JOIN USJawaharlal Nehru University says it has seen a surge in publication of research papers and books in the last five years, thanks to increase in student and faculty strength.
One hundred and thirty three titles of books were published last year as compared to 121 in 2011, while number of published research papers have gone up from 482 to 965 during the corresponding period.
JNU has introduced a single window search, a Google-like search facility, to track book related to a particular topic. According to the Vice Chancellor Sudhir Kumar Sopory, JNU is the first varsity in India to have the e-search facility, which is available in many high-ranking universities abroad.
“One of my friends found 6,000 titles related to one keyword search. He told me, ‘What will I do with so many books?’ And he asked me to narrow down the search,” Sopory said.
He added the university is digitalising books on student and faculty demand.
But the big push for publication of research and books came from hiring of new faculty members and increasing the intake of students, Sopory said.
The faculty strength grew to 565 from 470 and students enrolment increased from 6,665 to 8,432, between 2011 and 2015. Currently, the university runs 76 research and 33 postgraduate-level courses.
According to the university, it got Rs 36.35 crore as aid for 283 research project during 2014-15.
The university awarded 404 PhDs, 603 MPhils and 37 MTechs last year.
JNU publishes seven journals related to languages and cultural studies, international studies, diaspora studies, Sanskrit studies, etc.
As a part of its recent initiative, the varsity last year organised virtual book discussion with two authors. The authors were chosen based on who the students wanted to interrogate, said Sopory.
He claimed the varsity has put in place robust guidelines to curb plagiarism.
JNU allows an open online access to all theses and dissertations, besides organising workshop on the issue of plagiarism, which is plaguing the many universities in the world.