India’s scientific integrity at risk, warns Majumder

Renowned geneticist Partha P. Majumder warns India's scientific community about the growing concerns of inadequate rigour and ethics in research.

Renowned geneticist and founding director of the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics Partha P. Majumder has cautioned India’s scientific community about the growing concerns of inadequate rigour and ethics in research.

Inaugurating the 62nd State conference of the Kerala Sasthra Sahitya Parishad (KSSP) at Lead College of Management, Dhoni, on Friday, Dr. Majumder warned that compromising scientific rigour and values could have disastrous consequences. He stressed the need for corrective measures.

Dr. Majumder pointed out the increasing rate of retraction of scientific papers as an index to the lack of rigour and ethics in research. “The proportion retraction of scientific papers in India is more than that in the U.S. It is a major cause for concern,” he said.

Dr. Majumder said the proliferation of predatory journals, plagiarism, data fabrication and falsification were key factors compromising the rigour and ethics in scientific research.

“Plagiarism constitutes 27% for lack of quality in biomedical research. While data falsification and fabrication make up for 27.5%, duplicate publication constitutes 21%,” he said, warning that lack of quality was increasingly becoming a major problem of science research in India.

“In many cases, emphasis is on the number of publications rather than quality. Impact fact, H-index and NIRF ranking are all contributing elements,” he said.

Dr. Majumder said that huge emphasis was being given on the number of publications in NIRF ranking. “There is no emphasis on quality, and no penalty for retractions,” he said. “Institutions are keeping quiet. In fact, all this non-ethical practices are done with the tacit approval of the institutions,” he said.