Research Skills Development and Publication: Online Seminar Programme for Public Universities
Duration: Spring semester 2025 – Spring semester 2027
An initiative to strengthen academic collaboration and institutional partnerships
Faculty members and early-career researchers at public universities in Kyrgyzstan face a rapidly evolving academic landscape. International publishing standards, competitive research funding opportunities, and the increasing importance of cross-disciplinary methods demand skills and competencies that are not always fully addressed in traditional curricula. GSD open public seminar series is initiative created to address these challenges.
At its core, the philosophy of the program is guided by three interrelated principles: equal partnership, mutual learning, and regional academic solidarity. Equal partnership means that the University of Central Asia (UCA) and its Graduate School of Development approach this program not as external experts who “deliver” content, but as colleagues engaged in the same struggle to publish in peer-reviewed journals, meet the demands of international research networks, and balance global standards with local priorities. Mutual learning emphasizes that participants bring valuable experiences from their own institutional settings, whether challenges in accessing data, insights from local communities, or innovative uses of qualitative and quantitative methods. Regional academic solidarity reflects a deeper aspiration: to build a supportive environment where universities in Kyrgyzstan can strengthen their voice within global academia without losing sight of local contexts and values.
This seminar series is also firmly rooted in UCA’s mission to promote the social and economic development of Central Asia, particularly its mountain communities, by offering an internationally recognized standard of higher education and enabling the peoples of the region to preserve their rich cultural heritage as assets for the future. By enhancing research capacity in universities located in remote regions, including highlands, the program helps build local knowledge systems that are directly relevant to the social, economic, and environmental challenges of mountain communities. Strengthening faculty skills in research design, methodology, and publication ensures that the voices, experiences, and priorities of these communities are represented in broader scholarly and policy conversations.
This epistemic foundation positions the seminar series not simply as a training program but as a collaborative intellectual journey. It seeks to cultivate a shared culture of research excellence, encourage critical engagement with methodological tools, and foster confidence in navigating the complex publishing landscape. By creating a horizontal learning space, the series moves away from one-sided knowledge transfer and instead prioritizes co-creation, dialogue, and practical problem-solving during all steps of research publishing.
Participation in the program:
The program is open to postgraduate students, faculty members, and researchers from public universities.
You may choose to participate in the entire program or attend selected seminars that interest you most. Below, you will find the seminar calendar with topics and descriptions for each session.
How to join: A Zoom link for each session will be published on the UCA website one week before the seminar.
Certificate: The program is delivered by UCA faculty on a voluntary basis and does not include the issuance of participation certificates. Participation in the program is free of charge.
Programming Approach
The programming approach is practice-oriented, dialogical, and accessible. Each monthly session focuses on a specific aspect of the research and publishing process, drawing from the expertise of UCA researchers while inviting participants to share their institutional realities and methodological dilemmas.
Each session combines three core elements:
- Conceptual framing – a concise introduction by a lead lecturer.
- Practical application – case studies, demonstrations, or exercises connecting methods to real-world research.
- Dialogical exchange – participants share challenges, ask questions, and compare institutional experiences.
To ensure broad accessibility, the program will be conducted online and delivered in Kyrgyz and Russian, allowing participants from highland and remote regions to engage fully. Supplementary readings and exercises in both languages will reinforce learning between sessions.
Expected Outcomes
At the individual level, participants will:
- Strengthen understanding of research methodologies across disciplines.
- Gain practical skills in thematic analysis, oral history, bibliometrics, and economic methods.
- Build confidence in navigating peer-reviewed publishing processes.
- Develop a personal roadmap for research and publication.
At the institutional level, universities will benefit from:
- Enhanced research capacity among faculty.
- Improved alignment with international academic standards.
- Opportunities to integrate seminar insights into teaching and mentorship.
At the regional level, the seminar series aims to:
- Foster a network of scholars across Kyrgyzstan.
- Promote a culture of academic solidarity and collaboration.
- Strengthen research in support of mountain communities, ensuring local voices are included in national and international debates.
