We offer the following training programmes in India and other countries.
1. Scientific and Research Writing
The research landscape becomes more complex, and the text of research publications contains a higher density of information. Publishing a complex paper is not straightforward; it involves processing extensive data and multi-stage performance evaluation. Creating powerful, meaningful, semantically rich, and conceptually sound writing is challenging in the academic and research world. Peer-reviewed high-level journals reject many papers.
There is widespread discussion in the academic environment about research quality. Concepts such as ‘reviewed research’ and ‘reviewed publications’ are gaining momentum. Only reviewed and indexed research pieces qualify for universities' ratings.
The performance and standing of institutions are measured in terms of the number of reviewed and indexed research papers in global databases. Thus, it is essential to bring many ‘reviewed’ research papers from Indian institutions. High-quality publication output is necessary to maintain a good ranking and foster a high-level scholarly environment in the country. Publications reflect the character of innovative research and are used as a yardstick to measure the research contributions and impact of research on individuals, institutions, or nations. Agencies and institutions practically use the impact of research publications in deciding on funding, tenure, promotion, and other related activities.
Publications are practically used as an indicator to measure the quantity of research output. The publications indexed in databases such as Scopus and Clarivate Analytics are considered global-level publications. A large number of Indian papers are not accepted in ranked journals, as many researchers do not gain an understanding of how to produce better content. Publishing papers in peer-reviewed and internationally indexed journals is increasingly essential, as it enhances researchers' visibility, acceptance, and academic profile. This is also crucial for the ranking of institutions. There is a need to understand the following processes.
- The ways of producing good research and writing eminent papers
- Gain exposure to creating new approaches and solving research problems
- Understanding the ingredients of a good paper
- The characteristics of good scientific reporting
- The approaches to learning good model
- The content of good research, good review and revision
These issues can be explained to Indian academic researchers, particularly the young ones. Focusing the researchers on such topics will be possible by orienting them in training sessions. A training workshop can be a mode to carry out this plan. The following themes will be more purposeful.
- How to produce qualitative research publications?
- How do you reflect on the research carried out through the publication?
- What are the measures for research impact?
- What is the best way to disseminate research?
- How to structure the research publication?
- How to assess the reviewed publication?
- What is indexed research?
- How to produce an error-free write-up?
- How do you integrate the research into global review and indexing?
- How do you increase the research publication quality and record high research productivity?
The programme will also address issues such as information access patterns, research collaboration, strategies for generating good research, and research quality improvement in India.
This programme will enable the researchers to understand the publication process and participate in the global research network. The programme will discuss how to optimise research publication activities, the structure of research publications, the review and indexing process, methods for generating high-quality publications, and the demonstration of global indexing databases, research networks, and other citation and evaluation metrics. The programme will feature presentations by NRI scientists, illustrations, and discussions. The programme will also feature an exclusive session with interaction and discussions on ‘academic profiling, research publications, and citation metrics’.
This programme is NOT theoretical. We will add live examples of how papers are accepted and why papers are rejected. We will show and discuss some rejected papers.
Recent advances in paper sequence prediction with large language models have revolutionized various domains. AI tools, LL models, and data analytics on large volumes of data, along with infographics, data visualization, podcasts, and animation, provide efficient ways to write papers. AI tools are not just aids but active generators of research work and papers.
Artificial intelligence (AI) profoundly influences natural language processing and writing, particularly in academic and research settings. Young people often post queries in ChatGPT and receive answers. Instead of wandering through the mass of information-rich content, they extract information from a controlled-size synthetic content. Mechanisms are available to help students and faculty write content using AI tools that distract people from their reading habits. A few AI tools help to shape, rewrite and restructure the content. When people get it quickly without any effort, they resort to using it. It holds good, particularly for young generations.
While integrating AI into academic and research writing is inevitable and necessary, it should not overshadow the intellectual capabilities of students and faculties. Instead of overly relying on AI, we should learn to use it mindfully, wisely, and ethically. This ensures that our unique skills and knowledge continue to be the driving force in academic and research writing.
The proposed programme will discuss effective academic writing and mechanisms (Other than AI tools) available to help. At the same time, it will discuss the permissible AI tools and the scope of their use. GenAI synthesises data, inferences, and results to infer but fails to synthesise ideas and concepts.
Negative impact of AI on research publications
Plagiarism, a primary concern in the academic and research world, has been overshadowed by the increasing role of AI in the research process. From literature reviews to complex data analyses, AI has become a defining factor. However, this also means that AI is leading to the production of fabricated data, methods, and results. Most scientific papers are now generated by AI tools, posing a significant challenge to the academic community. These AI-generated papers are passing the review process by concealing their fabricated content. The need for AI detection tools to reveal this deception is more pressing than ever.
How can AI-generated text be overcome by infiltrating academic literature? How can synthetic data and writing be detected? These are the questions we must grapple with as we navigate the responsible use of AI in science. The decisions we make now will shape the future of research and publication.
There are enormous ways, from manual to automatic, to signal text traces. This workshop promotes the responsible and sensible use of AI.
This training workshop aims to enhance the scientific efficiency of researchers by improving their presentation and writing skills.
Writing and preparing a proposal for project funding differs from other practices. For example, writing a research paper differs considerably from the project proposal. We guide the participants to prepare effective and attractive project proposals in this programme.
3. Effective exploitation of web content and global research networksWeb, if properly used can serve as a resource as well as a tool. Many of us while navigating the web, land in a wrong direction. Thus, people suffer from 'cyber syndrome'. We provide the model or system to navigate perfectly and exploit the web content in an ideal way.
4. Scientific DatabasesDatabases can be open or propriety and structured or unstructured. We in this programme, train to develop structured databases and organize the database by drawing data from heterogeneous sources. We offer complete training about research data management practices. It includes search, access, use, draw, collect, store, archive, update, and retrieve data repositories across domains and sources.
5. Converting Theses and Dissertations to Journal Articles
Any institution that offers a master's program has many PG dissertations, which are mandatory to obtain a master's degree. Once the master's degree is approved, these dissertation copies are kept internally in the institution's libraries and never reach wider audiences. Only a small percentage of the dissertations are converted or modified into journal articles.
Most academic publishers do not consider theses or dissertations as formal publications. These are published at the institutional level only for internal scrutiny and little circulation among fellow scholars.
If they are converted into journal articles, they will be peer-reviewed by experts and validated by them. This journal publication adds to the authors' scholarly profile, helps promote academic positions, promotes the institution's visibility, and enables research funding. The journal articles reach a large no of scholars and scientists. This process ensures a good return for the investment of effort, time, and money of the PG dissertation producers.
Dissertation conversion to journal articles is a complex process, but it is possible.
There are differences between journal articles and dissertations. Dissertations are lengthy and usually reviewed by two experts only before awarding degrees. They are lengthy reviews that offer detailed descriptions, and their content level is expected to be comparable to that of scholarly scientific papers.
On the other hand, journals offer significant findings, maintain content standards and undergo a strict review process. Converting the dissertations to journal articles is more than just a copy and summarization work. It involves reducing wordiness, enhancing writing style, incorporating new references, referencing high-impact articles, eliminating duplicate findings, and ensuring novelty in approach and content. Typically, the dissertation authors, after completing their degrees, do not show any interest in converting them into journal publications.
Some external experts can only do this process.
If you are interested in organizing this training workshop, please write to us at service at dirf.org
For additional information and details about the programme, you can contact us.
service at dirf.org