The model itself is very popular in academia. However, in practice it is not a piece of cake. There requires a better understanding of the skills and attributes needed to complete a TBP successfully (Merga et al, 2019). Additionally, institutional and supervisory support is essential to overcome the challenges candidates faces during the TBP pathway (Mason et al, 2021).

Research work generated from developing counties mostly comes with a lack of quality and standardization. For this reason, the contribution of developing country researchers to scholarly knowledge is markedly low compared to the contribution of the developed countries of the world. It is because of bureaucratic impediments and a lack of institutional support or opportunities (Matthews et al., 2020). Here, the role of universities is crucial in the area of research training. Regeneration of knowledge requires thinking about the context rather than memorizing facts both at the undergraduate and graduate levels (Nundy et al, 2022). Institutional reform is needed here.

Today, many developing countries are adopting research on a performance assessment scale as a result research indexes are getting important (Tran et al., 2020). Tran et al. (2020) have highlighted three types of factors, they are “policy-related,” “capability-related,” and “networking-related” to evaluate publishing research work in the indexed journals. To measure scientific and technical activities (STA), indexes like the Index of scientific and technical activities (ISTA) are getting similar importance as like Global Innovation Index (GII), and the Human Development Index (HDI) (Ma et al. 2022). However, in developing countries, bureaucratic impediments and a lack of institutional support or opportunities cannot be underestimated (Matthews et al., 2020).

Quality work with validation from the global community is essential for research to flourish. The quality of research work is determined by the reputation of the publisher and the standards they maintain. A renowned publishing body is essential for research to get validation. Academic research should be harmonized with publications in top-tier journals in order to maintain standards that are essential in improving the design and quality of existing academic research. Mueller-Langer et al. (2020) showed how free online access to journals mandate or policy may promote the scientific output of research institutions in developing countries by increasing scientific output by +29.6%. Publishing in a journal often gets harsh and time-consuming that does not consider the career stage of candidates. University policies and guidelines need to be responsive to the challenges the TBP candidates face to ensure wider research knowledge to benefit the academic labour market and contribute significantly to university outputs (Mason et al, 2020).

Thesis by publication (TBP) as a means to develop a publication culture to enhance research quality and the number of academic publications in developing countries. So, now is the real-time to promote the conception of the thesis by publication (TBP) at the undergraduate and master levels.

Tran, T., Trinh, T. P. T., Le, C. M., Hoang, L. K., & Pham, H. H. (2020). Research as a base for sustainable development of universities: Using the Delphi method to explore factors affecting international publishing among Vietnamese academic staff. Sustainability, 12(8), 3449.

Nundy, S., Kakar, A., & Bhutta, Z. A. (2022). How to Practice Academic Medicine and Publish from Developing Countries?: A Practical Guide (p. 465). Springer Nature.

Mason, S., Merga, M. K., & Morris, J. E. (2020). Typical scope of time commitment and research outputs of thesis by publication in Australia. Higher Education Research & Development, 39(2), 244-258.

Mason, S., Morris, J. E., & Merga, M. K. (2021). Institutional and supervisory support for the Thesis by Publication. Australian Journal of Education, 65(1), 55-72.

Matthews, K. R., Yang, E., Lewis, S. W., Vaidyanathan, B. R., & Gorman, M. (2020). International scientific collaborative activities and barriers to them in eight societies. Accountability in Research, 27(8), 477-495.

Merga, M. K., Mason, S., & Morris, J. E. (2019). ‘The constant rejections hurt’: Skills and personal attributes needed to successfully complete a thesis by publication. Learned Publishing, 32(3), 271-281.

Mueller-Langer, F., Scheufen, M., & Waelbroeck, P. (2020). Does online access promote research in developing countries? Empirical evidence from article-level data. Research Policy, 49(2), 103886.