Of the 37 total respondents surveyed from the PhilRice Central Experiment Station in PhilRice, Muñoz, Nueva Ecija, 41% (n = 15) are male and 59% (n = 22) are female. Shown in Table 1 is the distribution of respondents based on sex to wit.

The data in the table above shows that more women agreed to be part of the study. Also, the data reflects the equal opportunity extended by the institution to both sexes, and the involvement of women in research. Meanwhile, the respondents’ age distribution is presented in Table 2.

Twenty-seven percent (n = 10) of the respondents are aged 31 to 40; forty-nine percent (n = 18) are within 41 to 50 years old; twenty-two percent (n = 8) are within 51 to 60 years old; and three percent (n = 11) are within 61 - 65 years old (Table 2). It implies that the organization has an aging population when it comes to the number of staff engaged in research.

In a study on effects of aging on the PhilRice researchers’ publication and citation pattern, Gingras et al. (2008) mentioned that researchers at 40 years of age start to rely on older literature and that their productivity also slows down. PhilRice researchers on their 50s are at the peak of their productivity while their average scientific impact is at its lowest. The data on the same study also showed that older professors who stay active in research are often able to keep high level of productivity until retirement. Gingras et al. (2008) also found out that the average scientific impact of professors decreases steadily from the beginning of their careers until their 50 s, and then increases again after this period. Also, older professors tend to publish fewer first-authored papers and move closer to the end of the list of co-authors [11].

Meanwhile, Ueda and Ohzono (2013) work values vary depending on gender, marital status, and generation. Based on their findings, working persons between the ages of 20 and 50 demonstrate higher levels of accomplishment and better work values compared to those in their 30 s or 40 s. On the other hand, those in their 20 s show higher levels of power and authority and inclination towards monetary rewards. In contrast, working persons in their 50 s have lower power and authority but higher levels of contribution and better work values [12]. However, some published researches disprove the statistical correlation between age and productivity/performance while others believe otherwise, that age and productivity are significantly correlated especially for jobs that require high physical strength or physical workload. That is, performance decreases as age increases [13].

Also, part of the demographic information collected is the civil status of respondents. The civil status of the respondents surveyed are enumerated and quantified in Table 3.

The respondents’ civil status was also determined. Eighty four percent (n = 31) of the respondents are married while fourteen percent (n = 5) are single and three percent (n = 2) are widows.

Married people are assumed to be more responsible and cautious with their performance [14]. Nonetheless, their non-compliance with the office policies will somehow affect their employment status leading to possible non-provision of basic needs for their respective families.

In a study conducted by Ueda and Ohzono (2013), they found out that accomplishment, contribution, and power and authority are significantly higher

for married working persons than for their unmarried counterparts. They added that married persons demonstrated higher levels of work values for monetary rewards were expected and understandable. They also argued that many married persons must provide financial support for their spouses and children. Therefore, they have greater interest in earning money to fulfill these obligations [12].

In terms of educational attainment, the respondents are segregated into graduates of either Bachelor’s degree; Master of Science; Doctorate; and Post-doctorate. The educational attainment and the accompanying number and percentage of respondents are presented in Table 4.

The respondents who are mostly MS degree holders and above have been exposed to publication requirement, thesis or research writing before they graduated from their respective degrees. Thus, they do not consider the research and publication requirement for PhilRice staff as a problem.

Using survey questionnaire, the respondents were asked to provide their positions or ranks in the institution. In the questionnaire, the respondents were asked to tick whether they are presently working as Science Research Specialist (SRS) I, SRS II, Senior SRS, Supervising SRS, and Chief SRS. From their responses, the following values, as shown on Figure 3 were arrived at:

Eight percent of the respondents (n = 3) said that they are currently employed as Science Research Specialist (SRS) I while sixteen percent (n = 6) are SRS II and forty-nine percent (n = 18) are Senior SRS. Sixteen percent (n = 6) occupies the higher position as Supervising SRS; three percent (n = 1) as Chief SRS; and eight percent (n = 3) as Scientist I. The data shows that most of the researcher respondents are hold high research positions at PhilRice. Also, attached to their position is the expectation that they will produce the bulk of researches for the institution.

