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I was a few days late in reading Arunn’s excellent post on plagiarism and shoddy scientific research, which I think is widely prevalent in our country.

My apologies Arunn. If I had read it earlier, I would have incorporated (not copied without credit :)) some of your ideas about Open Access into my previous post.

A tempering option is the “open source publications” and open peer reviews recently tried by Nature, the science journal of repute. A radical suggestion but nevertheless one to be considered seriously is to completely abolish the importance or degree of weight given to “papers published” in all of the promotion qualifications of an academic scientist. This suggestion is not to be construed as one trying to stop research itself. Importance for graduating research students and successfully finishing externally funded research projects can still exist and can serve as promotion criteria. But, if one is to publish one’s research done in the above situations, then it should be out of and only for one’s own personal interest.

I request readers (if any ;)) of my blog to read Arunn’s post and spread the word.

Arunn is too diplomatic and nice to name the ‘National Daily‘ that summarily rejected his submission. I’ve had similar experiences with the same Daily and two of our National Weeklies. Those experiences are part of the reasons for the existence of this blog. I wanted a place where I could publish my thoughts whether they be relevant or irrelevant, intelligent or nonsensical.

I guess by putting it up in his blog and asking interested readers to link to it and spread the word, Arunn is more likely to get his message across to people who need to read it rather than the general public.

Finally some questions to Arunn related to my previous post:

1. What is your opinion on making all scientific research ‘Open Access?’
2. Does the scientific research community in India approve of ‘Open Access?’
3. Does your institution have a mandatory self-archiving policy?
4. If No, Why not and What are you guys as faculty doing about it?
5. What is the prevalence of self-archiving in our country?
6. As a scientist who has his own personal website and blog, why don’t you self-archive your professional research work and allow it to be accessed by all?

I would like to hear your answers, either here or as a post in your blog.

N.B. The above questions are open to anyone doing any kind of research, including doctors participating in clinical research. Again your responses can be here or in your places. But I would appreciate it if you could link to this.