Page 75 - Academic and Research Book_WEB

impartial, transparent attitude of the researcher is an important part of true and authentic research. In
the absence of this, there is fear of unethical practices.

A document entitled “Good Academic Research Practice” (GARP) was published by UGC, New Delhi,
prepared by Dr. Bhushan Patwardhan, then VCM, UGC, and his team, which speaks of various facets
of good research in the light of expectations and fulfilments. Under the title “Good Research Practices”
it says, “This document provides a general framework for enhancing research-integrity by focusing on
potential threats and good practice at each stage in the research cycle. Typically, research misconduct
is defined in terms of fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism. However, malfeasance presents itself in
multiple forms and can occur at any stage of the research cycle from the initial stage of selection of the
research problem through the dissemination of research outputs to the fellow-researcher, decision-
makers, and the public at large.” It is an extensive document worth reading to understand about GARP
(UGC, 2020).

Ethics in research and a publisher’s ethics are two different issues. The first one is about the personal
attitude of the researcher and the second is concerned with the publisher. All renowned publishers
display their ideas on “Publishing Ethics” of their journal but the researcher must be aware of it before
sending the research outcome for publishing. Again, there is some information provided by Elsevier
about the publication of an article. “The publication of an article in a peer-reviewed journal is an essential
building block in the development of a coherent and respected network of knowledge. It is a direct
reflection of the quality of the work of the authors and the institutions that support them. Peer-reviewed
articles support and embody the scientific method. It is therefore important to agree upon standards of
expected ethical behaviour for all parties involved in the act of publishing: the author, the journal editor,
the peer reviewer, the publisher and the society of society-owned or sponsored journals.” 9

Many universities publish research journals and upload their criteria on their website. Just as an
example: Uttarakhanda Sanskrit Vishwavidyalaya has uploaded the guidelines for their research
journal Shodhpragya on their website. It also says that they invite authentic, scholarly, and unpublished
research papers for publication. Research papers submitted for publication will be evaluated by the
referees of the journal and only those that receive favourable comments, will be published. Although
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there are several rules and regulations framed as “Ethics in Publication”, they are violated by those
who have made this as a money-making business. There are publishers who ask for thousands of
rupees for publishing articles, which are in fact not worthy of publication. It is an open secret that
such publishers are ripening their harvest at the cost of research quality. Researchers have to take care
not to fall prey to such practices.

Conclusion

“The increase of data availability and computational advances has led to a plethora of metrics and
indicators being developed for different levels of research evaluation. …These advances have also
highlighted the fact that metrics must be applied appropriately depending on the goal and subject
of the evaluation and should be used alongside qualitative inputs, such as peer review. However, this
has not solved the challenge of finding core quality and validity measures that will guide the current
and future development of evaluative metrics and indicators. …This means that the field now faces
a divide: although new metrics exist, they are oftentimes not suitable or cannot be scaled up to the
global research ecosystem. For lack of agreed-upon alternatives, such metrics are being used routinely
in inappropriate circumstances despite their shortcomings.” 11

The above quote indicates that there is a serious requirement for quality and validity measures of
research metrics and it is to be ensured that they are applied appropriately and fairly. This also shows

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