AsianScientist (Jan. 28, 2014) – Sometime in late 2012, I filled out application forms for faculty positions at a few Indian universities. As one would expect, each of the forms had a section with the title “Publications” under which, of course, there were other separate categories. What caught my attention was that along with “Books” and “Book chapters,” there were two separate sections listed as “National journals” and “International journals.”
Making a distinction between publications in national and international journals is perhaps not unique to India; I am quite certain that universities in some other countries do the same. In any event, I had forgotten all about the matter until recently when I received an email announcing the launch of a new international journal and inviting me to contribute to it. The email was from a fake “international” journal. I decided that since I had already written on the growing menace of such journals in India, it was perhaps time to write about the two distinct categories of “National” and “International” journals. The larger issue, however, is about where India’s higher education is headed in terms of the quality of research and publications by its faculty and what can be done about current shortcomings.
As a rule, the faculty and administration at Indian universities consider international journals to be superior to national journals. Publications in international journals are more appreciated than those in national journals and faculty members who publish in the former are more likely to (and do) earn promotions sooner than those who do not.
The questions that immediately come to mind are the following: Is it right to consider international journals as more prestigious than Indian ones? Are university officials doing right by promoting those who publish in international journals sooner than those who do not?
The idea behind favoring international journals is that their selection process is rigorous and fair to the extent possible. As a result, they attract research articles from competent researchers around the world and tend to be read more widely than national journals.
While a few Indian journals are quite prestigious and well-known outside India, a majority of them are no more than cheap pamphlets in their content. However, there is still a big problem in treating all Indian journals as inferior – it rewards faculty for publishing in obscure international journals or even fake journals and downplays the accomplishments of academics publishing in worthy Indian journals. Furthermore, there is no consensus on which journals should count as “international” journals. Neither university officials nor the faculty seem to agree on the specifics.
What exactly is an “international” journal?
There are several different ways in which an “international” journal is categorized as such in India. Read on but keep in mind that this is no laughing matter. Faculty members are denied or granted promotion on the basis of their publications in international journals. For the most part, the faculty at the best Indian institutions is not affected. Still, there are several prestigious colleges and universities and lesser institutions where faculty members who publish in fake or inferior international journals are rewarded for their efforts over those who publish in good national journals.
In broad terms, I could identify four criteria that Indian academics and officials use or suggest as relevant for categorizing a journal as “international.”
According to an acquaintance who is also a senior faculty member at a fairly prestigious institution, an international journal is one, which has the “international” label. I was astounded when I heard him say that because most dubious journals that seem to be omnipresent these days bear the “international” label. When I pointed this out, his response was that he was only repeating the views of his colleagues.
However, while perusing through the contents of a few fake journals, I found countless contributions by faculty members from obscure as well as from some well-known Indian institutions. Clearly, many faculty members publish in these journals because they know others who have already benefited from the exercise and hope to replicate their success. Of course, the acquaintance I mentioned above has published more than one article in these journals, including a couple with his doctoral students!
I also heard talk that an “international” journal is one which is published abroad. In fact, I remember the following title under “Publications” on one of the application forms for faculty recruitment: “Indian journals/journals published in India.” When I asked around whether a journal published in Nepal or Iran would count as “international,” the response I got was that only journals published in Western countries could count as “international.”
On further prodding about whether a journal published in South Korea or Japan would be considered as “international,” the answer was “yes.” Clearly, there is a problem here. In general, there is widespread confusion about the geographical origins of an “international” journal. The label was considered appropriate only for journals published in Western and/or “developed” countries.
Now, a few well-known publishers such as Sage also publish from India. Under the present scheme, an article in a Sage journal published in the US would be considered more prestigious than one in a Sage journal published in India. That is, I would be well-advised to publish in Higher Education (Newbury Park) rather than in Higher Ed (New Delhi) (both fictitious journals) even if the latter was more widely read and considered more prestigious among people in the discipline.
An international journal, I was also told, is one that has an international editorial board. There were more specific views as well. I recall someone saying that at least half the editorial board must consist of faculty at foreign universities. Another view was that even if the editorial board had even one faculty member from abroad, that journal could be labeled “international.” Finally, I also heard that a majority of editorial board members had to be foreigners, not Indians, irrespective of their institutional affiliation. Interestingly, many fake journals would qualify as “international” journals since some of them have a truly global editorial board.
Finally, I heard from some sources that an “international” journal was one which attracted contributors from abroad. However, there was disagreement over how many total contributors per year (or even per issue) had to be from abroad – whether 10 percent of the total or 20 percent or at least one foreign contributor per issue of the journal. In any event, once again, many fake journals would qualify as “international” because their contributors are from all over the world.
The wholly unnecessary debates and disagreements about which journals should count as “international” is a symptom of the larger challenges in India’s higher education sector regarding the quantity and quality of research. Until the 1990s, faculty members at India’s universities, and even those at designated research centers and prestigious teaching-cum-research institutions such as the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), were under no great pressure to publish.
Publish or perish
However, after the Indian government began to insist on greater research output for promotions and other advancements, faculty members across the country realized that they had no choice but to publish. They included faculty in colleges and universities who were not trained for, interested in or required to do research earlier.
Everyone began to look for ways to pad up their research profiles and since publishing in “international” journals was considered more prestigious than in national journals, many tried to find easy ways to publish in the former. Some took the path of plagiarism; others the equally unethical route of publishing in fake journals. More than a few cases of plagiarism and similar transgressions by Indian academics have surfaced since the 2000s.
Given the size and complexity of India’s higher education sector, a new set of rules and guidelines on research and publications may not go very far in resolving the “what is an international journal?” conundrum or other related issues. Ingenious ways can be found to circumvent any set of new guidelines and requirements.
It may help, however, if the University Grants Commission (UGC) – which is responsible for preparing and updating appropriate guidelines and rules for the coordination, determination and maintenance of higher education in India – and/or other bodies identify and limit a select number of Indian institutions, perhaps one-third or half of the total, as primarily responsible for research.
Faculty members at these institutions would still be required to teach but their teaching responsibilities would be less than before. At the same time, faculty members at designated “teaching” institutions would be relieved of the burden of research; this would, I believe, substantially reduce their urge to publish something somewhere somehow.
Alternately, faculty at all higher education institutions could be asked (perhaps every three years) to self-identify themselves either as “teaching-focused” or “research-focused.” The former would have no obligation to do research and publish; the latter would be expected to teach a fewer number of courses than teaching-focused faculty and contribute to research and publishing.
Either of these two methods or some combination thereof could possibly work in India but only if the government continues its practice of making no distinction between the teaching and research faculty (or between the faculty at teaching institutions and research institutions) in terms of salaries and other benefits. Any discrimination against either would destroy the arrangement.
Finally, research-focused faculty members would be required to adhere to the highest ethical standards in terms of their research (and, of course, this principle would have to be applied to teaching faculty in a different way). Any publication in fake journals, for example, would be considered a major violation and punished severely. Similarly, anyone guilty of plagiarism would have to be suitably penalized.
In the current framework, a fairly large number of Indian academics are engaged in a mad rush to publish without any consideration of ethics or quality. Much of what counts as “research output” is not research at all. This has to stop. Doing nothing is not going to do it.
——
Copyright: Asian Scientist Magazine; Photo: Ashok666/Flickr/CC.
Disclaimer: This article does not necessarily reflect the views of AsianScientist or its staff.
