Dear All, After reading the posting of Dr. Asundi on 8th March 2013 (Replies to case of Plagiarism and other observations) as a young professional, I had some immediate reaction to express on the prospective of LIS profession in India. But I controlled my feelings and analyzed the changes in profession over the decade after the strong worded editorial of Dr. Abhijit Lahari (http://itt.nissat.tripod.com/itt0201/edtl0201.htm). I rarely attend conferences/seminars but from the mail of Dr. Asundi and subsequent mails, it was obvious that little good has happened in the profession. So I had refrained myself from posting in the forum remembering the words of my beloved ex-teacher late Dr. T.B. Rajashekar, Indian Institute of Science (NSCI) that 'Do more with deeds than words'. But today after reading an article in the journal, International Journal of Advanced Library and Information Science (Open Access), 1(1); 2013, 12pp. (http://scientific.cloud-journals.com/index.php/IJALIS/article/view/Sci-70) which gives wrong data about my serving institute, I could not refrain from posting this mail. In the article, the author's carelessness makes his work null and void and exhibits how casual he/she is. Following are some examples: 1. The number of articles mentioned under methodology is 1423 in Current Science volume 90 to 99 (2006-2010) but the different tables show they are 1698. 2. Under sub-heading "Institution Wise productivity (5.1.8)", the table shows that the articles published by institutes; NIO-323, NGRI-268, PRL-242, BARC-218, IARI-183 (research institutes) and others 369. This is false and contradicting the previous section 5.1.6 where it is mentioned 449 articles for research institutions (26.44%). I strongly object to the false information provided for my institute, National Institute of Oceanography (CSIR). My institute has published only 93 articles during the mentioned period and not 323 articles in Current Science.
From the above article, it is clear that how seriously the research is carried out in the profession. The journal is an open access journal and its standard can be judged from this paper. I am not surprised to see the author as Senior Editor. I am a strong supporter of Open Access movement but it is annoying to see these predator publishers who are corrupting open access (http://www.nature.com/news/predatory-publishers-are-corrupting-open-access- 1.11385).
To increase the length of the bio-data and API scoring, there is a competition among the professionals. They increase the number of publications compromising the quality and ethics. I feel sorry for those professionals, who are dedicatedly doing quality research and publish very few articles. Thanking you With regards Satya -------------------------------------------- Satya Ranjan Sahu Scientist National Information Centre for Marine Sciences (Library) CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography (CSIR-NIO) Dona Paula, Goa - 403 004 ----------------------------------------------------- -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.