Careers360 World-class universities: What can India learn? | Page 13

World class university PUBLICATION & CITATION Knowledge creation is the core mission of a university Global Annual Publications Harvard University 24075 University of Toronto University College London 13622 10881 Research publications in journals is the core mechanism through which good universities popularize their faculty’s intellectual output. Here we present the top 10 worldwide… by Team Careers360 I “ Research is a core mission of any good university. Faculty publications in refereed journals represent the best traditions of knowledge production and dissemination. Some of these research papers are seminal and result in paradigm shifts in disciplines, at times even seed new disciplines. But each and every publication adds up to the knowledge pool in its own small and big ways Prof Shyam Sundar Professor, Yale University t is what separates the men from the boys,” says Prof. V.V. Krishna, of Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Peer-reviewed publications play the most crucial role along with their citations in any world ranking worth its salt. And the top class universities are always in the race to produce not only the maximum knowledge across disciplines but also get them published in the ‘best in class’ journals. Star faculties who publish seminal works are fought over and fawned at, sometimes with astronomical salaries and benefits. The Research Assessment Exercise in the UK, which is one of the most structured output measuring exercises in academia places major thrust on both citations and output. Does number count? Yes and No. Globally, since faculty productivity is the core criterion for professional advancement, numbers count until one gets tenure, which is what breeds the “Publish or Perish” syndrome in most universities. What was 44 Careers 360 January 2014 Harvard university is a global leader with over 24,000 peer-reviewed publications per year initially an American phenomenon, this is catching up very fast now in every major national university with global aspirations. India is very slow in this regard. As one can see from the Tables alongside, the gap between global best and India’s best is wide beyond comparison. Globally the average annual number of publications is exceptionally