The respondents are all permanent employees of PhilRice. To complete the information on the demographic profile of the respondents, they were asked to provide the number of years they are in service (from contractual status up to the time they were appointed to their current permanent positions). Their responses were tallied and presented in Table 5.

Five percent (n = 2) of them are already at PhilRice for less than 5 years. Eight percent have been working for 6 - 10 years (n = 3) and 11 - 15 years (n = 3) respectively, while 35% (n = 13) have been in the institution for 16 - 20 years. In addition, thirty percent (n = 11) are in service for 21 - 25 years. Only fourteen percent of the staff surveyed (n = 5) have been in the institution for 26 - 30 years. The data reflects that many of the staff are already working in the institution as researchers, years before the implementation of the policy on publication on 2012. It also implies that notwithstanding the number of years in service, PhilRice researchers are required to undertake research activities and to publish their researches for the knowledge of other researchers and the public.

Out of the 37 staff surveyed, ninety seven percent (n = 36) answered “yes” or that they are aware of the new policy on research and publication. Whereas, only three percent (n = 1) said “no”. The respondent answered no because of zero

awareness on the policy but rather on because of lack of awareness on the extent of the implementation of the new policy. The data shows that the management has extended the necessary measures to disseminate the information prior to the full implementation of the policy reform.

The respondents who knew about the policy said that they learned about it through various channels. Forty-one percent (n = 15) said that they learned about the new policy when they received printed copy of the memorandum. Some of respondents mentioned that they received the memorandum stating the new policy through an e-mail from the management. Eleven percent (n = 4) said that they learned about the new policy when they attended a scheduled meeting. Five percent (n = 2) said that they heard about the new policy from a colleague. Meanwhile, majority of the respondents (49% or n = 18) affirmed that they developed awareness about the policy through all the mentioned modalities: electronically (e-mail), manually (sent in printed copy), and even through words of mouth (from a colleague).

The results suggest that the institution employed various methods in disseminating information prior to the full implementation of the policy reform.

Even though there was one unaware respondent, all of them (n = 37) supports the policy. Various reasons emerged as to why they support the implementation of the policy reform in the institution. Ninety-five percent (n = 35) mentioned that they believe that through the policy, they will be able to share the results of their experiment to the clients/farmers/stakeholders. Sixty-eight percent (n = 25) said that publication is a scientific and verifiable basis of performance and accomplishments. Sixty-five percent (n = 24) believe that the findings of the research study will be protected once published. Meanwhile, it can be gleaned from the table that 3% of the respondents mentioned six other reasons aside from those listed in the questionnaire.

Three percent believed that the policy strengthens the institutional policy that it is a scientific obligation of every researcher to share their research results to the public. Additional three percent of the respondents believed that they support the policy because they want to become civil servant scientists.

The items presented in Table 6 shows that the respondents understand the benefits of having a publication. It can also be gleaned from the table that only 38 percent mentioned that they support the implementation of the policy because it is required by the institution. During the interview, many of them thought that there is more to it than additional workload. For them, it is a strategy implemented by the management to encourage them to think outside of the box and to contribute to the knowledge in the field.

Bautista et al. (2012) emphasized that a research paper published in peer-reviewed journal provides satisfaction especially when it is interesting,

novel or offers fresh insight. Publication especially in peer-reviewed journals also raises the stature of the researcher as scientist and increases the likelihood of getting scholarship grants, research sponsorships, and even a job offer [2].Arnake (2015) also explained that implementing research and publishing results is crucial for a career in sciences [7]. Doing research is only half of the picture. The true test of determination and quality of the paper is when it gets accepted and published in an international journal accessible to other researchers. The production of knowledge through the conduct of scientific researches and the accessibility of knowledge through publication add to the databank of knowledge which can be used as reference and even replicated using other variables and settings. Table 7 shows the percentage of PhilRice researchers with publication.

In terms of the number of publications, 92% (n = 34) of the respondents said that they have publications in various peer-reviewed journals. Only 8% (n = 3) tick “no” or mentioned that they do not have publication at the time of data collection. It only proves that even before the implementation of the new policy, the PhilRice staff have been generating researches which are credited under their names and in the institution. Those with publication were asked about the type of publication they have. Their responses were analyzed and tabulated (Table 8).

