The article under discussion is called “International Legal System as Initiatives to Enhance the Umm Qasr Port Security”; it represents a study report prepared by Iranian researchers Hassan Jafari and Somayeh Dehdari. The paper under discussion is devoted to the examination of the port security problem in the framework of the Umm Qasr Port.
The authors put a particular emphasis on the problem of the International legal system’s implementation and the efficiency of the International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code (Jafari & Dehdari, 2013).
From the very first lines of the introduction, one might understand that the researchers are mainly interested in the efficacy of the particular security measure – the ISPS Code. Before Jafari and Dehdari introduce the research question itself, they cover a series of minor problems that it comprises.
Thus, the authors point out the cost-effectiveness of this security code, its benefits for the customers and potential disadvantages for the personnel. Therefore, the readers might presume in advance that the question of the following research is going to be focused on the outcomes of the ISPS Code integration in the port security system.
Even though the focus of the research is evident, the researchers clearly put their principal question at the end of the introductory passage. According to Jafari and Dehdari, their study is aimed at the assessment of the effects of the ISPS Code implementation (Jafari & Dehdari, 2013).
The hypothesis of the analyzed research is represented in the format of a series of assumptions. Thus, the authors do not have a principal supposition the validness of which they intend to test with the help of the experiment. Instead, they put forward six assumptions that imply various aspects of the security code’s performance: price, customers’ satisfaction, duration length, to name but a few.
One should necessarily point out that the authors provide a detailed explanation of the security code phenomenon, introducing the readers into the main problematic and potential questions in this area. Such an accurate description of the examined subject helps one realize the importance of the research. The “so what” question will hardly arise as long as one gets acquainted with the provided data. Therefore, Jafari and Dehdari manage to convince the readers that the study is worth carrying out.
Meanwhile, as to the uniqueness of the analyzed research, this question is not elucidated throughout the paper. The researchers do not provide any information regarding the novelty of the following study and their insights. Nevertheless, due to the fact that Jafari and Dehdari examine the implementation of the security code on the example of a particular port, Umm Qasr, one tends to presume that the study is unique.
Another point that is worth analyzing is the research’s design. One has to note that the main points of the article are slightly different from those that the standard study report includes. Thus, the major part of the paper focuses on the background of the problem, whereas the methodology, the description of the experiment, the recommendations and some other essential parts of the research seem to be neglected.
On the whole, one might suggest that the paper has two main points: the introduction of the problem and the accurate description of the received results. The introductory part takes up one-third of the entire text and seems to be exceedingly detailed while covering all the aspects of the ISPS Code’s implementation in the security system.
As it has been already mentioned above, the paper does not include a separate sector devoted to the literature review. Meanwhile, one might still note that Jafari and Dehdari’s narration is well grounded from the literature point of view. Thus, the researchers provide the minimum of their own suggestions and assumptions while speculating over the key subject.
Instead, they try to support every idea with the relevant reference to the peer-reviewed source. One is to mention that a significant part of the sources the research includes is represented by official documents and standards. The rest of the literature sources that the authors use seem to be valid and up-to-date.
The method of collecting and analyzing data is thoroughly described only in the final part of the paper that covers the received result. One should admit that the authors are particularly attentive to the problem of analyzing the results – they provide an exhaustive explanation of the performed process. On the other hand, the question of collecting data for the study seems to be slightly unrevealed. Therefore, one can suggest that replicating the following research might be rather problematic unless some extra guidance is provided.
As long as every assumption is tested with the help of the one-sample t-test, the question of variables is explicitly covered in the paper. Thus, every statistical table includes the “variable” and the “average difference” columns. In the meantime, one can note that the discussion on the variables issue is highly brief and concise; the authors do not touch upon the alternative point of view in their study.
One should necessarily point out that the provided findings fully support the authors’ initial goals. Thence, the examination of the validity of every assumption throws light on a particular aspect of the ISPS Code implementation. At the beginning of the research, Jafari and Dehdari intend to find out the character of the impact ISPS Code is likely to have on cost, clients, personnel, etc. The performed study provides the answers for all of these questions.
The only drawback one might point out is the fact that the researchers receive the findings that are true for a particular port, Umm Qasr, whereas the beginning of the paper makes an impression they need to receive a more general data. Nevertheless, the validness of their findings can hardly be doubted. Jafari and Dehdari employ the specific first-hand information and a reliable method of its analysis. As a consequence, the insights they introduce are relevant, though not universal.
The conclusion that Jafari and Dehdari offer is very brief and concise. Although, it follows the evidence provided, one might suggest that the authors fail to cover some significant findings. Thus, the problem of the security code’s impact on the personnel seems to be overlooked, even though the researchers initially pointed it out as one of the key points for examination.
On the contrary, in conclusion, the authors lay a particular emphasis on the port’s size as one of the determining factors of the success of the code’s implementation. However, the size of the port was not primarily supposed to become the focus of the study. Therefore, one might suggest that the main advantage of the following conclusion is the concise manner the authors use to represent information. Meanwhile, the principal drawback of the final part is the omission of some essential points as well as the introduction of new aspects.
One of the principal shortcomings of the research report under discussion is the authors’ interpretation of their findings. Hence, Jafari and Dehdari provide a brief summary of the results of their experiment leaving out the potential implications the received data possesses. Therefore, the authors do not analyze the significance of their findings, the potential areas of their implementation, or the novelty of their insights.
The readers do not receive any information regarding the possibility of employing the results in further research. One might suggest that the following research report could be improved if the authors tried to speculate upon the integration of the data collected from a particular port into the general port security system. Hence, one could have performed the analysis of the port security code in general and worked out a series of recommendations on how this code may be efficiently implemented.
As a consequence, the analyzed research report has a number of strengths and limitations. Among the benefits of the following study, one might point out the specificity of the targeted subject – the study focuses on a particular port; hence, the research is more practical rather than theoretical. Moreover, the background reference is highly detailed and explicit that helps a reader receive a complete idea of the examined subject.
Finally, the validity of the findings determined by the reliable data analyzing method also adds to the research’s relevance. On the other side, the paper lacks some key parts that a research report has to include such as the description of the experiment itself and the analysis of the received results. One can suggest that the principal limitation of this study is the unclear experimental group and the lack of further recommendations that do not allow a reader to define the potential capacity of the authors’ insights.
Reference List
Jafari, H., & Dehdari, S. (2013). International Legal System as Initiatives to Enhance the Umm Qasr Port Security. Journal of Social Issues & Humanities, 1(7), 70-73.