Fair and responsible research evaluation in India

Abstract

The rapid expansion of the higher education sector in India and the increasing emphasis on its global competitiveness have placed growing importance on the assessment of the academic accomplishments of individuals and institutions. The historical peer judgement for assessing the quality of research output is now often replaced by quantitative metrics-based evaluation. Reliance on the Journal Impact Factor (JIF), number of research publications, and citation counts as proxies for assessing the research quality of individuals and institutions during the past few decades has promoted unethical acts under the pressure of ‘publish or perish’. Favouring journal-based quantitative metrics across the entire academic lifecycle in India is adversely impacting faculty recruitment and promotions, doctoral evaluations, funding decisions, awards and recognitions. Quantitative parameter-dependent institutional rankings like Times Higher Education, QS World University Rankings, or India’s National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) have further compounded the negative impact.