The Visayas-Mindanao Consortium for Journal Publication (VMCJP) met last October 18, 2016 to plan-out the conduct of the International Conference on Methodological Advances for Research (ICMAR), the first major activity of the consortium. Planned to be held at Marco Polo Hotel in Cebu City, it is expected to gather between 300 to 500 participants from various countries. Plenary speakers invited are among the top 100 scientists in Asia. Conference track includes multivariate methods, data mining and theory building, simulation and modeling, fractal and dynamical systems and qualitative models. Other details of the said conference will be out not later than December 2016.
The meeting also tackled other plans of the VMCJP such as the upcoming journal accreditation by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) which is more stringent. First organized August 2016, VMCJP is now registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the Philippines and its By-Laws under review. Founding members of the consortium are 16 Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the Visayas and Mindanao who are into scientific journal publication. Most of the journals this institutions published are Category A and B CHED accredited. The current consortium host is from Southern Leyte State University with Dr. Francis Ann Sy as the consortium president. The 16-member institutions are the following;
- Agusan del Sur State College of Agriculture and Technology
- Bohol Island State University
- Bukidnon State University
- Cebu Normal University
- Cebu Technological University
- Eastern Visayas State University
- Jose Rizal Memorial State University
- Leyte Normal University
- Naval State University
- Negros Oriental State University
- Northwestern Mindanao College of Science and Technology
- Samar State University
- Southern Leyte State University
- Surigao del Sur State University
- Surigao State College of Technology
- University of San Jose Recoletos