OPA Journal
The Online Journal of the Organisation of Professional Associations (OPA)
ISSN 2950-6646
Editorial
Role of the OPA Journal during National Issues
Welcome to the inaugural online issue of the OPA journal! The OPA Journal provides a platformfor scientific communication among professionals in Sri Lanka, catering to a total membership of over 60,000, under 52 member associations representing 32 disciplines. The journal welcomes articles from the OPA membership, addressing national issues based on their expertise and professional experience. Therefore, it would be pertinent to discuss the advocacy role of professional organizations on National issues Read More
Lead Article
Advocacy Role of Professional Organizations on National Issues
A professional association (organization) is defined as “an organization of practitioners who judge one another as professionally competent and who have banded together to perform social functions which they cannot perform in their separate capacity as individuals” (Merton, 1958; Cogan, 1955).Professional organizations and associations are crucially important for generating the energy, flow of ideas, and proactive work, needed to maintain a healthy profession Read More
Professional Perspectives
Multi-Professional Involvement in Managing a COVID-19 crisis in Sri Lanka
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in December 2019, a tumultuous period for health care systems was marked globally and Sri Lanka was in it as well because the health systems had to respond to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. In Sri Lanka, Read More
Sri Lanka Needs a Return to “Good Agricultural Practices”
Supporting agricultural development and achieving self-sufficiency in rice have been the prime objective of successive Sri Lankan governments since gaining independence in 1948. As a consequence of the efforts of the scientists, academics, the farming community, and policy decisions taken, the paddy production of Sri Lanka has shown a stable and increasing trend where the country could produce more rice than what we can consume since b 2006 (Davis et al. 2016; USDA and GAIN 2020), except perhaps during extreme climatic events such as the drought experienced in 2016 and 2017.Read More
Repositioning Sri Lanka’s Transport and Logistics Sector to lead the economic recovery in Sri Lanka
The current economic crisis cannot be taken lightly. Early warning signs over decades that all was not well, were ignored. We have simply lived beyond our means. We just have not worked smartly or hard enough to support our lifestyle that we have taken for granted, accompanied by the unrestrained imports and the ever-increasing dole-outs, expanded public services and subsidies. The transport sector was no different. .Read More
Developing quantitatively-driven, technologically empowered supply chains to revitalize the Sri Lankan economy
Sri Lanka gained independence as the second most developed nation in Asia in 1948. Numerous opportunities have presented itself over those years (Seneviratne, 2022). While Sri Lanka has seized on to some of them as a nation, we have failed to grasp most of those opportunities to drive the nation’s economy forward. .Read More
Research Article
Developing quantitatively-driven, technologically empowered supply chains to revitalize the Sri Lankan economy
Sri Lanka gained independence as the second most developed nation in Asia in 1948. Numerous opportunities have presented itself over those years (Seneviratne, 2022). Read More
About the Journal
Scope of the journal
OPA Journal provides a platform of scientific communication for professionals in Sri Lanka. It caters for a total membership of over 60,000, under 52 member associations representing catering to 32 disciplines. The journal welcomes articles addressing diverse interest areas of OPA membership.
Board of Editor
Editor –in-Chief:
Prof. Indika Karunathilake
International Panel of Editors
Dr Dujeepa Samarasekera, Singapore
Editorial Committee
| Ms. Chinta Abeywardena, Pharmaceutical Society of Sri Lanka |
| Dr. Ruwan Gamage, Sri Lanka Library Association (SLLA) |
| Prof. N.G.S. Shantha Gamage, Institute of Physics, Sri Lanka (IPSL) |
| Prof. Chandana Darshanapriya Gamage, Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka (IESL) |
| Prof. Buddhi Marambe, Sri Lanka Institute of Agricultural Professionals (SLOAP) |
| Prof T S G Peiris Institute of Applied Statistics in Sri Lanka (IASSL) |
| Dr. Sarath Samarage Independent Medical Practitioners Association (IMPA) |
| Eng. Shantha Senarath, Engineers Guild of Sri Lanka |
Publishing Editors
| Ms. Chamalika Manawadu |
| Ms Dulanthi Thilakawardhana |
Submissions are accepted on the understanding that they have not been published in their current form or a substantially similar form (in print or electronically, including on a web site), that they have not been accepted for publication elsewhere, and they are not under consideration by another publication.
Conflicts of interest
Authors must state all possible conflicts of interest, including financial, consultant, institutional and other relationships that might lead to bias or a conflict of interest. If there is no conflict of interest, this should be explicitly stated. All sources of funding should be acknowledged.