Since the institution offers various services, the PhilRice researchers also do research in various fields and disciplines. Thus, they are able to generate outputs suited for different platforms and genre as reflected in Table 8.

Seventy-eight percent (n = 29) or majority of the respondents have generated scientific, technical or policy papers. Twenty-seven percent (n = 10) have contributed or published book chapters; while twenty-two percent (n = 8) have published books/monographs among others. The data presented on the table reflects that most of the respondents prefer doing scientific, technical, or policy papers. The observation is congruent with the thrust of the institution to provide scientific knowledge which is accessible to the community. Commonly, in the form of research articles published in peer-reviewed research journals and government-generated technical or policy papers.

Although majority of the researchers are able to comply with the publication output requirement, they also encountered problems including the following: too many workloads/assignments (26% or 70%), editors/reviewers do not respond within the period needed (20% or 54%), too many official travels that results to insufficiency of time to write (5% or 14%), lack or insufficient data because the study is not yet finished (4% or 11%), and no budget for publication fees (4% or 11%).

The lists of common problems encountered by the respondents in complying with the policy are presented in Table 9. The additional observations collected from the open-ended questions in the questionnaire and during the interview are also enumerated with accompanying percentage.

Based on their responses, the personnel believe that what hinders their compliance on the policy are somehow personal or related to workload and performance of their official functions. This implies that in order to finish a paper or to comply with the requirement, the employee-researchers must exert extra effort and find time to do the writing, data collection, and revision of the paper. These processes are more important if they want the paper to pass the standards of international and peer-reviewed journals.

When asked if they are in favor of amending the policy, 92% of the respondents affirmed that they support the policy in spite the challenges they encountered. The suggestions of the respondents and their corresponding percentage are reflected in Table 10.

Among the policy revisions suggested by the respondents are: 1) extension of required period of publication say, every after 2 years (70%); 2) lessen the number of required publication per year (27%); 3) increase in the equivalent points set (22%); and 4) making publication not compulsory (14%).

There are also respondents who provided additional suggestions to make the policy more realizable. In fact, aside from choosing from among the options listed in the survey questionnaire, they also wrote down additional suggestions on the space provided in the survey questionnaire (shown in Table 10). Some information are collected from during the interview.

Bautista et al. (2012) claimed that researchers in the Philippines do not solely

conduct research but also have other duties and responsibilities such as administrators, heads, members of committees, professors, etc [2]. In a study conducted by Pittman et al. (2013) on “Barriers and facilitators to scientific writing among applied epidemiologists”, they reported that most respondents (80%) expressed a desire to publish; however, only 59% of them had published in a peer-reviewed journal. Time (68%) was also identified as the greatest barrier to writing and publishing [15].

Other major barriers found in their study were lack of encouragement or support (33%) within the public health agency and agency clearance processes (32%). Furthermore, the authors reported that assistance with journal selection (62%), technical writing skills (60%), and manuscript formatting (57%) were listed as the most needed trainings.

In the study of Calma (2013) on “Challenges in preparing academic staff for research training and supervision in the Philippines”, the author reported that academic staff had difficulty in doing research because of too much workload in teaching [13]. In a study on “Perceptions and the implementation of Continuing Professional Development through publication among English Teachers”, Kasprabowo et al. (2018), mentioned that English Teachers had positive perceptions towards the implementation of Continuing Professional Development scheme through publication. In practice, however, only few teachers wrote or published their works because of limited time to write, lack of training on writing, and other responsibilities assigned to them [16].

Shown in Figure 4 that follows is the graphical representation of the publications of the PhilRice Researchers plotted in such a way that illustrates the number of researches published from year 2010-2018. The data is based on the observed frequency of the collected responses backed by the information reflected on the 2010-2018 PhilRice Anniversary Souvenir Programs circulated to all staff wherein the accomplishments of staffers are being listed and recognized. The list of recognized publication of PhilRice researchers are illustrated in Figure 4.

It is evident in the figure above that the strict implementation of the policy on publication contributed to the gradual increase in the number of documented outputs of PhilRice researchers. Particularly those published in ISI and non-ISI journals, books and book chapters, and registered patents and utility models. The comparison is generated out of the number of researches and publications generated prior to and after the implementation of the policy in 2012.