Journal pricing and h-index

Prof. Balaram, in his editorial on journals, prices and related issues, raises many points. I could not agree more with the comment, "This concern about unreasonable journal costs is not widely shared in India..there is very little oversight in fighting rapidly increasing prices"
 
He is quite correctly shocked at the recent advertisement from a governmental agency asking post doctoral applicants to provide their h-index over the past five years. h-index was originally intended to evaluate the career of a research scientist and not look at the growth over five years, especially at the start of one's career.


Normally, this blog cites research articles but a research article on open access cites this blog !

Number of Ph.Ds

IISc now generates the highest number of PhDs in computer science in the country. In 2011, 91 people enrolled for a PhD in computer science at the Computer Science and Automation (CSA) department in IISc, up from 35 five years back. Coupled with master's students, the department has more than 250 students on roll. This tremendous growth may be attributed to two reasons : (a) IT research labs in Bangalore (b) the current chairman of CSA. When some people become the administrative head of a particular department, the particular department shows remarkable growth both in terms of faculty and students. This indicates that leadership matters even when there is no direct benefit to the leader!

Update: The total number of Ph.D students enrolled in CSA is 91, not the number of students who joined this year.