ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID, is an initiative that seeks to remedy the systemic name ambiguity problems seen in scholarly research by assigning unique identifiers linkable to an individual's research output.
In the near future, researchers will be able to link their Scopus ID and Researcher ID to the ORCID profile. I believe by the end of 2013, all major publishers will require authors to link their ORCID profile when submitting papers to a journal.
The editorial in Nature reads,
when scientists and their patrons see the practical benefits of ORCID, it will become the de facto standard author identifier in research, much as the digital object identifier (DOI) has become for papers and data.
Sunday, December 9, 2012
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Skills and Success
In the interview with Livemint, three professors (BN Jagtap, Satyam Suwas, Yamuna Krishnan) give their opinion on the skills required in science.
The skills for science: “You have to be passionate about learning new things. Scientists are a curious and inquisitive lot. It’s important to ask risky questions. Also, be prepared to fail and to experiment all the time. Through school we learn about Galileo, Newton, Darwin or Einstein, and science seems like an individual pursuit. I always tell my students that science is teamwork.”
The skills for science: “Dedication, passion and perseverance is what it takes to be a scientist. Unless you have passion, you’ll get tired soon. You may not succeed in a few attempts, so you have to keep trying.”
The skills for science: “In terms of attitude, I would say you would need curiosity and passion, knowing how to work as a team, flexibility about the path to reach your goal, and belief in your abilities to realize it.”
Based on my experience, I feel to be called successful, you need the above skills and a couple of other "skills". These "skills" are apparent if you read the interview given by Murali Kartik to Cricinfo,
What's the one question the media should stop asking you?
The one about who I upset in the hierarchy to not find a strong footing in the India squad.
If you were an Under-19 cricketer today, what advice would you give to the teenage Murali Kartik?
Keep your mouth shut.
The skills for science: “You have to be passionate about learning new things. Scientists are a curious and inquisitive lot. It’s important to ask risky questions. Also, be prepared to fail and to experiment all the time. Through school we learn about Galileo, Newton, Darwin or Einstein, and science seems like an individual pursuit. I always tell my students that science is teamwork.”
The skills for science: “Dedication, passion and perseverance is what it takes to be a scientist. Unless you have passion, you’ll get tired soon. You may not succeed in a few attempts, so you have to keep trying.”
The skills for science: “In terms of attitude, I would say you would need curiosity and passion, knowing how to work as a team, flexibility about the path to reach your goal, and belief in your abilities to realize it.”
Based on my experience, I feel to be called successful, you need the above skills and a couple of other "skills". These "skills" are apparent if you read the interview given by Murali Kartik to Cricinfo,
What's the one question the media should stop asking you?
The one about who I upset in the hierarchy to not find a strong footing in the India squad.
If you were an Under-19 cricketer today, what advice would you give to the teenage Murali Kartik?
Keep your mouth shut.
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Bhatnagar Prize
My heartiest congratulations to my colleagues, Profs. Ravishankar, Arindam Ghosh and Mugesh, for winning the Bhatnagar prize this year. All three of them are my friends, have an outstanding academic record and truly deserving of the award. All three of them had won the Swarnajayanthi fellowship earlier.
It is my privilege that I actively collaborate and have joint students with Ravishankar.
It is my privilege that I actively collaborate and have joint students with Ravishankar.
Monday, August 27, 2012
Rankings
The new rankings by both Shanghai and SciMago for universities is now available. The former ranks the top 500 universities while the latter ranks 3290 institutions.
In the Shanghai overall rankings, only IISc figures in the list from India. After dropping from the list of 201-300 in 2004, it has maintained its rank in the bracket of 301-400 till now. Couple of other IITs used to find a place in the Shanghai overall rankings but now no longer figure in the top 500. In the subject category, IISc maintains its top 50 rank in chemistry and top 100 rank in engineering.
All IITs and some other Indian institutions figure in the SciMago rankings. In these rankings also, IISc is the top Indian institution with a rank of 376. IIT-KGP with a rank of 460 follows. These are the only Indian institutions in the top 500.
