Quality of Social Science Research in India

There is a growing recognition of the importance of academic research in India and is being monitored by public institutions. However the focus in these assessments has remained largely confined to quantity dimensions, completely ignoring the dimension of quality. It is in this context that we posit our unique attempt to measure the quality of social science research in India in objective quantifiable terms. We have developed a precise and relevant index (CDS_Index) of quality of social science research in India, capturing multiple dimensions that are particularly important in the Indian/social science context. The index is a combined measure of an articles index and a journals index, premised on the users' perspective and the producers' perspective on quality. The results of the study shows that India’s social science research contributes more to public debates and policy formulations than to pushing the frontiers of knowledge for further research. It is encouraging to note that over 90% of all articles record a positive quality index score, which implies that they do contribute to further research and/ or public discourse. Nevertheless, nearly 99% of articles still score less than 0.14. Our paper does signal towards two policy directions. First, it is absolutely essential to increase research funding for social sciences to improve its quality. Secondly, there should be a concerted effort to encourage collaborations, especially international collaborations, in social science research in India.