Permissions to reproduce previously published material
Authors should include with their submission copies of written permission to reproduce material published elsewhere (such as illustrations) from the copyright holder.
Subject consent forms
Subjects have a right to privacy that should not be infringed without informed consent. Identifying details (written or photographic) should be omitted. Details regarding obtained informed consent should be indicated in the published article.
Ethics committee approval
For research papers, all authors must declare that the research was conducted within the guidelines below and under the terms of all relevant local legislation.
Authorship
All authors must confirm that they have met the criteria for authorship as established by the International Committee of Journal Editors, that they believe that the paper represents honest work, and that they are able to verify the validity of the results reported.
Copyright assignment
Papers are accepted for publication on the understanding that exclusive copyright in the paper is assigned to the Publisher. Authors are asked to sign a copyright transfer form to accompany their submission.
The journal encourages the submission of papers by e-mail with attached file to
Please also include a copy of the Author Submission Form, preferably in an electronic form.
Format of Manuscripts
Title page
The title page should carry the full title of the paper (up to 100 characters including spaces) and a short title to be used as a ‘running head’ (45 characters including spaces). The first name, middle initial and last name of each author should appear. If the work is to be attributed to a department or institution, its full name should be included. The name and address of the author responsible for correspondence should appear on the title page.
Abstracts and key words
The second page should carry an abstract. The length is limited to not more than 250 words. The abstract should be followed by a list of 3-10 keywords or short phrases.
Text
Full papers of an experimental or observational nature may be divided into sections headed Introduction, Methods (including ethical and statistical information), Results, Discussion and a short Conclusion, although reviews may require a different format.
Acknowledgements
Acknowledge only those who have made a substantial contribution to the study. You must obtain written permission from people acknowledged by name.
References
Try to keep the number of references to the minimum. Not more than 30 references are recommended.
Harvard referencing style uses references in two places in a piece of writing: in the text and in a reference list at the end. In general, each author name that appears in the text must also appear in the reference list, and every work in the reference list must also be referred to in the main text.
The reference list should include full references for all in-text references used like the author, date of publication, title of the source, volume and issue numbers and page numbers. The list must be organised alphabetically by author, unless there is no author then it is ordered by the source title, excluding articles such as a, an or the. If there are multiple works by the same author these are ordered by date, if the works are in the same year they are ordered alphabetically by the title and are allocated a letter (a,b,c etc) after the date
Tables
Each table should be typed on a separate page in double spacing. Do not submit tables as photographs. Assign each table an Arabic numeral, e.g. (Table 3), in accordance with order of citation, and a brief title. Do not use vertical rules. Place explanatory matter in footnotes, not in the heading. Explain in footnotes all non-standard abbreviations that are used in each table.
Illustrations
References to figures and tables should be made in order of appearance in the text and should be in Arabic numerals in parentheses, e.g. (Fig. 2). The format of figure file must be compatible with tif or jpeg.
If you need to submit hard copies, label them clearly with the figure number, the title of the paper, the first author’s name and a mark indicating the top of the figure. If photographs of people are used, their identities must be obscured or the picture must be accompanied by written consent to use the photograph. If a figure has been published before, the original source must be acknowledged and written permission obtained from the copyright holder.
MANUSCRIPTS CATEGORIES
- Lead Article: Invited papers from experts of international refutation.
- Original research papers
A maximum of 3000 words with five tables or figures and 30 references using the Harvard style; all articles must include a structured abstract.
- Review articles
A maximum of 3000 words with 30 references using the Harvard style. All articles must include an abstract. - Short Communications
Up to 1000 words plus abstract with one table or figure (optional); 5 references - Letters
A maximum of 400 words in length, including title, text, name and address of author(s), and maximum two references included. Tables and figures are not permitted. - Speaker’s corner
Personal viewpoints and debates on controversial issues can be included. Up to 1000 words and 5 references; up to 3 “pull-out” quotations. Tables, figures, and abstract are not permitted. - Outside the box
Short structured reports of innovations in different fields; 750 words with subheadings; Tables, figures, and abstract are not permitted.
THE REVIEW PROCESS
All articles submitted to the journal will undergo,
- Immediate review by publishing editors to assess compatibility with the house style and format and check for plagiarism (manually and electronically).
- The manuscripts that pass compatibility and plagiarism check will be sent for peer review. The panel of peer reviewers are experts in medical education. A single-blind peer review process will be followed. The reviewer recommendations will be,
a. | Accept without changes |
b. | Accept without changes |
c. | Reject |
| If the reviewer recommendation is to reject, manuscript will be sent to a second reviewer. |
The Editorial committee will take the final decision based on reviewer recommendations and inform the corresponding author.