Monday 20 December 2021

Three Year Academic/Scientific Challenge

Here's a Three Year Challenge for the Indian Academic and Scientific Community:

Our country is in its 75th year of independence. That's a pretty long time since attaining independence from foreign rule.

Yet, we don't have a single journal, not even one, in which members of our country's academic and scientific community publish their research with a sense of respect. It is still considered prestigious to publish one's research in foreign journals while publishing in our own journals can actually count against an academic / scientist.

This is pathetic :).

I think this needs to change. With the highest levels of review rigor and practices such as "Double Blind" [both the author(s) and reviewers kept from knowing each other's identity], we need to start publishing our best work confidently in our own journals and invite the global community to do the same.

To elaborate further:

The Americans have their own journals (eg. American Society of Mechanical Engineers / American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics / Etc.) which are open to the global community. The Britishers have their own journals which are open to the global community. 

We too have our own journals : the difference is we ourselves don't respect our own journals, we ourselves don't publish our best work in them, the global community publishing their work in our journals thus stays a long shot away.

Here's a challenge I place before our country's academic and scientific community:

From 01/01/2022 - 01/01/2025: Over this three year period let us consolidate one Indian journal in each field in which we are committed to publishing our own best work - and invite the global academic / scientific community for publishing their research in these journals as well.

We don't need to call these journals "International". They will be international in scope automatically as long as we keep the standards high enough for the global community to want to publish their work in them (see the examples of American journals above again). We can emphasize our identity by calling them "Indian":

Indian Journal of Mechanical Engineering

Indian Journal of Philosophy

Indian Journal of Surgery

Indian Journal of Mathematics

.

.

Can this challenge be accepted :)?

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