1. Research Publications
To pursue a scholarship/ stipend in postgraduate research studies, having
prior research experience is very important and beneficial. Most scholarship
programs and fellowships are very competitive. Therefore, it is recommended not
to rely only on academic results, but also on research publications.
Undergraduate research experience will be sufficient to attend postgraduate
research study. However, it is recommended to achieve at least one research
publication before contacting potential supervisors. Most of the times, it is alright even if your
research paper in "submitted"/ "under review"/ "waiting for online publication" status. High impact journal/ conference proceedings are recognized more
than any other low-quality publications. However, to obtain some higher study opportunity, you
do not need to be worried if you already have some publications. It is always
great to do high-quality research, but sometimes it is difficult to do so
in our earlier stage of research during undergraduate studies. Therefore, be
confident and try to have enough research experiences as much as possible
before applying for research-based postgraduate study programs.
After my graduation and before contacting potential supervisors, I had attended 2 international research conferences and done oral presentations on 2 main segments of my undergraduate research study. Both conferences had options that they would publish the papers in their affiliated journals. The first conference was held in Bali. It was a bit expensive to participate in a conference held in another country. However, I preferred to attend at least one such conference before my postgraduate studies because it could certainly provide some opportunities to meet some research experts in various countries and learn new things from their research studies.
By attending a research conference and giving an oral presentation, a certificate is provided and it can be also shown as proof of your research experience. An international research conference can have a high registration fee, therefore it is advisable to be careful regarding the scam/ dubious conferences and journals. You can find dubious conferences and fake/ predatory journals from various sites on the web. Ex:
https://predatoryjournals.com/journals/
During my undergraduate research study and when I was finding a research conference, I used ResearchGate to find some solutions from research experts. At first, it was really difficult to find a good conference without any previous experience. Some conferences which have the only purpose of money earning can have various scopes of research studies and it was not organized well based on some specific research areas. When finding a good research conference/ journal, it is better to refer to their existing publications and citations. From a conference website, photos/ attendees of previous year conference can be found and they can be used to verify the credibility of the conference.
Even when you do not have some publications, but if you already have some experience in a specific research area (ex: only literature review, etc), you can mention it on your academic CV. With that experience, you can try to publish at least one abstract publication.
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