Code of Ethics

R.S.D. Academy can grow successfully only when research and teaching mesh together seamlessly - one without the other is incomplete. Therefore we have ensured the development of a collaborative environment conducive to learning, exposure to the best practices and promotion of innovation and creativity. The College encourages the faculty members to undertake research work for their professional development and enrichments of courses/teaching. Many faculty members from the departments of Management Studies, Commerce, Education and Computer Applications Departments are enrolled for PhD degrees in the different University itself. As on date, the College has 8 candidates enrolled for the PhD programmes in different subject. Currently College has more than 67 faculty members with PhD as the highest level qualification. Last three years have witnessed a greater focus on building research facilities and giving the output in the form of research publications. The College has many schemes in the pipeline related to research and extension services, in the areas of health, technology, rural development and self-employment. The College has organized number of national seminars and workshops. It continues to engage the experts from various Central Universities and IITs to develop research facilities in all the Faculties. Faculty of Commerce & Management Studies publish a research Journal twice a year. Moreover all the other faculties conduct many workshops, symposiums, conferences, faculty development programs etc to keep abreast with the latest developments in their respective fields of interest.

RSD Academy, Moradabad has a razor sharp focus on governance through best practices of the College system. It strives to create a system where all the rules and guidelines as laid down by the various agencies that govern higher education are followed. University conforms to Act, Statute and Ordinances of RSD Academy, Moradabad approved specifically to run the Degree College. As per Act, Statute and Ordinances of RSD Academy, it governs itself through various statutory bodies like: Executive Council (EC): It is the principal executive body of the University having five eminent academicians/researchers/industrialists from outside besides having the internal members. Academic Council (AC): It is the principle academic body of the University to exercise general supervision over the academic policies of the University. • Faculty Boards • Board of Studies • Examination Committee • Planning Board • Finance Committee • Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) • Admission Committee Executive Council and Academic Council consists of eminent external members from diverse areas viz; Beuracrats, Diplomats, Members on Boards of Corporate world, Entrepreneurs etc. These statutory bodies conduct their meetings effectively from time to time respecting jurisdictional borders, capitalizing on shared interests, balancing and sharing authority, within a civil and productive relationship based upon a mutual desire to serve the greater good of the College. R.S.D. Academy Moradabad is permanently affiliated by MJP Rohailkhand University. Code of Ethics followed by RSD Academy are mandatory. In the Academic Council report about code of ethics about plagiarism is accepted. These codes of ethics are followed by our college.

The desperation to publish might have adverse effects on quality of publications, temptation to find short cuts and easy ways to publish, which in turn can compromise publication ethics. The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) as a forum of editors and publishers of peer review journals promotes integrity in research publications. COPE guidance and tutorials are valuable to promote publication ethics among faculty and students. COPE guidelines for authors, editors and publishers are available at www.publicationethics.org COPE guidelines for authors are more relevant for this report, which stress ethical and responsible research, compliance to all relevant legislation, presenting results clearly, honestly, and without plagiarism, fabrication, falsification or inappropriate data manipulation. Avoiding temptation of splitting data or using contents in parts to increase number of papers from same data (salami slicing). Researchers should describe their methods clearly so that their findings can be confirmed by others. Authors should submit only original work, not plagiarized, nor published elsewhere. Bogus authorship is another serious issue. There is increasing practice to include every member of the laboratory as an author in all papers. This also can result in the spurious increase of API score of everyone in the group. This can be curbed by asking individuals to specify their contribution at least in their major papers. Recent incidences have reiterated that any compromise in ethics, integrity and academic misconduct even by a single individual can have serious reparations and can lead to collateral damage causing risk to reputation of the entire institution . If proper care is taken such incidences can be avoided.

Detailed description of predatory publishers, journals and related issues is available at http://scholarlyoa.com/publishers The Beall's List of predatory publishers and Journals has grown in size from merely 18 in 2011 to nearly 700 in 2015. Beall’s list also contain over twenty six misleading metrics companies fabricating spurious variants of Impact Factors. Many spurious Indian journals have not yet been included in Beall’s list and there no authentic data about them as of now. Several reputed Journals like Science , Nature , British Medical Journal , The Royal Society Journal of Medicine , Current Science and many more have published articles and editorial appealing academic fraternity to take stringent and immediate measures to curb academic pollution being created by spurious / bogus predatory journals. Experts have suggested ways to avoid predatory journals . Easy way to avoid predatory journal is to do careful due diligence of the journal / publisher and ensure that it is indexed at least in two of following: Web of Science, Scopus, Scholar, Social Science Research Network (SSRN) and most importantly the reputed publishers do not necessarily compel you to pay fees ((page charges, processing fee, reviewing fee and open-access charge) as a prerequisite of publication. It must be noted that many reputed open access journals do charge fees but it is done in an ethical and transparent manner and they do not compromise publication ethics in lieu of such payments. Further, it is important to note that like predatory journals, many book publishers and bogus conference organizers have mushroomed which are being used to increase API scores. In general, if the Book is positioned/ claimed as a research book or reference book, most of the criteria for Journals will be applicable. Admittedly, it is very difficult to set guidelines to avoid predatory conferences, which can be best controlled through careful scrutiny by the departmental research committee at the time of granting leave.

