ops sikap 20" compared to last year. It was interesting to note that through the police's own research, road accidents are attributed to the "Four Es" namely road Education i.e. ineffective awareness campaign to educate the public on road safety, Enforcement i.e lack of enforcement on the existing law by law enforcers, Engineering, i.e road accidents occur as a result of engineering-related problem (roads or motor vehicles) and finally, the ability of road users to react quickly during emergency, i.e at the time when the accidents occur. Well researchers, that's a good framework to collect empirical data on road accidents. Any takers?....

A Fresh Start....

A long deserving break indeed. It's that time of the year when we make time to visit families & friends during the long Hari Raya break. Everyone at ARI has been advised to take leave until this weekend and to come back fresh on Monday 28th September 2009. Hope everyone enjoyed the long holidays and ready to finish off the remaining of 2009 with impactful activities.

Accident Statistics...

One can write a complete research report on road accidents just by examining what has been reported in the newspapers within the last 11 days of the "Ops Sikap 20". What are the causes of road accidents?. The statistics get higher during the long holidays. Researchers can provide both quantitative and qualitative input on what contributes to these accidents?. We need empirical data to understand the real root causes of road accidents....

A Deserted Kuala Lumpur...

Whilst all highways are pretty much jammed up with cityfolks taking advantage of the long holidays, the Kuala Lumpur City Centre is very much deserted. Seen here is the normally busy Ampang Road on Hari Raya Aidilfitri...

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri 1430

Yes, it is now confirmed that the Hari Raya Aidil Fitri 1430 will fall on Sunday 20th September 2009. The announcement was made by the Pemegang Mohor Raja-Raja Melayu shortly after the Maghrib prayer this evening. It was reported that the highways were jammed up in all directions. Happy Hari Raya Holidays everyone...

An early Break....

Everyone at ARI has taken leave today as most members will be travelling back to their home towns. The government has announced an earlier school holiday starting today until end of next week. Hence most staff are leaving for their respective home towns today in oeder to avoid a big rush tomorrow. Have a safe trip home...

Potential Collaboration with the FMM

Recently, some of ARI members (Research Fellows and Post Graduate students) met up with officers of the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM). The meeting basically discussed the possiblity of research and training collaborations between ARI and FMM. Another meeting will be arranged to detail out collaboration framework of the two entities.

Potential Collaboration with FMM...

Recently, some of ARI members (Research Fellows and Post Graduate students) met up with officers of the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM). The meeting basically discussed the possiblity of research and training collaborations between ARI and FMM. Another meeting will be arranged to detail out collaboration framework of the two entities.

Scopus Citation Tracker

Very often, new researchers would ask on how the Scopus Database can facilitate them with their research and publications. One of the tools available is the Scopus Citation Tracker. With the Scopus Citation Tracker, researchers and other users can evaluate:
1. The most highly cited author in a field and check that author's relevance
2. The real-time citation data of articles and authors of interest
3. What topics are hot in familiar or unfamiliar subject areas
4. What subjects are being cited by other subjects

For more information, examples and a demonstration, please visit www.info.scopus.com/ctracker

Workshop on ISI-indexed Conference Papers

Thanks Prof Shidah for organising a half-day workshop to facilitate ARI and faculty researchers to prepare their papers for possible submission to various ISI-indexed conferences for 2009. ARI has listed more than ten ISI & Scopus-indexed conferences that researchers can attend for this year.
In tandem with the recent circular by the vice chancellor, the university is only financing ISI & Scopus-indexed conferences.

NAfMA Assessment Meeting

The first NAfMA 2009 Assessment Committee (AC) meeting was held yesterday at the Malaysian Institute of Accountants's office in Bricksfield, Kuala Lumpur. More than thirty voluntary assessors attended the meeting which was chaired by the AC Chairman, Mr Francis Chan. ARI and AMARC was represented by Prof Dr Ibrahim Kamal, Prof Suzana, AP Dr Rozainun, AP Dr Naga and myself. UiTM is a partner for this event. NAfMA which stands for the National Award for Management Accounting was introduced in 2004. This is our 6th year running in organising the event and yesterday saw nineteen (19)aspiring participants who have been shortlisted for the next stage of the competition. The committee welcomed three new assessors: Mr Mustafha from Bank Rakyat, Mr Jeremy from CIMA and Mr David from UTAR.

Discussing COE Strategies - The Puncak Alam Accord

It was indeed an interesting session. The COE meeting and workshop held at the Puncak Alam campus basically discussed on strategies to consolidate some of the smaller centres. The aim is to strengthen the functions of COEs so that they are in support of the university's aspiration to become a Research University. Though initially some centres were a bit resistant on the idea that they needed to be merged, finally everyone agreed that to be effective, the need to consolidate is inevitable. Everyone needs to work in tandem with the university's vision....

Cradle Fund Briefing

Yesterday we invited Mr Kenny from the Cradle Fund Centre, a non-profit company formed by the Ministry of Finance that provides funding to researchers who are keen to further develop their research products into something commercializable. According to Mr Kenny, Cradle provides training and expertise to researchers so that they are ready to face their potential collaborators and clients. Basically, Cradle encourages researchers to learn about enterprenuership basic skills and knowledge. ARI will be organising a workshop soon to spearhead the development and commercialization of our research products

COE Strategic Direction Workshop

The Strategic Development Centre of the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research & Innovation) office is organizing a three-day workshop (11-13 September 2009)to discuss and strategize the future direction of UiTM centres of excellence. There may be a need to consolidate some of these centres and to perhaps form a multi-disciplinary Institute of Transdisciplinary research (ITR). As a director of ARI, I was invited to share ARI's experience in leading a research institute on the first day of the workshop...

