Research and Academic Writing in

Islamic Economics and Finance

Bayu Arie Fianto, Ph.D
OUTLINE

1 Overview

Crucial Part of
2 Our Manuscript

Essential Questions
3 for Writing Articles

4 Tips
Tingkatan Jurnal dan Rejection Rate nya
• Q1 atau A* = 95%
• Q1/Q2 atau A = 90%
• Q2/Q3 atau B = 80%
• Q3/Q4 atau C = 60%
Crucial Part of our Manuscript
• Motivation
• Research gap
• Innovation in topic, dataset, method, etc
• Robustness test
• Implications
• Story of our manuscript
Flow
Start
•Submit to targeted journal
Read •Identify the gaps
•Review the Literature
•Cite current year and last
two years papers

Submit Circular
Write
Flow
•Present at prestigious Patience •Empirical Model
conferences •Estimations
•Revise and improve •Robustness Checks

Present Discuss •Report the results

•Discuss the results
•Link to the hypothesis

Revise the paper at least 20 times or more

Writing Process
❑ All
scholarly papers share common components
with an order like this:
❖ Title 7
❖ Authors
❖ Abstract 6
❖ Keywords
❖ Introduction 2
❖ Review of Literature 1
❖ Empirical Methodology / Theory and the Data 3
4 ❖ Results and Discussion
5 ❖ Conclusions
❖ Acknowledgements
❖ References
Crucial Part of our Manuscript
Motivation

Story of our
1
manuscript Research gap
6 2

5 3
Implications Novelty (innovation in
topic, dataset, method)
4
Robustness test
Essential Questions for Writing Articles

Originality

Relationship to
Literature

Methodology

Results and
Conclusions
Implications For
Research, Practice and/
or Society
Originality
❖ Does the paper contain new and significant
information adequate to justify publication?

Relationship to Literature
❖ Does the paper demonstrate an adequate
understanding of the relevant literature in
the field and cite an appropriate range of
literature sources?
❖ Is any significant work ignored?
Methodology
❖ Is the paper's argument built on an
appropriate base of theory, concepts or
other ideas?
❖ Has the research or equivalent intellectual
work on which the paper is based been well
designed?
❖ Are the methods employed appropriate?

Results and Conclusions

❖ Are results presented clearly and analysed
appropriately?
❖ Do the conclusions adequately tie together
the other elements of the paper?
Implications for research,
practice and/or society
❖ Does the paper bridge the gap between
theory and practice?
❖ How can the research be used in practice
(economic and commercial impact), in
teaching, to influence public policy, in
research (contributing to the body of
knowledge)?
❖ What is the impact upon society (influencing
public attitudes, affecting quality of life)?
❖ Are these implications consistent with the
findings and conclusions of the paper?
AB S T R A CT

This study investigates the impact of Islamic microfinance institutions on rural household welfare in Indonesia. In
particular, this study focuses on estimating the impact of financing, the level of shari’a compliance, the best
financing mechanism, and the factors that impact on rural households that become clients of Islamic microfinance
institutions. Islamic microfinance institutions play an important role in Indonesia because the country has the world’s
largest Muslim population. Hence, the availability of financial products and services that parallel Muslim beliefs is
crucial. This study estimates the impact of Islamic financing on rural household welfare using the difference-in-
difference method followed by the adjusted difference-in-difference method. Next, the study evaluates shari’a
compliance and the Islamic values of clients of Islamic microfinance institutions. The double difference-in-
0
difference and adjusted difference-in-difference methods are adopted to investigate the financing impact of two
Islamic microfinance institutions’ financing mechanisms; profit and loss sharing and non-profit and loss sharing. The
logit model is used to identify factors that influence rural households to become clients of Islamic microfinance
institutions. This study produces several important findings. The difference-in-difference method results show
Islamic microfinance institutions’ financing helps to increase the clients’ annual income. The fixed effects results
confirmed that Islamic microfinance institutions’ financing improved clients’ income compared with non-clients. The
evaluation of shari’a compliance found that Islamic microfinance institutions’ financing parallels the shari’a
standards of the National Shari’a Board of Indonesia. The results of the double difference-in-difference method
confirm that the profit and loss sharing mechanism has a greater impact on rural household welfare than the non-
profit and loss sharing mechanism. Finally, age, gender, and income are factors that significantly influence rural
households to become clients of Islamic microfinance institutions.
AB S T R A CT

