Workshop on ‘Quality Research and Publication Ethics’
Aligarh: Prof Ramesh C Gaur (Dean and Head, Kalanidhi, Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts (IGNCA), New Delhi urged researchers to work on new research problems with an up to date literature reviews, take adequate time for collecting data—developing solutions—writing papers, apply research to real data, collaborate with excellent researchers and to submit papers to the top conferences and journals.
He was delivering the keynote address in the online workshop on ‘Quality Research and Publication Ethics’ organised by the Faculty of Social Sciences, Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) for faculty members and research scholars.
Prof Gaur delineated methods of developing research skills and the importance of awareness about publication ethics to improve the quality of research.
He discussed ways of enhancing quality in research publications through e- research infrastructure such as plagiarism detection tools, grammar tools, reference management tools and library information service among other things.
Prof Gaur also spoke about initiatives taken by the University Grants Commission (UGC) to curb plagiarism.
In the inaugural address, AMU Vice Chancellor, Prof Tariq Mansoor stressed the need for enhancing research quality in higher educational institutions.
“Quality research is a precursor to quality evidence. Faculty members and research scholars should focus more on quality rather than quantity in research for creating an outstanding identity in the scholarly world”, said Prof Mansoor.
The Vice Chancellor added that quality publications play a vital role in enhancing the ranking of the universities.
The Guest-of Honour, Ajay Kumar Gupta (Director, Research and Incharge Publications, Indian Council of Social Science Research-ICSSR, New Delhi) highlighted the role ICSSR has been playing in promoting quality research in social sciences through various schemes and projects.
He also discussed the ICSSR scholarships and fellowships for faculty members, PDFs and research scholars.
Prof Nisar Ahmad Khan (Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences) spoke about factors and components that could affect the quality of research, plagiarism and UGC guidelines to improve research quality and publication ethics.
The workshop coordinator, Prof Naushad Ali P M (Department of Library and Information Science) shed light on factors affecting the quality of research in higher education system.
He elaborated the policies and steps taken by Government of India to maintain research quality and publication ethics.
Prof M Madhusudhan, (Department of Library and Information Science and Ex-Deputy Dean -Academics, University of Delhi) delivered a talk on ‘Integrity in Research’ in which he discussed kinds of plagiarism and the use of ‘Turnitin’ software for plagiarism detection.
Prof Upendra Chaudhary (Department of Political Science, AMU and Ex-Member Secretary, and Director, Research, ICSSR, New Delhi) discussed methods of producing a good research proposal.
Speaking on the smart tools for quality research, Nikesh Narayanan (Assistant Professor and Librarian-IT, Zayed University, Dubai, UAE) demonstrated the use of various tools for Reference Management, Managing Research Profiles and Research Data Management.
Prof P M Naushad Ali gave the concluding remarks and Prof Nisar Ahmad Khan extended the vote of thanks.
Over 683 research scholars and faculty members from various Indian and foreign universities attended the workshop with three technical sessions.