The first lecture of the 2024-2025 new academic year’s Academic Research Season was held in the morning of August 19, 2024, at the Ho Yin Conference Center, GH01, Taipa Campus. This series of lectures is organized by the Research Management Office and the particular lecture was organized by Faculty of Finance. The guest speaker was Professor Feng Shuaizhang, Dean of the Institute of Economics and Social Research at Jinan University. The topic was “Topics, Writing, and Publishing Experiences of International Journal Papers in Economics”. Guests attending this lecture included Professor Zhou Yonghong, Associate Professor Lou Shiyan, Associate Professor Li Weiping, Assistant Professor Ling Yun, Assistant Professor Li Di, Assistant Professor Jiang Yu, Assistant Professor Xue Lifei, Assistant Professor Dai Chaonuo, Assistant Professor Fan Yang, Lecturer Sou Cheng Wai Simon, and Lecturer Liang Kelly from Faculty of Finance.

Professor Feng is currently the Dean of the Institute of Economics and Social Research, at Jinan University. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Cornell University in the United States and has been a visiting scholar at Princeton University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He has long been engaged in academic research in labor economics and the Chinese economy, covering topics such as population mobility, early human capital development, income distribution, and the labor market. He serves as a co-editor of the Journal of Population Economics and has published over fifty papers in well-known domestic and international journals such as the American Economic Review, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, and Economic Research.

In his lecture, Professor Feng shared many writing techniques and insights, gradually deconstructing the main factors that make a good journal paper. He helped audiences deeply understand and reflect on the key points of writing a good article from multiple perspectives. He shared his journey from the initial stage of writing a paper — topic selection, to data mining and processing, identification strategies, later writing, and submission for publication, addressing common writing challenges. He advised audiences to delve deeply into a field and put in more effort in writing, training their writing skills and abilities. He also encouraged them to clarify their direction and strengths, suggesting that they consider collaborating with experts in related fields to improve the quality of their papers, thereby better establishing their strength and career.

During this Academic Research Season lecture, Professor Feng had in-depth exchanges with the faculty and students of the City University of Macau. The attendees also asked Professor Feng about the questions they encountered during submission, and he answered them detailly. The Faculty of Finance of City U sincerely thanks Professor Feng for his wonderful sharing. The students gained valuable writing inspiration, writing guidelines, and insights from this lecture, expressing that they benefited greatly and are looking forward to the next inspiring lecture of the Academic Research Season.