This paper investigates the impact of Islamic microfinance on rural

households' welfare in Indonesia. Using a survey questionnaire, this study
explores two group of financing in Islamic microfinance, equity and debt-
based financing. A two-year panel dataset and a double difference-in-
difference approach are used to examine0 the impact of the two Islamic
microfinance groups on rural household in Indonesia. The study also
evaluates shari'a compliance based on the national shari'a board of
Indonesia. The study results indicate that both financing groups exhibit a
positive and significant impact on rural households' income, but equity
financing performed better than debt-based financing. Moreover, the shari'a
compliance evaluation indicates that clients received financing that is
comparable with the national shari'a board of Indonesia.
Motivation
Research Gap
➢ Kesenjangan penelitian merupakan bagian yang
belum di-explore atau bagian yang sudah di-explore
tapi belum secara komprehensif atau secara
mendalam
➢ Berasal dari:
1. Topik
2. Data
3. Variabel
Research Gap
Novelty
➢ Memastikan orisinalitas dan relevansi penelitian
➢ Melakukan studi literatur terdahulu
➢ Mencari novelty dari hal-hal yang belum dilakukan
oleh peneliti sebelumnya
➢ Memonitor update penelitian
Novelty
Example from Phrasebank
⦁ This finding suggests that ………., which is consistent with
empirical work by Ergungor (2011) and Chen (2012).
⦁ This finding is in agreement with Smith's (2014) findings
which showed .......
⦁ However, this result has not previously been described.
⦁ This was in contrast to the results of others ……
 ⦁ Report the results in professionally done tables. It is
not a good idea to copy and paste from statistical
program output
STATA/ SPSS/Eviews Output
reg rgdpc pri

Source | SS df MS Number of obs = 8

+ F( 1, 6) = 6.08
Model | 567195461 1 567195461 Prob > F = 0.0487
Residual | 559785627 6 93297604.5 R-squared = 0.5033
+ Adj R-squared = 0.4205

Total | 1.1270e+09 7 160997298 Root MSE = 9659.1

rgdpc | Coef. Std. Err. t P>|t| [95% Conf. Interval]

+
pri | 133.5163 54.15057 2.47 0.049 1.014589 266.0179
_cons | -4675.948 5909.871 -0.79 0.459 -19136.88 9784.986
Tables should be self-explanatory
Table 2 Regression results using institutions (INS) as a threshold variable
Dependent variable: Economic growth
Linear Model Threshold Model 1a
Institutions = INS
OLS without Regime 1 Regime 2
threshold INS < 3.377 INS > 3.377
Constant 0.0139 0.0266 0.0044
(0.0141) (0.0148) (0.0132)
Initial Income -0.0066*** -0.0060*** -0.0091***
(0.0016) (0.0017) (0.0015)
Private Sector Credit 0.0158*** 0.0091 0.0093**
(0.0050) (0.0107) (0.0043)
Human Capital 0.0026 0.0047** 0.0007
(0.0014) (0.0018) (0.0014)
Population Growth -0.0042*** -0.0048*** -0.0001
(0.0014) (0.0016) (0.0014)
Investment 0.0152*** 0.0081 0.0281***
(0.0045) (0.0043) (0.0036)
R-sq 0.5181 0.3721 0.6727
Heteroskedasticity Test (p-value) 0.0307 - -
No. observations 85 50 35
Notes: The standard errors are reported in parentheses (White corrected for heteroskedasticity). *** and **
indicate significance at 1% and 5% levels, respectively.
Manuscript status

Langsung Langsung Revisi dan

ditolak ditolak resubmit
karena kualitas tidak karena kualitas lebih belum tentu diterima
layak tinggi
Langsung ditolak (karena kualitas
tidak layak)
Thank you for your submission to the Journal of XXX. This

study tests for a relationship between the holding of Islamic

financial products and socioeconomic characteristics. It

presents a mechanical econometric exercise which yields

findings that age, gender, and income are significant

determinants. Unfortunately, the exercise lacks economic

motivation and any resulting economic insight. I’m sorry to

say it does not meet the standard for publication in a highly

ranked academic journal.

Langsung ditolak (karena kualitas lebih
tinggi)

Upon an initial reading of your paper, I have determined

that it would be best to return it to you rather than go

through the formal review process. While the editorial

board was in agreement that your paper is of high quality,

ultimately it concluded that your paper is not an

appropriate match for the content that we plan to publish

in the near future in the journal YYY.