This seminar series is more than a sequence of lectures; it is a collective journey toward building research cultures that are rigorous, globally engaged, and regionally grounded. By foregrounding equal partnership, mutual learning, and academic solidarity, and by explicitly supporting UCA’s mission to serve mountain communities, the program opens a space for co-creation and dialogue. The online format, delivered in Kyrgyz and Russian, ensures inclusivity, allowing broad participation from institutions across the country.
Success will not be measured solely by published papers but by the emergence of a resilient, connected, and intellectually vibrant academic community that speaks with its own voice while contributing meaningfully to global scholarship and the sustainable development of mountain regions in Central Asia.
Seminar 2025-2026 academic year calendar:
Seminar 2025-2026 academic year calendar
Where to Publish Your Research? Navigating the Landscape of Humanities Journals
Speaker: Asel Murzakulova, Senior Research Fellow Mountain Societies Research Institute, GSD Research Lead
29 September, 17:00-18:15
Faculty members and early-career researchers at public universities in Kyrgyzstan face a rapidly evolving academic landscape. International publishing standards, competitive research funding opportunities, and the increasing importance of cross-disciplinary methods demand skills and competencies that are not always fully addressed in traditional curricula
The seminar will introduce participants to the characteristics of journal landscape, criteria for selecting publications, and strategies for navigating the complex field of academic publishing. This is not just a training seminar, but a joint intellectual journey aimed at strengthening research culture, supporting the voices of local academic communities, and connecting them with global science.
Learning outcomes: participants will learn to navigate the journal landscape, select suitable outlets for publication, and understand editorial requirements.
Lecture recording: Where to publish research? The landscape of humanities journals
Oral History in the Humanities: Tools and Approaches
Speaker: Altyn Kapalova, Research Fellow, CHHU
29 Октября 2025, 17:00-18:15
This lecture introduces oral history as a research method, covering data collection, archiving, ethical considerations, and interpretation. Oral histories provide access to personal memories and subjective interpretations of events, making them an important resource for studying social memory, identity, and cultural transformations.
The seminar will cover the entire cycle of oral history research: from planning and preparing interviews to collecting, transcribing, archiving, and analysing materials. Special attention will be paid to interview techniques and building trust with informants. In addition, ethical aspects of working with personal testimonies will be highlighted, including issues of consent, anonymity, and the researcher’s responsibility towards the community.
Various approaches to interpreting oral histories and methods of integrating the collected data into the broader context of humanities research will also be discussed. The practical part of the seminar will familiarise participants with the basic tools for recording and organising oral history material, as well as examples of successful projects.
Learning outcomes: participants will be able to outline stages of oral history research, recognize ethical challenges, and apply basic interviewing techniques.
Scientometric indicators: What They Are, How They Work, and Why They Matter
Speaker: Aibek Samakov, Director CHHU
5 December 2025, 17:00-18:15
The seminar is devoted to introducing citation databases, impact metrics, and indicators important for researchers. Today, citation metrics and publication quality indices play an important role not only in the academic environment, but also in building a research career, obtaining grants, and developing scientific institutions.
The seminar will cover the main scientometric databases, such as Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar, and RINC, as well as their features and areas of application. Participants will learn which metrics are most in demand—Hirsch index, impact factor, CiteScore, and others - and what their advantages and limitations are.
Special attention will be paid to practical issues: how to search for and verify your own publications in databases, how to analyse citation metrics, and how to use them correctly when preparing reports, grant applications, and research strategies.
Learning outcomes: participants will learn to navigate bibliometric databases, distinguish key indicators, and use them to evaluate publications.
Thematic Analysis and Qualitative Methods
Speaker: Bakhytzhan Kurmanov, Senior Research Fellow IPPA
29 January 2026
The seminar is a continuation of the introduction to qualitative methods and focuses on the practical aspects of thematic analysis, one of the most sought-after tools for processing and interpreting qualitative data. Thematic analysis allows researchers to identify key meanings and recurring motifs in interviews, texts, and other materials, systematise them, and integrate them into a broader research context.
The workshop will cover the stages of thematic analysis: from preliminary data coding to identifying and describing themes, as well as developing their connections to the theoretical framework of the study. Participants will learn about different approaches to coding (inductive and deductive), discuss the advantages and limitations of the method, and practical techniques for working with texts.
