Research published in pay-and-publish journals won’t count: UGC panel

The four-member panel was formed by the UGC late last year after The Indian Express published a series of investigative reports on how India has emerged as one of the biggest markets for “predatory” publishers of substandard research journals.

Suggesting sweeping reforms to promote the quality of research in India, a UGC panel has recommended that publication of research material in “predatory” journals or presentations in conferences organised by their publishers should not be considered for academic credit in any form.

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They include selection, confirmation, promotion, appraisal, and award of scholarships and degrees, the panel has suggested. The committee, which submitted its 14-page report to the UGC recently, has also recommended changes in PhD and MPhil programmes, including a new board for social sciences research.

The four-member committee — headed by P Balram, former director of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru — was formed by the UGC late last year after The Indian Express published a series of investigative reports on how India has emerged as one of the biggest markets for “predatory” publishers of substandard research journals.

The reports showed how over 300 “predatory” publishers bring out journals that claim to be international and publish papers for a “charge” ranging from $30-$1,800 per piece. Some of the prominent publishers featured in the investigation were OMICS, Austin, Science Domain, IAEME and IOSR Journals, which together bring out over 1,200 journals on subjects ranging from medicine to management.

Last week, the UGC launched the Consortium of Academic and Research Ethics (CARE) to approve a new official list of academic publications.

In its report, the Balram committee has recommended the creation of a board under the UGC for research in social sciences and humanities with separate allocation of funds. It has also suggested the appointment of a Dean for research and development in every university linked to externally funded grants and projects.

Explained: How the pay-and-publish business works

On predatory journals and conferences organised by their publishers, the committee’s report said: “The mandatory requirement of publication in journals/conference proceedings for award of doctoral degrees and as a metric in evaluating faculty under the API (Academic Performance Index) score has resulted in a proliferation of predatory journals and conferences, which have abandoned classical peer review as a method of quality control.”

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When contacted by The Indian Express, Balram said: “We submitted the report recently. It is a very brief report on the improvement of quality of research. It is up to the UGC, HRD Ministry and state governments to implement it.”

Bhushan Patwardhan, UGC Vice Chairperson, confirmed that the Commission has received the report. “It will be considered by the UGC in its next meeting scheduled in July,” he said.

Apart from Balram, the committee includes Sharad Deshpande, former professor and head, Department of Philosophy, Savitribai Phule University, Pune; Shridhar R Gadre, Distinguished Professor, Savitribai Phule University, Pune; and, Anitha Kurup, Dean, National Institute of Advanced Studies, IISc campus.

For the effective implementation of its recommendations, the committee has suggested that an empowered panel of eminent academicians be set up to work with UGC nodal officers for new schemes. It has also asked the UGC to revamp its regional centres and initiate capacity building programmes for its staff to build in-house expertise.

NEW BOARD, R&D DEAN

Key recommendations of UGC panel:

-Papers in predatory journals won’t count

-New board for social sciences research

-R&D Dean in every university

-Short-term internship in policy organisations

-100 post-doctoral fellowships per year in social sciences, humanities

-Translation programme for regional research

Source: https://indianexpress.com/article/india/research-published-pay-and-publish-fake-journals-wont-count-ugc-panel-5791656/ (Accessed on July 22, 2019)

Alan Turing, a computing pioneer, will feature on Britain’s £50 notes

At the moment, Bank of England £50 notes feature James Watt, whose steam engines powered the Industrial Revolution, and his business partner Matthew Boulton. On July 15th, however, the bank announced that from 2021 fifties will instead depict Alan Turing, the man who built Colossus, the world’s first programmable, electronic, digital computer and who also developed much of the theory of computer science, especially the idea of algorithms. Colossus was used to break German codes during the second world war, shortening hostilities considerably. That won Turing scant recognition though, partly because of the project’s secrecy and partly because he was gay, and homosexual activity was then illegal in Britain. Which changed the world more, steam engines or computers, is debatable. But Watt died in his 80s, rich and lauded by his fellows. Turing died of cyanide poisoning, possibly self-inflicted, at the age of 41. 

Source: https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2019/07/18/alan-turing-a-computing-pioneer-will-feature-on-britains-ps50-notes (Accessed on July 22, 2019)

Govt floats idea for Aadhaar-like database for mapping citizen health

The NDHM has proposed to provide the technology platform for collection of core health data from the providers and patients

The government has proposed mapping health data of citizens and building a National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) on the lines of the Aadhaar database, and set up ‘digital health’ as public infrastructure.

In a detailed National Digital Health Blueprint, which is open for comments until August 4, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) has laid out standards, framework, and data analytics principles for a technology-based infrastructure.

Authored under the chairmanship of the ex-Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) chairman J Satyanarayana, the blueprint proposes that the NDHM be a hybrid of the goods and services tax network, UIDAI (the agency that administers Aadhaar), and the National Payments Corporation of India, given that health is a state subject, and to incorporate private sector, including service providers and insurance.

The NDHM has proposed to provide the technology platform for collection of core health data from the providers and patients and interoperability of health care data through a unique identifier called the Unique Health Identifier.

Other components include The Health Cloud, on the lines of the government community cloud of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, a Health Locker that will serve as a personal health record repository with consent, and health analytics.

Another component is the geographic information system or visualisation services that could be used to map the nearest hospital with a particular specialty, or map the occurrence of a disease in a geographic area and so on to help in regional planning and monitoring of health services.

“For the NDHM to be successful, it will be important to undertake outreach activities with public and private sector players. The NDHM will have to co-opt market players like medtech companies, non-governmental organisations, foundations working in health space as they build the public utilities in the form of registries, personal health record, health ID, and health information exchange, etc,” the blueprint proposes.

The blueprint has proposed a ‘consent manager’ mechanism, so that individuals can control the data they would like to be collated or used for other purposes.

The idea of explicit consent is part of several other government proposals, including the soon-to-be tabled in Parliament Data Protection Bill and Reserve Bank of India’s guidelines for account aggregators.

The blueprint has said that this digital framework will be designed keeping in mind smartphones as the end device being used by citizens.

It also has detailed proposals for setting up state and national-level repositories of health data and methods of collecting data and so on.

Other members of the committee set up in November last year to propose the blueprint include Dr Manoj Singh, professor, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Neeta Verma, director general of National Informatics Centre, Alok Kumar, advisor (health), NITI Aayog and other members of the MoHFW

Source: https://www.business-standard.com/article/printer-friendly-version?article_id=119071701590_1 (Accessed on July 22, 2019)