Go Beyond Journals

 

Go Beyond Journals

In today’s world, where every research work competes for attention and impact, making your research visible is extremely important. Many early-stage researchers find research complicated because of terms like proper review of literature, its correct interpretation and analysis, as well as mentioning bibliographies, citation styles, Journal selection, and metrics like h-index or altmetrics, which can feel overwhelming. This changed for me after attending a 3-day training program on Maximizing Research Visibility for Agricultural Professionals at MANAGE Institute, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad on June18-20, 2025. The training truly made a difference for me. Many people see research writing as difficult, filled with strict formats, complex jargon, and tricky citation rules. 

This often becomes a barrier to effective knowledge sharing. But the training helped me to understand that research visibility not just necessary but also manageable as a researcher. The objective of the training was to enhance research competencies among agricultural science professionals by introducing tools and strategies to improve research visibility, integrity, and accessibility.

The first session, led by Dr. M. Murali Prasad, Librarian at ICSSR–CESS, focused on bibliographies and reference management. He explained why it is important to refere other’s research and how proper referencing adds credibility to our own work. There we learned how to cite other researcher’s work effectively using APA, Chicago, and MLA styles. We learned how to avoid common mistakes in referencing. We were also made aware of predatory journals and were guided on how to identify and avoid them.

Further, Dr. ARD Prasad, Former Head & Professor, DRTC- Indian Statistical Institute, Bengaluru taken session on ‘Open Access Ecosystem for Agricultural Research,’ where he introduced different Open Access (OA) publishing models, including Gold, Green, and Hybrid OA, which provide free and unrestricted online access to research outputs.

Gold OA involves publishing in a fully open access journal or a hybrid journal, where the publisher makes the article openly available, usually in exchange for an Article Processing Charge (APC). Green OA refers to self-archiving a version of the article in an institutional or subject-specific repository. Hybrid OA is used in subscription-based journals where journals allow authors to pay a fee to make individual articles freely available online (gold open access), while the rest of the journal content remains behind a paywall. It means that some articles in the same journal can be read by anyone for free, but others still need a subscription to access.  Further he commented on Creative Commons licenses, which are issued by copyright owners to allow others to use their work in specific ways. These licenses make it easier for researchers and creators to share their work while still keeping some rights. Creative Commons licenses allow creators to clearly define how their work can be used. For example:

CC BY- permits any use, including commercial, as long as credit is given.

CC BY-SA- allows reuse with credit, but any new work must be shared under the same license.

CC BY-ND- allows sharing without changes and with proper attribution.

CC BY-NC-permits non-commercial use, with credit to the original creator.

CC BY-NC-SA - allows non-commercial reuse, but new works must also follow the same license.

CC BY-NC-ND - is the most restrictive, it allows only sharing, without changes or commercial use, and with proper credit.

(Full form of these abbreviations is CC – Creative Commons; BY – Attribution; NC – Non Commercial; ND – No Derivatives; SA – Share Alike).

Understanding these licenses helped us realize how important it is to share work responsibly while respecting the rights of original creators.

In one of the subsequent sessions, Prof. Devika Madalli, Director, INFLIBNET, UGC-IUC, Gandhinagar, explained the strategic role of Information and Library Network (INFLIBNET) in improving research in India. We learned what INFLIBNET is and how it supports researchers. It is an autonomous Inter-University Centre of the University Grants Commission (UGC) in India. Its primary goal is to modernize libraries and information centres in universities and other higher education institutions. INFLIBNET facilitates the transfer and access of information to support academic work and research. It also plays a key role in supporting research visibility by helping researcher’s access academic resources and share knowledge effectively, especially in agricultural organizations. In the same session, we were also introduced to various research repositories, which are listed below.

Shodhganga: A digital repository of Indian Ph.D. theses and dissertations, maintained by INFLIBNET.

Shodhgangotri: here research scholars can submit approved Ph.D. research proposals/synopses

ShodhShuddhi: Plagiarism detection software like URKUND to ensure research quality and integrity.

ShodhSindhu: Provides access to e-resources and journals for higher education institutions in India.

IRINS: The Indian Research Information Network System, showcasing the academic profiles and research output of faculty.