ARI Data Management System

Thanks to one of ARI's research associate Ms Intan Salwani for developing ARI Data Management System. With this new system, ARI members can update from time to time all their contributions in terms of publication, research, consultancy, graduate supervision etc. Having our own data management system is extremely important so that we can monitor our progress and achievement.

Latest Circular from the Vice Chancellor

Hope all ARI members took notice of VC's latest circular today. Basically, with immediate effect, (1) all publications by staff and students must spell out their affiliation with Universiti Teknologi MARA. This includes staff who are now post graduate students and are registered with other universities; (2) The university will only sponsor papers presented by staff and post-graduate students in Scopus or ISI Thomson-indexed conferences; (3) Those who are organizing international conferences for the university must register and index their conferences with Scopus or ISI-Thomson; (4)Those under sabbatical leave are to publish their papers in Scopus or ISI journals. Understandably, this drastic policy has to be put in place so that we are focused on producing articles that are ultimately published in indexed journals and indexed proceedings.

Thanks Rajmah and Zeenee

Two journalists, Rajmah from Utusan Malaysia and Zeenee from the New Straits Times visited ARI this morning. The purpose of the visit was basically for them to get first-hand information about the Accounting Research Institute as they are preparing a write up about the university's research agenda for their forthcoming publications. It was indeed refreshing to be able to tell them about ARI: our plans, vision and initiatives in bringing UiTM to greater heights. As the university is moving very fast to get its Research University (RU) status from the Ministry of Higher education, centres of excellence such as ARI can play a crucial role in making sure that we (ARI and its members) ourselves will achieve all our targets in terms of publication, research collaboration, national and international research fundings and the production of graduates in post-graduate studies. As they were told, ARI specializes in applied research - conducting collaborative research with the industry and to solve business problems...

Just a Kind Reminder....

To All UiTM scholars (Staff, students, young lecturers): Please be deliberate to include your affiliation with Universiti Teknologi MARA for all your papers presented at conferences or published in journals. We have seen scholars who have only included the name of the university that they are currently attending without any mention of UiTM. Acknowledgement alone is not enough....

Grants from the SSRC

The Social Science Research Council (SSRC) which is based in Broklyn New York is currently advertising for international fellowships and grants that you can apply:
1. International Dissertation Research Fellowship (IDRF) deadline: November 3rd 2009
2. Islam and Muslims in World Contexts n/a
3. Japan Society for the Promotion of Science JSPS)Fellowship December 1st 2009
4. Korean Studies Dissertation Workshop n/a
5. Mellon Mays Predoctoral Research Grants November 1st 2009
6. SSRC-CUP Book Fellowship n/a
7. SSRC-Mellon Mays Predoctoral Research Grant n/a
8. SSRC-Van Alen Fellows Program n/a

For details, please browse http://www.ssrc.org/fellowships/all/

Indexing Your Book Chapters

There are a lot of free software that you can download and use to prepare the index section of your book or book chapters. Familiarise yourself with this software as the use of these tools can really facilitate your effort. Sample index software includes Macrex V8, TExtract, wINDEX etc

A Gutsy Lady Professor - Azni

It was Professor Dr Azni's turn to deliver her professorial lecture this morning. With the topic "Climate Change, Green Technology and Sustainable Buildings" she gave an impressive lecture to benchmark. Though there were so many of us who are non-scientists, she did a great job as we could understand her lecture very well. People said, "A great teacher inspires..." that's who Azni is... Though very busy and occupied with her administrative duties, she still makes time for things that she is passionate about - her research. Congratulations, we are so proud of you...

Workshop on Indexing

In view of the many books and book chapters that the lecturers have been working on for this year, ARI and the Faculty of Accountancy organised a 2 hour indexing workshop. The facilitator, Ms Khasiah is a senior deputy chief librarian from PTAR who herself has a lot of experience with book indexing job. About twenty members attended the workshop. A more comprehensive "hands-on" workshop will be organized in the future.

Visit from Cyber Security

Two officers from Cyber Security (Mr Roshdi and Mr Razman) visited ARI today. Cyber Security is an entity formed under MOSTI that specializes in providing expertise in cyber-related security. MOSTI has plan to convert Cyber Security into its Centre of Excellence. We had great discussion, basically sharing ARI's experiences and ARI's own evolution from a simple special interest group (SIG) to a research institute. There's great potential for the two entities to work collaboratively in perhaps research and publication projects. ARI plans to visit the company in the near future for further discussions.

JoFRA Acquisition by Emerald International

ARI wishes to inform all members that as of 31 August 2009, one of our journals: Journal of Financial Reporting and Accounting (JoFRA)has been acquired by the Emerald International Publishing Group. Nevertheless UiTM maintains the editorialship of the journal. Emerald will commence to publish JoFRA using its own logo in 2010. We hope that this exercise will bring JoFRA to greater height. The journal will get wider readership, better citation potential and better prospect of being indexed by Scopus/ISI Thomson.

Research in Accounting education

More and more scholars are now keen to do research in accounting education. Do you know that there's an international body called the International Association for Accounting Education and Research (IAAER) that collaborates with the international accounting firm KPMG that champion researches in this area? Attached is an excerpt that is available on IAAER website that is calling for researchers to apply for research grants.

"The International Association for Accounting Education and Research (IAAER), KPMG LLP and the KPMG Foundation are pleased to invite research proposals under the Informing the IASB Standard Setting Process Research Program. The program supports scholarly research directed at informing the IASB’s decision process on any current agenda item. Up to five research grants will be awarded under this program.

Submissions due September 30, 2009". For details, please visit http://www.iaaer.org/research/