By Julian Osamoto
The Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC) has launched an international peer-reviewed journal to strengthen research on Nigeria’s raw materials and support industrialisation through scientific innovation.
Director-General of the Council, Professor Nnanyelugo Ike-Muonso, said the revamped Journal of Raw Materials Research (JORMAR) marks a major step in repositioning RMRDC as a globally recognised research institution.
Speaking at the launch in Abuja, Professor Ike-Muonso said the Council had produced too few peer-reviewed publications since its establishment in 1988 despite its research mandate.
He said the journal will provide researchers within and outside the Council with an internationally recognised platform to publish scientific findings, promote innovation and support Nigeria’s industrial development.
The Director-General added that the initiative complements RMRDC’s newly established research and academic cadre, which aims to improve research output and encourage academic excellence.
“There are a lot of people who actually want to publish their ideas, and it’s not there. People have done things that are patented, but they are not also published,” he said.
Professor Ike-Muonso warned that failing to publish research exposes Nigerian innovations to being improved upon and credited elsewhere.
Chairman of the JORMAR Implementation Committee, Dr. Sab Ebiriekwe, said the Council revived the journal after it became inactive following its last print edition in 2017.
He explained that RMRDC migrated the publication to a fully digital, open-access platform that supports online manuscript submission, double-blind peer review, editorial processing, publication and long-term archiving.
“A journal without a credible online presence is increasingly absent from global academic discourse, regardless of the quality of the work it publishes,” he said.
Dr. Ebiriekwe said the Council also digitised previous editions of the journal and assigned Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) to 117 legacy articles, making them permanently accessible and citable.
He added that RMRDC is seeking inclusion in global indexing platforms, including Google Scholar, African Journals Online, Crossref, Dimensions, Semantic Scholar and OpenAlex, while working towards Scopus indexing.
Representing the Editor-in-Chief of JORMAR, Professor Peter Onwualu, Dr. A. Bello said the journal will position Nigeria as a leading contributor to global research on raw materials, value addition and industrial innovation.
He said the publication will feature multidisciplinary research covering raw materials development, manufacturing, materials science, environmental sustainability, the circular economy, industrial competitiveness and supply chain management.
According to him, the journal will maintain international standards of editorial independence, rigorous peer review, research integrity and ethical publishing while strengthening collaboration among researchers, industry, policymakers and development partners.
The Journal of Raw Materials Research will also serve as a repository for scientific findings on Nigeria’s raw materials, including their availability, processing technologies, industrial applications and value-addition opportunities.
