Flogging a small subset of young faculty to improve research and teaching metrics using the threat of tenure track while leaving the large majority of senior faculty completely unmonitored will do very little to achieve the prime objective. In a marked departure in the way assistant professors, who are the lowest rung of the academic … Continue reading Tenure track system at IITs is a recipe for failure
IIT
Science communication: Hey directors, leave the researchers alone!
Even as DST is taking steps to promote science communication, researchers at certain government labs and academic institutions are prevented from communicating even their published work with the media without the prior permission from the director. Since the government service conduct rules do not bar researchers from discussing their work, restrictions placed by some directors … Continue reading Science communication: Hey directors, leave the researchers alone!
Science communication: ‘There is a huge price to pay when scientists remain in a cocoon’
Altmetric, a non-traditional alternative to impact-factor, measures the attention that research papers published in journals get from mainstream news outlets and social media. In 2016, Altmetric tracked over 17 million “mentions” in different platforms of 2.7 million different research outputs. Among the 100 “most-discussed” papers, three papers had 43 authors from India. This is much … Continue reading Science communication: ‘There is a huge price to pay when scientists remain in a cocoon’
Researchers from Indian national institutes publish in predatory journals
India not only publishes the most number of predatory journals in the world but researchers based in India are one of the biggest contributors to such bogus journals; an earlier study found that researchers in India accounted for 35 per cent of publication in bogus journals. Predatory journals very often trick authors into submitting papers, … Continue reading Researchers from Indian national institutes publish in predatory journals