MENAGEN Mentoring for
Publications Program (MPP)
2021

Proposed Date
Thursday Sept 16th, 2-4 pm UK

The proposed Mentoring For Publications Program (MPP) is specifically designed in response to the call for supporting researchers in Saudi and the region in enhancing their publication skills made at the launch of the MENAGEN event held in February 2021.

Given the Covid-19 landscape and its effects on distancing researchers from each other, the proposed mentoring for publications program will build bridges between established leading gender and entrepreneurship academics with extensive publication records in gender and entrepreneurship scholarship relevant to the Middle East region, with early career gender and entrepreneurship scholars in the MENA region. The main purpose of doing so is to support and guide a selection of promising MENA based early career gender and entrepreneurship scholars with their publication outputs. In doing so, MENAGEN will contribute to the multiple international calls made for the improvement in the quality of submissions made to entrepreneurship journals from the MENA region. We aim to have the six papers from this initiative submitted for publication in well-established relevant Scopus journals by March 31, 2022, and we expect all papers to acknowledge support from this initiative and BGCEL when submitted for publication.

This initiative will also contribute to the MENAGEN activity as each pair of mentor and mentee will deliver a joint 90-minute (virtual) research seminar for MENAGEN in the academic year 2021-22.

Timeline of MPP Activities

June 21: Session 1: Meet the editors and reviewers – launch MPP (2 hour)
July 12: Submissions of 4000 word short paper for panel to review and select 15 for Session 2: Paper Development Workshop to be held July 26th
July 26th: Session 2: Paper Development Workshop (1.5 hours)
July 30th: deadline for participants of Session 2 to apply for the MPP
August 6th: 6 mentees for the MPP announced
August 9th – September 31st: MPP. Each mentee will be matched with a mentor with relevant expertise and will receive 6 hours of virtual 1:1 mentoring between August 9th and September 31st. The mentoring will focus on paper development and will be tailored to the specific needs of the mentee and their paper. In addition, each pair of mentor and mentee will work together to deliver a 90-minute (virtual) research seminar for MENAGEN in the academic year 2021-22.
October 2021 – May 2022: Monthly virtual MENAGEN seminars

Mentee selection process

Through a rigorous application process managed by MENAGEN, six mentees will be selected based on the following criteria:
1. Obtained PhD in the past 10 years.
2. Employed at a higher education institution / university in a country in the MENA region.
3. Research focus / expertise on a gender and entrepreneurship area and based on a context within the MENA region.
4. Member of MENAGEN
5. Publication record: applicants with existing 3*+ publications will not be considered.
6. Quality of the full draft of the submitted paper and targeted journal.

Mentors

The following subject and context experts have agreed to participate in this MENAGEN initiative. To ensure ‘best fit’ between mentor and mentee, the final selection of the six mentors will depend on the six selected mentees.
1. Professor Haya Al-Dajani, Mohammad Bin Salman College of Business and Entrepreneurship (MBSC) Saudi Arabia
2. Dr Bettina Bastian, Holy Spirit University of Kaslik (USEK), Lebanon
3. Professor Dilani Jayawarna, university of Liverpool, United Kingdom
4. Dr Sally Jones, Manchester Metropolitan University, United Kingdom
5. Professor Susan Marlow, Nottingham University, United Kingdom
6. Professor Maura McAdam, Dublin City University, Ireland
7. Professor Julia Rouse, Manchester Metropolitan University, United Kingdom
8. Dr Hayfaa Tlaiss, Alfaisal University, Saudi Arabia
9. Dr Lorna Treanor, Nottingham University, United Kingdom
10. Professor Natalia Vershinina, Audencia University, France

Cost

The overall cost for this initiative will be US$ 19000. The cost for the 6 mentors will be US$ 18000 and the cost for the management of the mentoring program will be US$ 1000.

Each of the six mentors will receive US$ 3000 to undertake the following:
1. Participate in the MPP Launch and Paper Development Workshop
2. Six hours of 1:1 virtual mentoring
3. Reviews of the mentee’s work in between the six hours of 1:1 mentoring hours.
4. Co-deliver with the mentee the 90-minute (virtual) research seminar for MENAGEN in the academic year 2021-22.

The manager of this MENAGEN initiative (Dr Sara Alshareef) will undertake the following:
1. Contact point for mentors and mentees.
2. Lead recruitment drive for applications for this MENAGEN initiative.
3. Finalize the schedule for the 2021-22 MENAGEN research seminar series.
4. Organize the virtual Launch Event and Paper Development Workshop.