At least in the past few decades, most of our higher education institutions have been vying with one another in producing a good number of research papers to improve their global ranking and increase their market value in society. The scholars with considerable number of publications in SCOPUS-indexed journals or Web of Sciences or any other similar journals are in great demand, and they are offered highly competitive salary packages.
The result of this influence is that many academics of different fields right now have started spending their valuable time in producing the so-called ‘research papers’ and getting them published in ‘whatever way possible’ in order to retain the position that they are in or to get promoted to higher ranks with a better salary. There is no doubt at least on the face of it that this culture has a lot of positive elements and this is expected to improve the quality of education. But the sad reality is that in the process of getting the papers published, we tend to lose certain values which are so integral to our research practices, teaching profession and education in general.
The pressure on the academics today is unimaginable. Those in the field of teaching in universities or colleges have to publish at least one or two research papers to be considered a contributing member to the system that has offered them employment. In this pressure, at least some academics slowly lose their interest in meaningful research and responsible teaching, and they understandably and unfortunately resort to getting help from ‘whatever source available’ and ‘in whatever ways possible’ to get their research papers readied, and getting them published. The ethical angle involved in the process of research publication has been totally forgotten and thrown to the wind thanks to the circus of rewards and recognition which is connected to the so-called productive research. Many results are fabricated to suit the ‘prescribed standards’ set by the market forces. The frequency with which the research scholars fabricate and falsify the data and engage in misconduct is a matter of serious concern today than ever before. Many areas wherein serious research has to be done today are ignored as there is no demand or market value for it.
There are several reasons why we do research. No doubt, academic recognition is just one aspect of it. But, we also need to encourage research from the point of view of social responsibility and cultural sensitivity. Research has to be essentially a self-expression and within which social interest and academic interest should intersect and intertwine harmoniously. But, the culture of rewards and recognition or the culture of publish or perish takes away the real pleasure and purpose of research. Also, it is to be noted that there is an alarming level of gap that develops increasingly between academic creativity and quality research. Academics don’t seem to have time to be creative as they can’t afford to be creative now. The data-driven research, which is believed to be an evidence-based one and hailed as a productive research of ‘great standards’, does also have its own limitations. And the shameful cycle of self-citation that has been reported these days among some academics and institutions too bring to us the disturbing question: What do we intend to achieve through our academic research?
Again, sadly, not enough number of academics engage in publishing books as the books are ‘not counted’ equal to the level of research papers published in the indexed journals. In this complex and depressing context, the precious energy and talents of the academic community are getting consumed by market forces. It is high time that we thought seriously about this and adopted more sensible research policies and practices to see that our academic originality, creativity and innovation are connected more to the values of our social responsibility.
sat.ansari@yahoo.com