 Revisi (belum tentu diterima)
The reviewers have commented on your above paper. They indicated that it is not
acceptable for publication in its present form. However, if you feel that you can
suitably address the reviewers' comments (included below), I invite you to revise
and resubmit your manuscript.
Please carefully address the issues raised in the comments.
If you are submitting a revised manuscript, please also:
a) outline each change made (point by point) as raised in the reviewer comments
AND/OR
b) provide a suitable rebuttal to each reviewer comment not addressed
Reviewer Comments

Respon dengan baik Lihat dari sudut Jawab comments

(input dari mereka pandang/perspektif reviewers poin per
sangat penting) reviewers poin secara lengkap

Buat comments
Take your time
sanggahan jika perlu
1. Respon dengan baik
Responses to reviewer critiques and suggestions for
improvement of manuscript No. #XXX

To begin, we would like to thank Reviewers 1 and 2

for their conscientious attention to our manuscript.
We value their input and have incorporated their
recommendations into our revision of the
manuscript. Below, please find our responses to the
numbered critique provided by Reviewer 1 and 2's
comments are incorporated into this list.
2. Lihat dari sudut pandang/perspektif reviewers
✓ Reviewers punya batasan waktu dan kesibukan
✓ Memenuhi kriteria/standar jurnal tersebut
✓ Cenderung tidak mereview sampai selesai jika artikel tidak menarik
3. Jawab comments reviewers poin per
poin secara lengkap

We use XYZ estimation in this study to control for the

observable and unobservable variables that might affect
the ABC. The observable variable controlled in this study is
YYY which may affect ABC. The YYY variable is discussed
on page 6, lines 18-21; page 8, lines 14-15; page 11 (Table
6) and page 12 (Table 7) of the paper.
4. Buat comments sanggahan jika perlu
The idea of this study is not only developed from low rank papers. We also
used papers from reputable journals such as Athey, S & Imbens GW
(2006, Econometrica), which is ranked A* based on ABDC journal list,
2016; Berhane, G & Gardebroek, C (2011, American Journal of
Agricultural Economics), ranked A* based on ABDC journal list, 2016;
Heckman, JJ & Smith, JA (1999, The Economic Journal), ranked A* based
on ABDC journal list, 2016; Hermes, N & Lensink ( 2011, World
Development), ranked A based on ABDC journal list, 2016 and four
articles from Pacific-Basin Finance journal which is ranked A based on
ABDC journal list, 2016. We used low rank papers in the study because
of the limited literature on Islamic finance in reputable journals.
 5. Take your time
▪ Jika comments susah untuk dijawab,
ambil cukup waktu untuk
memikirkannya
▪ Diskusi dengan co-authors
▪ Tanya atau minta bantuan kepada
pihak yang sekiranya mampu
 Things to avoid

▪ Memulai debat
▪ Menyalahkan reviewers atau
editor
▪ Dokumen response
(rejoinder) tidak profesional
▪ Tidak menanggapi semua
masukan dan saran reviewers
TIPS
✓ Sesuaikan dengan standar jurnal internasional
✓ Pastikan alur penulisan menarik dan baik
✓ Munculkan kembali motivasi, research gap, novelty
✓ Perbanyak artikel-artikel terdahulu yang terkait dengan
penelitian
✓ Pastikan data dan olah data dengan benar
✓ Memunculkan banyak implikasi dan kontribusi
✓ Mengacu ke research questions
✓ Meringkas dan memoles bagian-bagian yang sudah
dipisah
✓ Tambahkan literatur dari jurnal yang bereputasi
References
• Some parts of this presentation are adapted from Christopher Gan,
Pitching Research Clinic (2019), Lincoln University, New Zealand.
• Some parts of this presentation are adapted from Law Siong Hook,
Publishing in Citation Index Journals (2020), UPM, Malaysia.
• Robert W., Pitching Research (2018). Available at SSRN:
http://ssrn.com/abstract=2462059
• Robert W. Faff, “A Simple Template for Pitching Research,” Accounting and
Finance 55 (2015) 311–336, doi: 10.1111/acfi.12116
 Thank You
Question & Answer

Live Locally
Think Globally
Act Revolutionary Bayu Arie Fianto