Tezpur University along with University Grants Commission (UGC) co-hosted a ‘Research Integrity Awareness Workshop’ at the Council Hall of the University on Monday.
“UGC has set up a Consortium for Academic and Research Ethics (CARE) to continuously monitor and identify quality journals across disciplines,” Dr Archna Thakur, joint secretary, UGC said while addressing the gathering.
She said this has been doneso that predatory/ dubious/deceptive journals are eliminated and standard is maintained in journal publications.
It is worth mentioning that to facilitate submission of new journals; the UGC has identified four regional universities as CARE universities and in eastern region, Tezpur University is given the responsibility to submit the CARE journals.
“Credibility of research publications are utmost important because plagiarized/dubious research works bring down our national image,”, Dr. Thakur said.
“If you take care of CARE (Consortium for Academic and Research Ethics), CARE will take care of us,” she further added.
Prof S K Srivastava, vice chancellor, NEHU, Shillong, while delivering the opening address emphasized on having internal checks and balance within the higher educational institutions so that ethical practices are followed.
“There is a tendency with young researchers that if their research work is not published in quality journals, they settle for low standard journals, which discredits their work,” he said.
Instead of opting for poor quality journals, they need to improve their work, Prof Srivastava said.
Speaking on the occasion, Prof S K Ghosh, vice chancellor of Kalyani University defined the meaning of integrity and advised the younger generation to be honest while doing academic research.
Deliberating on the topic ‘Providing responsible academic leadership for research integrity’, Prof D K Bhattacharya, dean, academic affairs & nodal officer, UGC CARE, East Zone, Tezpur University advocated for honesty and fairness in research.
“Institutions are built by reputation and it takes years to build that reputation,” he said.
Besides Dr Thakur and Prof Srivastava, Dr Kiran Hazarika, member, UGC and principal, Tengakhat College delivered a lecture on the topic ‘NER in the wider context of research integrity awareness”.
Dr Shubhada Nagarkar, assistant professor, Department of Library Science & Information; and Savitribai Phule from Pune University spoke of ‘UGC-CARE List and Research Matrices’.