Varsity depts score low on publications

An analysis of faculty publications of Mumbai University from 2005-06 to 2010-11 shows that few departments have made significant contributions.

While publications in peer reviewed journals are an important indicator globally of how a university is performing in terms of research and development,an analysis of faculty publications of Mumbai University from 2005-06 to 2010-11 shows that few departments have made significant contributions. Though the Right to Information (RTI) query on the list of faculty publications in peer reviewed national and international journals was filed in August 2011,data on some departments are still not available as the university is yet to furnish information on the same.

According to information obtained under the RTI Act,some departments,including Linguistics,Arabic,Lifelong Learning and Extension,and Information Technology,have zero publications over the six academic years,and other departments like Russian (4),Biotechnology (5),Music (1),French (4) and Library & Information Science (6) have a poor record. Further,there are several departments with publications ranging from 13 to 30.

The authorities at Garware Institute of Career Development and Education said there was no permanent faculty member at the institute with publications in national/ international journals. While the Marathi department said their papers are published in regional journals,they said they had no information on national/international review platform.

Publications are also considered an important metric as the world rankings of universities are arrived at by assessing various parameters. In the top 200 QS Asian university ranking for 2011,universities in Maharashtra had put up a dismal show,with Mumbai University slipping 49 places. It was ranked 145 in 2011 as compared to 96 in 2010 and 130 in 2009.

The departments which have made the most contribution in terms of numbers over the six academic years under consideration are departments of Economics with 102 publications,Life Sciences with 141,Sociology with 67 and Physics with 96 publications. Similarly,while department of Sanskrit recorded 63 publications,it was 65 for department of English.

Only some departments have their work published in peer reviewed international journals. These include departments of Applied Psychology & Counselling Centre (7),Statistics (11),Life Sciences (83),German (16),Biophysics (7),English (13),Russian (2),Economics (53),Computer Science (19),Sociology (8),Biotechnology (2),Physics (79) and Maths (16).

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Varsity depts score low on publications

An analysis of faculty publications of Mumbai University from 2005-06 to 2010-11 shows that few departments have made significant contributions.

An analysis of faculty publications of Mumbai University from 2005-06 to 2010-11 shows that few departments have made significant contributions.