The National Academy of Sciences,India,(NASI) has decided to give the young researchers an insight into how to write their papers so that their work gets the due attention. The move comes in the backdrop of a trend of the past few years,which suggests the researchers were often sourcing their original works from the Internet and doing a copy-paste job. As NASI decided to rein-in such researchers,the number of the research papers passing the muster came down drastically as a result of which the Academys monthly journal on research papers - National Academy Science Letters - had to be turned into a bi-monthly publication nearly 18 months ago. Prior to that,the journal had regularly been published as a monthly ever since the inception of NASI in 1930. The first workshop for young researchers,where they would be taught the techniques of writing a research paper,would be held by the Varanasi chapter of NASI on June 10-11. More than 30 to 40 researchers are expected to take part. Earlier,at a top-level meeting of the NASI in April,a concern was expressed over young researchers not being able to write their papers properly,despite the institute giving them a list of instructions on the topic. The idea behind such workshops is to ensure the rejection does not increase to a level,where any researcher entering into the fray feels less confident. Research is as much about the concept and the ground-breaking use of knowledge as it is about being able to communicate the importance of the work. Wrongly presented papers can severely damage even genuine good work, said deputy executive secretary (NASI),A K Srivastava. The practice of loosely written papers seems to have had its genesis in the trend of sourcing information from the Internet. In the last three-four years,a lot of research being claimed as original was found to have elements of plagiarism, said Srivastava. The practice of loosely written papers seems to have had its genesis in the trend of sourcing information from the Internet. In the last three to four years,a lot of research work being claimed as original was found to have elements of plagiarism, said Srivastava.