A recent analysis of who is publishing in such spurious Journals has indicated that most authors in predatory journals are from developing countries, especially India, Nigeria, and some African and Middle East countries. It is unfortunate that the name and reputation of Indian academia is getting maligned due to few desperate individuals who tend to compromise publication ethics, knowingly or unknowingly, fall prey to dubious publishers and bogus journals. This is certainly not good for India and Indian Universities. It is a collective responsibility of academic community first to improve quality of research and promote culture of ethical publishing. The present UGC guidelines have not clearly explained what is ‘peer reviewed’ and have indicated ISSN number as a criterion for a research Journal. However, the UGC has put this responsibility of the respective Universities. The UGC Regulations 2010 requires every University to develop comprehensive list of quality Journals in each subject. The UGC regulations also made it mandatory for each University to publish such a list on its website.

The problem of publication ethics and predatory journals is very serious and is a global phenomenon. However, there cannot be centralized policy or solution. Each country / region, every University / institute may have to come out with its own guidelines. The committee feels that good research publication need good quality research, which can happen with enquiry, investigation, innovation and hard work. The desperation to publish poor quality work, plagiarized or fudged data in dubious journals will bring in the long run only disgrace to individuals, institutions and countries, which must be avoided. The committee is convinced that there is an immediate need to control publications in spurious / bogus predatory journals, periodicals etc. The committee feels that the present policy of the University to strengthen research culture by providing support from its own resources is good, however more stringent methods are needed to evaluate impact and outcome of research. The committee therefore recommends the following as a policy to encourage responsible research and ethical publishing: 1. Generally, those journals which are regularly published at least for consecutive five years, do not guarantee publication in short time at cost consideration, publish true and correct information on websites, have reputed academicians on editorial boards and are members of reputed bodies like COPE can be considered as good journals and research publications in such journals can be considered for academic purposes. Papers published in private in-house journals, proceedings of workshops, seminars, refresher/orientation courses should not be considered as research publications. 2. In accordance with the UGC Regulations 2010 our College should develop comprehensive faculty-wise list of quality Journals and reputed publisher in each subject. This should be used as reference when dealing with research guides recognition, PhD / M.Phil submissions, selection, confirmation, increments, career advancement. 3. To qualify individual publications in peer reviewed / reputed / refereed journals mere ISSN number is not sufficient. The publisher / journal should be indexed in globally accepted databases, should preferably be members of reputed bodies like COPE and must follow publication ethics in a transparent manner where all true, correct and vital information is available on the journal website. 4. A good journal that complies with ethics in publishing, which is indexed in reputed agencies like Scopus, Web of Science, Science Direct, Pubmed, SSRN etc should be considered as a reputed journals. Various types of tools and metrics developed by reputed agencies like Thomson Reuters (Science Citation Index, Impact Factor), Scopus, Scimago (h index, SJR) are few of the reliable indicators. Record of citations to a particular publication in other reputed journals is also a very useful parameter to judge quality of a research paper. In open access, Google Scholar offers citation records and h5-index, which can also be considered in primary evaluation. However, it should be kept in mind that many predatory / bogus journals have managed to enter Google Scholar. Therefore, it is always better not to rely on any single metrics agency but it is best to ensure that the Journals are indexed in at least three of the reputed indexing / metrics agencies and databases. 5. Research publications in Marathi, Hindi and other languages constitute an important aspect especially for the Faculties of Arts, Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. Due recognition to Marathi and other language journals should be given. 6. Classification of Journals like national or international and ranking merely based on impact factors is not relevant today especially because large number of predatory journals with names starting with ‘international’ ‘global’, ‘world’ etc are in plenty as also several counterfeit impact factor agencies are in existence. Because many counterfeits and spurious agencies have cropped up giving fake h index and impact factors, utmost care needs to be taken before including any journal in the official list of the University. 7. Many fake indexing agencies, societies, academies have created false identity to sound / appear similar to reputed agencies. Beall’s list provide primary guidance and information on predatory publishers, predatory standalone journals, misleading metrics companies and hijacked journals http://scholarlyoa.com/2015/01/02/beallslist-of-predatory-publishers-2015/ . 8. Research publication ethics and guidelines should be widely circulated and undertaking should be obtained from PhD guides and the research students, stating that he/she has understood the guidelines and violating them can lead to appropriate actions by the University. 9. As a good publication practice, manuscripts proposed to be published as research articles, thesis, dissertation may preferably go through screening by individual Departmental Research Committee consisting internal and external experts duly approved by the Vice-Chancellor. All such research manuscripts should be scanned through reputed anti-plagiarism software like Turnitin, which our College has subscribed.