The Quest for Quality: Addressing Research Publication Practices and the Role of Institutions

Most institutions focus on the quantity of research publications rather than the quality and strength of the article generators. Additionally, research visibility presents a significant challenge for both institutions and researchers. If you observe, people are more concerned with collaborating in multidisciplinary conferences rather than focusing on long-term research objectives. Nowadays, institutions prioritize organizing multidisciplinary conferences over subject-specific ones.

Role of Institutions

The truth is, as the sentence suggests, that multidisciplinary research is now published in bulk, often without strong objectives. When one focuses on a multidisciplinary approach, it reflects the potential of a group to envision research outcomes in terms of applications or products from those areas of study. However, my point is that institutions should encourage article generators to develop a research mindset that prioritizes research objectives, rather than blindly following trends. Articles are frequently retracted due to the post-review process, which many institutions and researchers don't knows.

Wrong Publication Practices and Their Harm

Due to this lack of focus, researchers are producing book chapters, conference proceedings, and journal articles, often with no unified research goal. When all else fails, some even resort to publishing abstract books to pad their records. This is an extreme distortion of research, especially when researchers flaunt citations from Google Scholar without considering more rigorous citation indices. The trading of citations has become prevalent, and even more disturbing, article generators are citing irrelevant articles, often from their own institution, to inflate metrics. If you ask your librarian to conduct a scientometric study of your university’s publications, you’ll uncover these practices within minutes. Why aren’t institutions taking this seriously?

Strengthen the Role of Librarians

A trained librarian can easily observe the network of researchers, institutions, departments, or research domains through scientometric analysis. Institutions need to pay more attention to librarians, who are skilled in far more than just managing books and periodicals. A librarian should be capable of analyzing research output, using technology to improve data visibility, and sharing bibliometric insights with department heads and institutional leaders. Institutions should empower librarians to conduct domain-specific research and present findings from the past 10 to 20 years to highlight emerging areas.

A troubling trend has emerged where early-stage PhD scholars are publishing review papers. I was initially shocked, wondering how they could write a review at such an early stage. Later, I realized they merely compile 15-20 articles from their domain, make a few tables listing authors and institutions, and call it a review. It’s disheartening to see that librarians conducting scientometric research for their own credit fail to share this knowledge with the concerned researchers or departments, or train them to avoid such practices. The problem lies not only with the article generators but also with the environment in which they are trained. With the right guidance, these scholars could produce meaningful, impactful research.

Conclusion: The Quest for Research Quality

Could we address this by involving librarians, sociologists, and psychologists when organizing academic events in education departments? Similarly, when computer science departments host events, why not invite open-source library managers or agricultural technology experts to explore collaboration opportunities? We must focus on genuine research problems and invest in human training. Institutions should connect with genuine researchers, not those promising quick fixes like boosting citations or research outputs artificially.

I've already mentioned that it takes mere minutes to analyze publication data and detect these issues. We must prioritize authenticity, use technology to advance humanity, and build systems that serve research, not degrade it. Constructing grand buildings is fine, but we must nurture the people who breathe life into them.