Heads of affiliated colleges on Saturday expressed concern over the perceived setback caused to research activities due to rejection of articles of research scholars by Bharathidasan University despite being published by approved journals, during the meeting of the Senate.
Bharathidasan University has advocated publication of articles in the journals listed in UGC Care List, Scopus and Web of Science. While the University maintained that the journals were rejected on the basis of constant updation of the list of journals by the University Grants Commission, the principals questioned the rationale behind the approach of the Research Directorate to reject the articles at the time of submission of synopsis, in the event of the journal having been removed later on from the list.
"Articles published in the journals ought to be accepted on the basis of publication at the time of listing by UGC, and not the time of submission, since the trend of removal of hitherto accepted journals from the list within gaps of months is commonplace. It is unfair to subject research scholars to difficulty despite there being no shortcoming on their part," S. Ismail Mohideen, Principal of Jamal Mohammed College, said.
Other universities were racing ahead in research activities, by fulfilling the general requirement for researchers to get one research article published in any of the UGC-approved peer-reviewed journals and getting two other papers published in conferences, Prof. Ismail Mohideen informed.
The issue was discussed at length during the meeting, and heads of other institutions also recorded their disappointment over the difficulties caused to the research scholars. In the scenario of thrust being accorded for inter-disciplinary research, the emphasis on article-journal convergence of the focus area of research was out of place, a member sought to explain.
While K. Saravanan, Principal, Mass College of Arts and Science, Kumbakonam, urged the university to conduct seminar/ workshop on UGC approved journal to remove the confusion, P. Nagalakshmi, Associate Professor, Holy Cross College (Autonomous), called upon the university to identify and publish the list of UGC approved journals in Arts and Sciences. It would be highly appreciable if the University starts UGC-approved in-house journals.
Research scholars would find the going easy too get their articles published in these journals and can avoid last-minute disappointments, Ms. Nagalakshmi pointed out.
Vice-Chancellor M. Selvam said the grievances of the Senate members would be redressed in right earnest.
In response to the demand raised by the members for appointment of a full-time Research Director, it was made known at the meeting that the Syndicate had approved the proposal for filling the post with on a full-time basis at its meeting last month.