For the rankings, both Shanghai and SciMago use the quality of publication output i.e., it calculates the ratio of publications that an institution publishes in the most influential scholarly journals of the world; those ranked in the top 20% (Shanghai) or top 25% (SciMago) in their categories. While India publishes around 10% of the papers in the top 25% journals, IISc publishes 54.2% of the total number of papers (8,573 in a five year period of 2006-2010) in the top 25% journals.
Update: Fudging data to climb up the rankings (Through Abi's blog)
In the Shanghai overall rankings, only IISc figures in the list from India. After dropping from the list of 201-300 in 2004, it has maintained its rank in the bracket of 301-400 till now. Couple of other IITs used to find a place in the Shanghai overall rankings but now no longer figure in the top 500. In the subject category, IISc maintains its top 50 rank in chemistry and top 100 rank in engineering.
All IITs and some other Indian institutions figure in the SciMago rankings. In these rankings also, IISc is the top Indian institution with a rank of 376. IIT-KGP with a rank of 460 follows. These are the only Indian institutions in the top 500.
For the rankings, both Shanghai and SciMago use the quality of publication output i.e., it calculates the ratio of publications that an institution publishes in the most influential scholarly journals of the world; those ranked in the top 20% (Shanghai) or top 25% (SciMago) in their categories. While India publishes around 10% of the papers in the top 25% journals, IISc publishes 54.2% of the total number of papers (8,573 in a five year period of 2006-2010) in the top 25% journals.
Update: Fudging data to climb up the rankings (Through Abi's blog)
Saturday, July 28, 2012
Comments and blog
- All opinions expressed in the blog posts are mine and mine alone. Comments on my blogs are not moderated. That is because even I though I may not agree with what you say, I believe in your right in saying so. This brings me to the main point: I am not responsible for the comments on the blog. They are expressed by readers and I neither endorse nor disagree with any of the comments.
- Just because I have a website for prospective candidates for IITs/IISc, it does NOT mean that I encourage doctorates to join these places. If YOU take a decision to return to India or join these places, the website provides you information to do so. It does not mean that I encourage you to return to India and/or take up a position in these institutes.
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Remuneration
Academicians do a lot of things for free. This includes reviewing papers, reviewing projects submitted to various funding agencies, sitting on oral examination boards etc. However, there has always been a remuneration for reviewing thesis/dissertation. For example, IISc and IITs pay somewhere between Rs. 5000 to 8000 for a review of the doctoral dissertation.
The universities, on the other hand, used to pay ridiculous amounts. Bombay university used to pay Rs. 166.67 and you had to send a detailed claim form and an additional letter that you have reported this remuneration in your tax form. This was based because the three examiners of the thesis had to share Rs. 500. Recently, I agreed to review a thesis for another state university. They sent me the thesis yesterday, which is around 200 pages long, and the remuneration claim bill of Rs. 10. You read it correctly. Posting the remuneration claim bill will be costlier than the remuneration itself. Can not the universities simply request that this review is to be done for free and I will be gladly able to do so.
The universities, on the other hand, used to pay ridiculous amounts. Bombay university used to pay Rs. 166.67 and you had to send a detailed claim form and an additional letter that you have reported this remuneration in your tax form. This was based because the three examiners of the thesis had to share Rs. 500. Recently, I agreed to review a thesis for another state university. They sent me the thesis yesterday, which is around 200 pages long, and the remuneration claim bill of Rs. 10. You read it correctly. Posting the remuneration claim bill will be costlier than the remuneration itself. Can not the universities simply request that this review is to be done for free and I will be gladly able to do so.
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Pinned IISc admissions 2012
Please read this post and comments before posting.
Interview call letters for the M.Tech/M.Mgt program was posted on the website on March 30. The admission letters for ME will be posted on April 12.
For the research (Ph.D/M.Sc) program, interview letters will be posted by May 12, interviews are from 1 June to 10 June and offer letters will be online on June 18. The last date to pay the fees is June 30 and the last day to withdraw is July 10. The wait listed candidates will be offered on July 13.
For the UG program, the first round of offers based on KVPY will be made by May 15 and the second round of offers based on JEE will be made on June 1. The third round of offers based on AIPMT, JEE, AIEEE will be made on June 23/25.
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