The oppressive pressure to publish.

Abstract

I had read the editorial by Bandewar et al on the Medical Council of India's amended requirements for medical teachers with great interest and wish to highlight two issues seldom addressed in Indian academia. It is not uncommon for new faculty showing serious involvement in their teaching and patient-care related commitments to be warned about their "misplaced priorities". In other words, the number of publications listed is becoming the priority at medical job fairs, and young doctors who are interested in genuine teaching or humane clinical practice are being side-lined in the rat race. Besides, the undue emphasis on publication as a criterion for recruitment prompts authors to perform malpractices like adding the names of their benefactors to the list of authors, amounting to fake authorship and academic nepotism. Assessing the ability of an individual by mere calculation of the H-index without giving weightage to other contributions made at the departmental / institutional / community level, might not yield an accurate evaluation.