Retractions: On the Rise, But Not Enough

Dear All, 

We are delighted to inform you that Department of Library & Information Science, Central University of Tamil Nadu (CUTN), Thiruvarur, organised a special online lecture under its series “Gyan Pravah: Online Lecture Series in LIS." The 10th lecture in the series was held on 7th January 2026 (Wednesday) from 06:30 PM to 07:30 PM via Google Meet. Dr. Ivan Oransky, MD, Co-Founder of Retraction Watch and Executive Director of the Center for Scientific Integrity, was invited as the resource person and delivered a lecture on the topic “Retractions: On the Rise, But Not Enough.” 

The programme commenced with a welcome address, followed by the introduction of the speaker by Prof. S. Thanuskodi, Professor & Head of the Department of Library and Information Science, Central University of Tamil Nadu, Thiruvarur who highlighted the speaker’s contributions to research integrity and scholarly publishing.

The invited speaker, Dr. Ivan Oransky, delivered a one-hour lecture focusing on the role of retractions in correcting the scholarly record and maintaining public trust in research. He emphasized that retractions are intended to correct the literature rather than punish authors, and that despite an increase in retractions, they are still not sufficient in proportion to the volume of unreliable research. During the lecture, Dr. Oransky discussed why retractions matter, particularly in cases of large-scale falsification and editorial failures that risk undermining confidence in science. He explained what gets retracted and who decides, noting that editors may retract publications when confidence in the results is lost, in line with established publication ethics guidelines. The speaker outlined common reasons for retractions, including duplication, plagiarism, image manipulation, faked data, fake peer review, publisher errors, authorship issues, legal reasons, paper mills, and voluntary retractions undertaken as an act of doing the right thing. He clearly distinguished between research misconduct, fabrication, falsification, and plagiarism, and honest error, emphasizing that honest mistakes and differences of opinion do not constitute misconduct. An emerging trend discussed during the session was the appearance of AI-generated or AI-assisted writing in papers and peer-review reports. Dr. Oransky emphasized the importance of transparency and careful editorial judgment in handling such cases. He also cautioned that ranking systems and policy frameworks that penalize retractions may discourage responsible self-correction and transparency. The lecture was followed by an interactive Q&A session, during which participants engaged in discussions related to retraction practices, research misconduct, AI in scholarly publishing, and research evaluation systems.

The programme was coordinated by Dr. Anila Sulochana, Assistant Professor, Department of Library and Information Science, Central University of Tamil Nadu, and attended by more than 40 participants. The session concluded with a formal vote of thanks proposed by Dr. S. Ravikumar, Associate Professor, Department of Library and Information Science, Central University of Tamil Nadu, who thanked the speaker and participants for their valuable contributions. 

The virtual invited talk was informative and beneficial to faculty members, research scholars, and students, offering important insights into contemporary challenges in scholarly communication and research integrity.

From Paywalls to Free Walls: Concepts and Practice of Open Access Publishing

Dear All,

We are delighted to inform you that Department of Library & Information Science, Central University of Tamil Nadu (CUTN), Thiruvarur, organised a special online lecture under its series “Gyan Pravah: Online Lecture Series in LIS." The 9th lecture in the series was held on 30th August 2025 (Saturday) from 03:00 to 04:20 PM via Google Meet. Dr. Mohammad Nazim, Associate Professor, Department of Library and Information Science, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, was invited as the resource person and delivered a lecture on the topic “From Paywalls to Free Walls: Concepts and Practice of Open Access Publishing.”

The program commenced with a welcome address and opening remarks by Prof. S. Thanuskodi, Head, Department of Library and Information Science, CUTN, followed by a brief introduction to the department. Prof. Akhandanand Shukla, Department of Library and Information Science, CUTN, introduced the resource person, highlighted the importance of the lecture, and provided an overview of the theme.

In his talk, Dr. Nazim covered a wide range of themes, including scholarly publishing and the research cycle, paywall and free-wall models of communication, the evolution of the Open Access (OA) movement, routes of OA publishing, credible platforms and tools, predatory journals, and strategies for making research openly accessible. He discussed the limitations of traditional publishing models, explaining how authors often transfer their rights to publishers and how readers, despite paying subscription fees, are frequently granted little or no reuse rights beyond basic access. He emphasized that paywall publishing slows scientific progress and reduces the return on public investment in research. While introducing the concept of OA publishing, he addressed common myths, clarifying that OA does not equate to low-quality research. Many reputed journals and funding agencies support OA, and most OA journals are peer-reviewed and indexed. He compared paywalled and OA publishing models, outlining their respective benefits and drawbacks. He also highlighted the “One Nation One Subscription” policy and the role of libraries in ensuring equitable access to scholarly information worldwide.

Dr. Nazim elaborated on the different routes of OA publishing and explained the publishing cycle of each route, along with their advantages and limitations. He emphasized the importance of self-archiving research, discussed preprint versions of papers and Article Processing Charges (APCs), and introduced well-known OA repositories such as SHERPA-RoMEO and the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). Citing data from Royal Society Publishing, he demonstrated that articles published in OA receive 100% more citations and 116% more downloads than subscription-based articles. He emphasized that “open access means more reach and more impact” as it increases visibility, fosters global collaboration, and enhances the reputation of researchers and institutions.

