The development of his research programme and scholarly interests.
Dr Valentine Joseph Owan is a Lecturer in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Calabar, Nigeria. His research programme is built around a simple but important question: How can research performance be measured, explained, predicted, and improved? This question has guided his research over the years and continues to shape his teaching, collaborations, and professional service.
His interest in research developed through formal academic training and practical experience in educational research. As his work expanded, his attention gradually moved beyond the application of statistical techniques to the broader challenges facing research systems in higher education. This shift led to sustained interest in research evaluation, scientometrics, scholarly communication, educational measurement, and research analytics.
His Master's research examined publication persistence among university lecturers publishing in Scopus-indexed journals. That work investigated why some academics continue to publish despite repeated challenges, while others discontinue their research activities. The findings strengthened his interest in research productivity, publication behaviour, and scholarly communication.
His doctoral research extended this work by examining academic capacity variables as predictors of research publication in mainstream journals by university lecturers in South-South Nigeria. The study combined mixed methods research, bibliometric analysis, structural equation modelling, machine learning, and artificial neural networks to explain research publication and develop practical indicators for evaluating university research performance.
Across his research, statistical methods are viewed as tools for answering important research questions rather than as research goals. Advanced analytical methods are therefore applied to produce evidence that can improve research quality, strengthen institutional decision making, and support the development of more effective research systems.
His current research examines research productivity, university ranking, bibliometric indicators, publication behaviour, research capacity, artificial intelligence in research, and responsible scholarly communication. These areas continue to evolve through collaborations with researchers from different disciplines and countries, creating opportunities to address emerging questions in higher education and research policy.
Alongside research, he remains committed to teaching, mentorship, and research capacity development. He works closely with students, early-career academics, and research teams by providing guidance on research design, data analysis, academic writing, publication strategy, and responsible research practice. These activities form an important part of his contribution to strengthening research culture within and beyond the university.
His long-term goal is to contribute to the development of stronger research systems through advances in research evaluation, scientometrics, educational measurement, scholarly communication, and research analytics. By combining methodological expertise with practical research problems, his work seeks to generate evidence that supports better research, better institutions, and better educational outcomes.