Can research integrity help to improve Indian Science?
anil kumar
Tuesday, 05 February 2008 06:21 UTC
It is not the question of money; we have money – enough money to fund any project or any research in the country. Question is unequal distribution of money, research misconduct, leakage of research money, funding worthless projects, lacking in values and research integrity. In recent years, different labs got money in crores from CSIR, DBT, industries etc. This funding was beyond the imagination of researchers. But what is the output?? People purchased big and costly instruments, just to adorn their labs. But story does not start from here; it starts from the committee members of funding organization who funded number of worthless projects. They evaluate and fund projects on the basis of their personal link with principal investigators. Question is about our value system and research integrity. And there is no law enforcement in India for the review committee of funding organizations or researchers who misuse or waste money for the name of science.
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Replies
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I heard this ‘link’ aspect from many people. You are right that money is not the question but the lack of integrity makes the life difficult. Even the selection procedure for a faculty member is ‘link-based’ sometimes.
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We should have some strict laws and surveillance to stop the research misconduct and foster research integrity in India.
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So how about giving more importance to performance, for both, projects and faculty member’s selection?
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good one anil..
from your question lines… “worthless projects” and “output” are the two most important..
Everybody wants to get a permanent govt job, sit for life and do nothing..
And now lods of money coming in.. but they don’t know what to do with this..
anyways.. you can have some light moments.. in Jaspal Bhatti’s Flop Show.. a story of a “Professor” and a “PhD Student” ..
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Ministry of Science should think to establish a “research integrity office” like ORI in United States. This kind of office can play a major role in inducing honesty and sincerity among researchers by organizing workshops and other events. Surveillance of research misconduct is also necessary and strict laws should be formulated to take strict action. New projects from any funding organization in the country must seek clearance for novelty, worth, output and budget from this office. This kind of office is the need of the hour to improve the scientific system in India. You also can give suggestions about the roles this kind of ‘research integrity office’ can play to strengthen the science in the country
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