At the same time, he acknowledged the challenges of OA publishing, including APCs, predatory journals, and copyright and licensing issues. To address these, he provided a checklist for evaluating OA journals, recommending that credible journals should clearly describe their peer-review process, be listed in DOAJ or UGC-CARE, maintain transparent APC policies, and have editorial boards comprising genuine scholars. He also explained Creative Commons (CC) licenses, outlining types such as CC-BY, CC-BY-SA, CC-BY-NC, and CC-BY-ND, and elaborated on their significance in scholarly communication. Furthermore, he introduced several free tools supporting OA research—including Unpaywall, Open Access Button, CORE, Zenodo, and the Open Science Framework (OSF)—and demonstrated their utility in enhancing research visibility and accessibility. In conclusion, he presented case studies showcasing success stories that demonstrated how OA enhances research visibility and highlighted the transformative role of institutional repositories in disseminating scholarly outputs. During the interactive Question–Answer session, Dr. Nazim responded to several queries.

 

The program, designed for Library and Information Science (LIS) professionals, witnessed active participation from faculty members, research scholars, and students of CUTN as well as other institutions. The lecture was coordinated by Prof. Akhandanand Shukla, Department of Library and Information Science, CUTN, and attended by more than 70 participants. The session ended with concluding remarks and a formal vote of thanks proposed by Dr. S. Ravi Kumar, Associate Professor, DLIS, CUTN, who expressed gratitude to the resource person, organizers, and participants for their valuable contributions in making the lecture a success. Ms. Komal Sahu, Senior Research Fellow, served as the rapporteur of the program.

Glimpses of the program are given below:

Department thanks to all who attended the program and taken the benefit to listen Dr. Mohammad Nazim on the important aspects of open access publishing.

Knowledge Management for Development: The ABCs

Dear All,

This is to inform you that Department of Library and Information Science, Central University of Tamil Nadu has organized a special online lecture series Gyan Pravah: An Online Lecture Series in LIS. The eighth lecture in the series was organized on 16th July, 2021 (Friday) at 1:30 PM - 2:30 PM through Google Meet. Dr. Aparajita Suman, KM & IEC Specialist, DDWS, Ministry of Jal Shakti, Govt of India was invited as resource person and she delivered the talk on “Knowledge Management for Development: The ABCs”.

The program commenced with a welcome address given by Dr. Akhandanand Shukla, Associated Professor and Head, Department of Library and Information Science, CUTN, Thiruvarur followed by a brief introduction about the resource person Dr. Aparajita Suman.

Dr. Aparajita Suman stared her lecture by giving a brief and eloquent idea about the term “Knowledge Management” and the principles behind it. According to her, Knowledge management is the process of creating, sharing, using and managing the knowledge and information produced in an organization. Further she focused on achieving the objectives of the organization and how to improve the performance and emphasized that KM gives keen attention in delivering right knowledge to the right person in right time. Different types of Knowledge such as tacit (knowledge difficult to express or extract) and the explicit, old and new etc. were also discussed. KM jargons with its purpose and relevance were simplified during the lecture. Different strategies and instruments in KM were also briefly mentioned which includes communities of practice, exit interviews, storytelling, white pages, identifying and sharing best practices etc. Core components required for the development of KM environment such as people, process, technology were mentioned and enlisted some tools and techniques of knowledge management. Some after effects of KM, the way in which it can be measured were explained. The reason for measuring it, how to measure and what to measure, some common approaches in measuring the effects were also discussed. A few questions were asked at the end of the session and those were answered neatly.

The lecture was coordinated by Dr. Anila Sulochana, Assistant Professor, Department of Library and Information Science, Central University of Tamil Nadu, Thiruvarur and attended by 29 participants. The lecture session ended with a formal vote of thanks proposed by Dr. Anila Sulochana. Mr. Abhijith B., Junior Research Fellow, worked as the rapporteur in the program.

The glimpses of the program are given below:

Department congrats to all who attended the program and taken the benefit to listen to Dr. Aparajita Suman on some of the practical aspects of the Knowledge Management.

Thanks.

Procurement and Management of Electronic Resources

Dear All,

This is to inform you that Department of Library and Information Science, Central University of Tamil Nadu has organized a special online lecture series OLSL: Online Lecture Series in LIS. The seventh lecture in the series was organized on 9th July, 2021 (Friday) at 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM through Google Meet. Dr. Neeraj Chaurasia, Deputy Librarian, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi was invited as resource person and he delivered the talk on “Procurement and Management of Electronic Resources”.

The program commenced with a welcome address given by Dr. Akhandanand Shukla, Associated Professor and Head, Department of Library and Information Science, CUTN, Thiruvarur followed by a brief introduction about the resource person Dr. Neeraj Chaurasia.

