‘We need better research’ - The Hindu

"Enhancing research facility to match world standards and adopting systematic approach for conducting research projects will help India mark its presence in the world research map, said N.S. Harinarayana, associate professor, University of Mysore. He was speaking as the resource person at a workshop on Literature Review at SDM Institute for Management Development here recently. Dr. Harinarayana said quality research in India has become a scarce commodity. Quantitative measures are applied to measure the research output of institutions. Indian institutions are not listed in top-ranking institutes in the world, he said. Providing access to electronic journals, e-books and other open access resources will help increase quality in research, he suggested. I.R.N. Goudar, another resource person at the workshop, said there was a dire need to introduce Open Access resources to researchers. There is already a galaxy of open resources available in the form of 15,000 electronic journals through Directory of Open Access Journals (http://www.doaj.org); 20 lakh e-books in open digital libraries; and a huge number of electronic theses and dissertations. These resources can improve the accessibility of information to researchers and thus contribute positively to enhance the quality of research activity, he said. Sunil M.V., coordinator of the workshop, said there was a plethora of areas for research and the educational and research institutes have to take up the responsibility to identify pertinent areas for research and training. He said that lack of systematic training is one of the reasons for lagging behind in research activities in India.The two-day workshop was attended by researchers representing 65 institutions in south India."