I self-learned my digital information skills 25 years ago; why are PH science publications 25 years late?!
As I write this, 11 April, today is the birthday of Leonor Rivera[1], the unrequited love of PH National Hero Jose Rizal. Today also, on Facebook, I saw the image above, PCAARRD sharing “Want a copy of this publication?” PCAARRD Monitor of July-December 2019. Being a successful digital publications editor & producer in the last 23 years, I wonder why PCAARRD needed 3 months of 2020 to come out with a publication of 6 months of 2019?
Well, it runs in the family. There are delayed publications in the DoST councils of Agriculture, Industry, and Health, and attached agencies.
It’s man, not machine. It’s the mental production of the articles – writing and popularizing. It’s also the manual production of the publications – manipulation of desktop publishing apps. (thumbprint from HTML[2])
Now, am I blaming PCAARRD Management for a laggard Monitor? No. I’m blaming the publication staff for not delivering the digital goods as fast as apps allow them. My guess is that the whole Monitor staff, from Editor In Chief to layout artist, has not mastered the digital writing such as in Microsoft Word, and digital publishing, such as Adobe InDesign.
PH government agencies are literally ignoring the science they can bring to the people at digital speed, online or in print, because they are not treating digital intelligence as an amazing visible-invisible partner at work.
And who am I to speak all of the above? Well, to introduce myself, I am a BSA graduate major in Ag Education, UP '65, passing the very first Teacher’s Exam in 1964, Professional Level. I was the Editor In Chief of the Forest Research Institute, FORI, who founded FORI’s 3 major publications: monthly newsletter Canopy, quarterly technical journal Sylvatrop, and quarterly popular color magazine Habitat. Those were the Days of the Dinosaurs – giant typewriters.
After FORI, I taught myself digital skills: writing, outlining, editing – and desktop publishing, right up to pdf copies.
For the years 2001 to 2008, I was Editor In Chief of the Philippine Journal of Crop Science, PJCS, the quarterly publication of the Crop Science Society of the Philippines, CSSP, which is based at the campus of UP Los Baños. From an also-ran technical journal, I made the PJCS world-class or listed in the elite international list called ISI (Web of Science/Web of Knowledge), where the editors of the past 25 years failed. Nota Bene: I was a one-man band, being my very own secretary, editor, copy reader and desktop publisher. From being late for 3 years, I single-handedly brought the PJCS up-to-date in 3 years, meaning I worked double-time intellectually and digitally with all those titles, texts set in single or double columns, tables, drawings, photographs etc.
What I’m driving at is that digital expertise is the one lacking in aggie-related PH publications. I write this to offer help; I’ll be glad to visit them and do a seminar-workshop for 2 days at their convenience upon formal invitation. frankahilario@gmail.com. If not satisfied, your money back!@517
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