Dr. Neeraj Chaurasia started his talk by pointing the shifts of library services, users and staffs in the age of electronic resources. Then, he discussed availability, accessibility and the pros and cons of the e-resources, what is consortia? different consortia available in India and its need in organizing, managing and archiving e-resources. He also explained the steps followed by IIT Delhi for e-resource procurement. The complex processes included in electronic resource purchase like identification, collection, pricing, negotiation, licensing and different electronic resource management systems are also discussed.

The lecture was coordinated by Dr. Anila Sulochana, Assistant Professor, Department of Library and Information Science, Central University of Tamil Nadu, Thiruvarur and attended by 31 participants. The lecture session ended with a formal vote of thanks proposed by Dr. Anila Sulochana. Ms. Bhavya K. P., Junior Research Fellow, worked as the rapporteur in the program.

The glimpses of the program are given below:

Department congrats to all who attended the program and taken the benefit to listen to Dr. Neeraj Chaurasia on one of the the important aspect in e-resource management.

Thanks.

Research Data Management

Dear All,

This is to inform you that Department of Library and Information Science, Central University of Tamil Nadu has organized a special online lecture series OLSL: Online Lecture Series in LIS. The sixth lecture in the series was organized on 18th June, 2021 (Friday) at 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM through Google Meet. Dr. Shri Ram Pandey, Assistant Professor, Department of Library & Information Science, Banaras Hindu University was invited as resource person and he delivered the talk on “Research Data Management”. 

The program commenced with a welcome address given by Dr. Akhandanand Shukla, Associate Professor and Head, Department of Library and Information Science, CUTN, Thiruvarur followed by a brief introduction of the resource person.

Dr. Shri Ram Pandey started his talk with an elaborate introduction to data and Research Data Management (RDM). He explained how the data that are collected, observed or created can be actively managed and how to appraise the data over the life cycle of scholarly and scientific interest. He emphasized that RDM makes your data easy to work with, understandable, and available to other scientists. He went on to educate the participants on different types of data and why it is essential to manage research data. The speaker then introduced the RDM Life Cycle and the inputs in the research data cycle. He carried on by talking about the stakeholders of RDM such as institution authority, the investigators, libraries etc. Dr. Shri Ram then gave an insight to the Data Management Plan (DMP), Data Repositories and Software tools which assist in RDM. The highlight of the lecture was the live hands-on experience of the Figshare Repository. An active Q&A session took place thereafter. The discussions focused on rights related aspects of data sharing and the resource person emphasized the importance of institutional level policies in RDM.

The lecture was coordinated by Dr. Anila Sulochana, Assistant Professor, Department of Library and Information Science, Central University of Tamil Nadu, Thiruvarur and attended by 31 participants. The lecture session ended with a formal vote of thanks proposed by Dr. Anila Sulochana. Ms. Nayanthara S., Research Scholar, worked as the rapporteur in the program.

The glimpses of the program are given below:

 

Department congrats to all who attended the program and taken the benefit to listen to Dr. Shri Ram Pandey on this crucial topic in academics and research.

Corporate Librarianship in Digital Era

Dear All,

This is to inform you that Department of Library and Information Science, Central University of Tamil Nadu has organised a special online lecture series OLSL: Online Lecture Series in LIS. The fifth online lecture in the series was organised on 29th May, 2021 (Friday) at 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM through Google Meet. Dr. Nagappa V. Bakkannanavar, Head – Information Resource Center, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., Bangalore, has been invited as resource person and he delivered the talk on “Corporate Librarianship in Digital Era”.

The session initiated with a welcome address given by Dr. Akhandanand Shukla, Associated Professor and Head, Department of Library and Information Science, CUTN, Thiruvarur followed by a brief introduction about the resource person Dr. Nagappa Bakkannanavar.

Dr. Nagappa Bakkannanavar addressed the research scholars, students and faculties with a warm welcome and started the session by explaining the importance of Library Science profession by giving his own life story as an example. When he entered in to the topic, he talked about the transformation of libraries from the physical libraries to digital libraries. He made a note of the huge difference in these two libraries in all aspects such as facilities, technology, behavior of librarian, users etc. Then he gave a brief introduction on corporate libraries which included its basics, mission, how it works and objectives. He mentioned the different posts that are available for library science professionals in the corporate library. Rather than the traditional post of being a librarian, there are opportunities like a content manager, data analyst, information specialist, product manager etc. He explained the responsibilities come with these positions. He also stressed on the importance of extra skills rather than confining to the syllabus based studies. There upon, he explained about the analytical skills and techno savvy necessity for a corporate librarian. The lively and interactive session was concluded with questionnaire that gave emphasize on the importance of the extra skills that are necessary to cope up with the new waves in the library profession.

The lecture series was coordinated by Dr. Anila Sulochana, Department of Library and Information Science, CUTN, Thiruvarur and attended by 35 participants including faculties, research scholars, and MLIS students. The lecture series ended with a formal vote of thanks proposed by Dr. Anila Sulochana.

The glimpses of the program is given below:

Department congrats to all who attended the program and taken the benefit to listen Dr. Nagappa Bakkannanavar on the corporate librarianship.