Subsequently, Dr. N.P. Ravi Kumar, AP, S.G. (LIS), KM, Center, PJTSAU, Hyderabad, conducted a session focused on indexes used to measure the impact and visibility of a researcher’s work. He delved into various indexes including h-index which reflects both productivity and citation impact by counting the number of papers (h) that have received at least h citations each. The i10-index, commonly used by Google Scholar, counts the number of publications with at least 10 citations. 

We also learned about altmetrics (a non-traditional metrics), which track online attention from platforms like social media, news websites, and blogs. These metrics help show public engagement with research beyond traditional academic citations. The citation count shows the total number of times a researcher’s work has been cited by others. In addition to that we learned about Impact Factor (IF) of a journal, which measures the average number of citations to articles published in a journal over the last two years. 

I understood how these metrics work, what they indicate about a researcher's impact, and also their limitations. He also supplemented about data repositories and sharing platforms such as AGRIS (International System for Agricultural Science and Technology)-a global database managed by FAO, and institutional archives including KrishiKosh, IARI Repository, and Eprints@IARI, among others. 

These platforms play a crucial role in improving the discoverability and accessibility of research work. Further session highlighted about to build a strong research profile and increase the visibility of your work, it is important to connect with research profiling and indexing systems that track publications, citations, and research impact. Some of the key platforms we explored include:

Scopus Author ID – a unique, automatically generated 11-digit identifier assigned to authors within the Scopus database. It helps link all publications by the same author, even if their name is written differently in different papers, and makes it easier to track their research work and impact.

Web of Science (Researcher ID) – a unique, persistent identifier assigned to researchers within the Web of Science ecosystem. Monitors research impact and links to publications indexed in Web of Science.

Google Scholar Profile – Provides citation counts, h-index, and i10-index. It is widely used and freely accessible.

ORCID ID – A unique digital identifier that connects all research outputs across platforms in one place.

Publons – Tracks peer reviews, publications, and editorial contributions; integrated with Web of Science.

Research Gate / Academia.edu – Social platforms where researchers can share their work, interact, and build networks.

Altmetric – Measures online engagement by tracking mentions of your work in news outlets, blogs, and on social media.

These platforms help to make your research discoverable, reusable, and trusted by maintaining accurate metadata and ensuring long-term access to your work.

Dr. Aditya Sinha, Assistant Professor-cum-Junior Scientist, DoEE, Bihar Agricultural University, conducted a session focused on AI-based tools for literature search and systematic reviews. He demonstrated how these tools can help researchers find relevant literature more efficiently and accurately for their research topics.

Some of the AI tools introduced during the session included:

Research Rabbit – for exploring research networks and related papers

Connected Papers – for visualizing relationships between papers

Scite.ai – for checking citation contexts and paper credibility

Semantic Scholar – for AI-enhanced academic search and filtering

Litmaps – for tracking and mapping literature over time

Dr. Achala Munigal, University Librarian, Bharat Ratna Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Memorial Library, Osmania University, emphasized the importance of leveraging social media for research. Platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and ResearchGate were shown to be useful for sharing research and increasing engagement with a wider audience. 

In her last session of this training, she informed us about research misconduct and plagiarism. She indicated that research misconduct refers to unethical practices in conducting or reporting research. She shared that some common types of research misconduct include:

Plagiarism -Using someone else’s work, ideas, or words without giving proper credit. This is the most                        common form of misconduct.

Fabrication -Making up data or results that were never actually collected or observed.

Falsification -Manipulating or misrepresenting data, results, or research methods.

These actions are serious violations of academic integrity. They can lead to the retraction of research papers, loss of credibility, legal consequences, and even disqualification from grants or academic positions. To avoid misconduct, researchers must always be honest, give proper citations, and strictly follow ethical guidelines at every stage of the research process, was the essence of her session.

This training helped me clearly understand and simplify concepts that once seemed difficult and confusing. I now feel confident that the knowledge gained will support me in writing better research papers in the future. I have also realized that my research should not just stay in reports and journals, I should work on its visibility so that it can reach the right people and bring expected change.

-Krushna