Agents offering fake research articles for professorship is active in Kerala

Agents offer fake research articles for professorship is active in Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram: Certain publishers are active in Kerala offering research articles and publications to college teaching staff to help them win professorship with retrospective effect from 2018.

The publishers became active after the posts of professors were created in the State's Arts and Science colleges. One of the qualifications to become a professor is to have at least 10 research articles published in recognised journals. The norm, effective from 2019, prevented many faculty members from being promoted as professors.

To tide over the issue, publishers are offering to get 'research articles' published in journals that were released even three years ago. A Delhi-based publisher is the leading establishment making the offer.

It is learnt that the publisher is contacting faculty members over email, promising research articles and 'certificates' to show that they were published three years ago. To publish articles retrospectively, the charge is Rs 50,000, which will further go up if the faculty member wants a thesis in his/her name as well.

While the Director of Education allots the post of professors in government-run colleges, the responsibility of appointments in aided colleges rests with the university concerned.

The government has, so far, extended the deadline three times for submitting applications for the post of professors. The latest deadline will end on October 30 amid complaints that the extensions were granted to help faculty members to get their articles published.

The State has around 150 eligible candidates who could be promoted as professors. Meanwhile, the Save University Campaign Committee has appealed to the Minister for Higher Education that only articles published in UGC-recognised publications should be considered while appointing professors.

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