Alarming rise of scientific misconduct recorded in India | Data Premium

?India recently became third-largest producer of scientific articles, but the number of retractions has risen dramatically, mainly for misconduct. Charts show a drop in quality, and how engineering accounts for 48% of all cases of retractions. A survey suggests university ranking parameters, unethical researchers & minimal action when an allegation is reported are factors. Urgent action needed to scrutinise research malpractice in Indian academia.

Chart 1(a) | The chart shows the number of publications over time for five countries. India recently became the third-largest producer of scientific articles in the world

Chart appears incomplete? Click to remove AMP mode

On the surface, Indian research has never been better. India recently became the third-largest producer of scientific articles in the world (Chart 1(a)), a notable achievement for the world’s fifth-largest economy. 

Chart 1(b) | The chart shows the number of retractions over time for five countries. Graphs are in multi-scales: China (X20), India (X5) and the U.S. (X5).

But behind the barrage of research papers lies a telling statistic that should be a considerable cause for concern to Indian academia: the number of retractions (Chart 1(b)). Published papers are retracted when they are found to have mistakes, and retractions remove them from the scientific literature. In many instances, papers are also retracted when they are found to contain data or claims produced as a result of misconduct. Historically, a very small fraction of scientific misconduct has been caught.

Click to subscribe to our Data newsletter

As such, retractions are the tip of the misconduct iceberg. The Retraction Watch database lists 109 reasons for which papers have been retracted. For simplicity, the reasons can be grouped into three categories: grave reasons (constituting serious breach of academic and scientific integrity), including criminal proceedings, hoax papers, and plagiarism; misconduct (wherein the author knowingly indulged in misconduct), including civil proceedings, conflict of interest, and manipulation of results using computer-generated content; and errors (errors in the article, which can also indicate hasty publication), including concerns/error in data, images, results, etc., requiring correction.