Special attention will be paid to tools that facilitate the researcher’s work: from manual coding to the use of specialised software for data analysis. Real-world project examples will be used to show how the results of thematic analysis help to formulate research conclusions and strengthen arguments.
Learning outcomes: participants will be able to apply thematic analysis techniques and integrate them into qualitative research.
From Idea to Publication: A Researcher’s Journey in the Humanities
Спикер: Aibek Samakov, Director CHHU
26 February 2026
The seminar is devoted to analysing the complete research cycle in the humanities - from the emergence of the initial idea to the publication of the finished article. The focus will be on key stages: formulating a research plan, defining relevant questions and objectives, selecting a theoretical framework and methodology, working with sources and data, structuring the material, and preparing the text for publication.
Participants will learn about practical tools for planning research and organising the work process. A separate section will be devoted to how to formulate a clear and meaningful research question, build a logical argument, and link it to existing scholarly. Issues such as choosing a suitable publication, the specific requirements of journals, formatting articles, and submitting manuscripts will also be discussed.
Important attention will be paid to editing and self-assessment skills, as well as strategies for interacting with reviewers and editors. The workshop draws on experience of successful publications in international and regional journals and aims to help early-career researchers avoid common mistakes and increase their chances of successful publication.
Learning outcomes: participants will be able to plan research, formulate research questions, and identify the stages of article preparation
Publishing Pathways: Strategies, Pitfalls, and Lessons for Humanities Scholars
Speaker: Andrey Menshikov, Assistant Professor, SAS UCA
26 March 2026
The seminar is devoted to navigating the complex field of academic publications in the humanities. It will examine the necessary conditions for successfully promoting one's research and analyze typical misconceptions of novice authors. Particular attention will be paid to reviewing refereed publications in Russian, analyzing the existing “hierarchy” of journals in various fields of the humanities, and providing recommendations for interacting with editorial boards.
Learning outcomes: participants will be able to distinguish successful from unsuccessful publishing strategies, avoid common mistakes, and develop their own plan.
Economic Research Methods: Tailored to Participants’ Needs
Speaker: Ablay Dosmaganbetov, Research Fellow, IPPA
23 April 2026
The seminar focuses on contemporary research methods in economics and related social sciences. Economic analysis is increasingly integrating a wide range of tools, from quantitative models and statistical estimates to interdisciplinary methods that take into account institutional, cultural, and behavioral factors. This approach provides a more comprehensive understanding of economic processes and their interrelationships with social and political dynamics.
The seminar will examine key areas of development in economic methods: the use of big data and digital databases, the application of experimental and quasi-experimental designs, the development of behavioral and institutional approaches, and the integration of qualitative methods for analysing local practices and contexts. Particular attention will be paid to how modern research strategies help combine rigorous quantitative assessments with interpretations of socio-economic realities.
The seminar focuses on practical application: it discusses ways to choose the appropriate method depending on the research question, as well as examples of successful studies that combine different approaches to obtain more reliable and meaningful results.
Learning outcomes: participants will gain knowledge of one economic research method and practice applying it.
Research Stages in Today’s Natural Sciences
Speaker: Maksim Kulikov, Research Fellow, MSRI
21 May 2026
The seminar is devoted to reviewing the main stages of scientific research in modern natural sciences. Using the example of the universal logic of the scientific process, we will examine the sequential stages that any research project goes through: from formulating the problem and setting up a hypothesis to selecting methods, collecting data, analysing it, and then interpreting it. This step-by-step approach allows not only to structure research activities, but also to align them with modern academic standards.
Special attention will be paid to the correct formulation of research hypotheses, the selection of appropriate tools and methods for testing assumptions, and the discussion of the role of statistical and computational methods in data processing. A separate section of the seminar will be devoted to publication aspects: how research results are interpreted, formatted, and presented to the scientific community.
The seminar combines an overview of theoretical foundations with practical examples from various fields of natural sciences, ranging from biology and geography to ecology and physics. This interdisciplinary approach will enable participants to identify common patterns in scientific research and adapt them to their own studies.
Learning outcomes: participants will be able to describe the key stages of scientific research and relate them to examples from their own fields.