On the morning of April 8, 2026, the 162nd Jingshi Economics & Management · Distinguished Lecture Series of BNUBS was held at Room 1726, Hou Zhu Lou. Professor Lu Rong from Shanghai University of Finance and Economics was invited to deliver a lecture themed “How to Improve Success Rates in Thesis Defense and Academic Publication”. More than 50 undergraduate and graduate students attended the lecture, which was chaired by Professor Hu Conghui, Associate Dean of BNUBS.

At the beginning of the lecture, Professor Hu introduced Professor Lu Rong’s profound academic achievements and her outstanding contributions to academic journal development, and extended a warm welcome to her. Professor Lu Rong is currently a Chair Professor and Level-II Professor of Finance at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, and concurrently serves as Director of the Expert Committee for the Evaluation of Chinese Humanities and Social Science Journals. She is the author of Lu Rong’s Lectures on Behavioral Finance and other works. Drawing on her extensive experience in academic publication and peer review, Professor Lu Rong elaborated on how an excellent research paper is “crafted”, covering topic selection, pitfalls in academic writing, and submission strategies. When explaining how to evaluate the value of a paper, she used several specific research topics as examples to illustrate how to make the logical “framework” of a paper clear and concise. She emphasized that a well-written paper must be scientific, succinct, and clearly structured. In addition, when discussing common mistakes in topic selection, she vividly explained how to address endogeneity issues in research by using the analogy of “bell ringing and dancing”.

Professor Lu Rong’s insights inspired profound reflections among the faculty and students present. The audience actively raised questions and engaged in in-depth discussions, creating a vibrant academic atmosphere. Based on her review experience, Professor Lu responded earnestly to inquiries, including those concerning graduation thesis evaluation, and further elaborated on approaches to research topic selection.

The lecture was vivid and focused on core practical challenges. Professor Lu’s sharing combined strategic vision with actionable details, offering profound insights into the academic publication ecosystem as well as practical methods and skills. It provided important guidance for improving thesis quality and submission performance. In the end, the faculty and students expressed their sincere gratitude to Professor Lu Rong for her excellent presentation. Amid warm applause, the 162nd Jingshi Economics & Management · Distinguished Lecture Series came to a successful conclusion.

Contributed by Academic Practice Department of Graduate Student Union

Edited by Sun Yue

Reviewed by Hu Conghui