Lok Sabha Question No. 4359 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2018-03-21
Subject: CSIR Assistance to Publish Findings in International Journals
Ministry: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: VIJAYSINH MOHITE PATIL, RAJEEV SHANKARRAO SATAV, JAYAKUMAR JAYAVARDHAN, P.R. SUNDARAM, SUPRIYA SADANAND SULE

## DEPARTMENT OF SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY LOK SABHA

UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 4359 (TO BE ANSWERED ON 21.03.2018)

## CSIR ASSISTANCE TO PUBLISH FINDINGS IN INTERNATIONAL JOURNALS

## 4359.   SHRI MOHITE PATIL VIJAYSINH SHANKARRAO:

SHRI SATAV RAJEEV:

DR. J. JAYAVARDHAN:

SHRI P.R. SUNDARAM:

SHRIMATI SUPRIYA SULE:

Will the Minister of SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the  Council  of  Scientific  and  Industrial  Research  (CSIR) provides assistance to scientists working in its institutions to publish their findings in reputed International Science Journals;
- (b) if  so,  the  details  thereof  along  with  the  number  of  papers  published during the last three years and the current year;
- (c) the  quantum  of  financial  assistance  provided  to  scientists  for  this purpose;
- (d) whether Government has found that some papers have fake data in the manuscript presented by scientists;
- (e) if so, whether the Government/ CSIR has conducted any investigation in the matter along with the action taken against the erring scientists;
- (f) whether the Government has constituted any authority to examine the authenticity of the data in research paper in random manner and if so, the details thereof; and
- (g) the other steps taken by the Government for preventing the recurrence of such instances?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND EARTH SCIENCES (DR. HARSH VARDHAN)

- (a), (b) & (c) Madam, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) encourages scientists working in its laboratories/ institutions to carry our  Research  &  Development  in  identified  areas  and  publish  their research  findings  in  scholarly  journals.  CSIR  provides  infrastructural, technical, administrative as well as financial support to carry out the research and publish the original research work.

The number of publications by CSIR laboratories over the years 2014 to 2017 is as follows:

| Year                                                  |   2014 |   2015 |   2016 |   2017 |
|-------------------------------------------------------|--------|--------|--------|--------|
| Papers Published in national & international journals |   5824 |   5776 |   5549 |   5350 |

- (d) CSIR is in cognizance of a couple of instances of malpractices related to research publications at its laboratories.
- (e) The concerned CSIR laboratories, CSIR-Institute of Microbial Technology (CSIR-IMTECH), Chandigarh and CSIR-Centre for Cellular & Molecular  Biology  (CSIR-CCMB),  Hyderabad  have  conducted  detailed investigations  in  the  aforementioned  matters.  The  services  of  the concerned scientists in these laboratories have been terminated.
- (f) CSIR  laboratories  have  institutional  mechanisms  in  place  to  enable strong and open scientific culture to pursue R&D and adopt check for plagiarism in publications using available software e.g. CSIR-IMTECH, Chandigarh  has  constituted  an  Ombudsman  Authority  to  randomly check the authenticity of the data in research papers before they are published by its scientists.
- (g) CSIR has formed a Committee of its three senior Directors to look into ethical  issues  on  scientific  culture  in  CSIR  and  present  a  course  of action to prevent such incidences in future.

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