Chapter 22 · Evidence, ethics and publishing
How do you publish, and who owns the work?
Peer review, impact factor, predatory journals, plagiarism and intellectual property.
25 TNMGRMU questions answered hereset 39 times, 2013–2025
The problem first
You are a second-year MD Pharmacology resident. An email addresses you as “Eminent Researcher” and offers to publish your thesis results in 5 days for a fee. The journal website shows an impact factor of 6.1. You pay, and the paper appears the next week.
At an interview for a faculty post, a panel member reads the journal name and asks one question.
“Who peer reviewed this paper, and where does that impact factor come from?”
Start here
What happens to a paper between submission and publication?
The editor first checks whether the paper suits the journal. If it does, experts in the same field read it and advise the editor. This is peer review. Its purpose is to check the methods, the results and whether the conclusions follow from them, before readers rely on the paper.
| Feature | Single-blind | Double-blind |
|---|---|---|
| Hidden | The reviewer’s name, from the authors | Both names, from each other |
| Manuscript sent with | Author names and affiliations | Names, affiliations and acknowledgements removed |
| Advantage | Simple to run. Reviewers can write frankly without fear of the authors | Reviewers judge the work, not who wrote it |
| Drawback | Reviewers may be influenced by the authors’ names, institution or country | Reviewers can sometimes guess the authors from the topic or self-citations |
Peer review does not prove that a paper is correct. Reviewers see the manuscript, not the raw data, so they cannot confirm that the data are genuine.
The formula
What does a journal's impact factor measure?
The impact factor is the average number of citations received in one year by the items a journal published in the two previous years. Clarivate calculates it every year and publishes it in Journal Citation Reports (JCR).
Impact factor (year Y) = citations in Y to items published in Y − 1 and Y − 2 ÷ scholarly items published in Y − 1 and Y − 2
- Citations
- all citations made during year Y to anything the journal published in the two previous years
- Scholarly items
- articles, reviews and proceedings papers (Clarivate’s definition of the denominator)
(540 + 420) ÷ (120 + 150) = 960 ÷ 270 = 3.56
Items published in 2023 and 2024 were cited, on average, 3.56 times each during 2025. JCR also reports a 5-year impact factor, available from 2007 onward, which uses the five previous years.
Eugene Garfield wrote that his Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) invented the journal impact factor in the 1960s. Thomson acquired ISI in 1992, and in 2016 the business was spun out and renamed Clarivate.
Limitations
Does a high impact factor mean a paper is good?
No. The impact factor describes a journal, not a single paper, and it is the average of a very uneven distribution.
Other limitations
- Specialty. Citation rates differ between specialties. JCR lists journals by subject category for this reason, so compare journals only within one category.
- Reviews. Review articles are cited more often than typical research articles, so journals that publish many reviews have higher impact factors.
- Numerator and denominator. The numerator counts citations to everything the journal published, including letters and editorials. The denominator counts only scholarly items. In the example, 60 citations to editorials would raise 3.56 to 3.78 without one more research paper.
- Editorial policy. The San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) notes that impact factors can be manipulated by editorial policy, and that the data used to calculate them are not openly available.
- Time window. Only citations in the first two years after publication count.
- Coverage. Only journals indexed by Clarivate receive one. Books are not source items and have no impact factor, and fields that the database covers poorly receive low values.
- Purpose. DORA states that it was created to help librarians choose journals to buy, not to measure the quality of the research in an article.
DORA's general recommendation: do not use journal-based metrics such as impact factors as a surrogate measure of the quality of individual articles, to assess an individual scientist, or in hiring, promotion or funding decisions.
Interactive
Change the counts and watch the impact factor change
Try this: add 60 citations to editorials and watch the impact factor rise from 3.56 to 3.78 without one more research paper.
Teaching example with made-up counts for one journal. The impact factor is for 2025.
Articles, reviews and proceedings papers
Articles, reviews and proceedings papers
Counted in the numerator
Counted in the numerator
Numerator only: editorials are not scholarly items
(540 + 420) ÷ (120 + 150) = 960 ÷ 270 = 3.56
On average, each item this journal published in 2023 and 2024 was cited 3.56 times during 2025. The value is an average for the journal. It says nothing about how often any single paper was cited.
Citation analysis
How do you find every later paper that cited a study?
A reference list shows which earlier papers a paper cited. A citation index reverses this and lists, for each paper, the later papers that cited it.
Citation analysis counts and follows these links to evaluate research. It is used to:
- find later work on a topic by moving forward in time from a key paper
- count citations to a paper, a researcher, a department or a journal
- calculate indicators such as the journal impact factor and the h-index
- show which papers and research groups a field relies on, and how a topic has developed
A citation is not approval. Papers are also cited in order to criticise them. Counts depend on the specialty, the age of the paper, self-citation and which journals the database covers. Garfield advised that the impact factor should be used together with informed peer review. Citation counts do not replace reading the work.
Citation analysis
What is the h-index?
J.E. Hirsch, a physicist at the University of California, San Diego, proposed it in 2005: “A scientist has index h if h of his or her Np papers have at least h citations each and the other (Np − h) papers have ≤h citations each.”
| Feature | Journal impact factor | h-index |
|---|---|---|
| Describes | A journal | A researcher or a group |
| Based on | Citations in one year to items from the two previous years | Every paper and its citation count |
| Published by | Clarivate, in Journal Citation Reports | Calculated from any citation database |
| Main drawback | An average of a very uneven distribution | Rises with career length and cannot fall. Differs between specialties |
| Teaching example | 960 ÷ 270 = 3.56 | 8 papers, h = 5 |
Interactive
Change the citation counts and watch the h-index
Try this: move Paper 1 up to 30 citations and watch h stay at 5. Then give Paper 6 one more citation, from 5 to 6.
Teaching example with made-up citation counts for one researcher.
5 papers have at least 5 citations each. The paper ranked 6 has 5 citations, fewer than 6, so h is not 6.
Predatory journals
How do you recognise a predatory journal?
In 2019 a group of scholars and publishers from ten countries agreed this definition in Nature: “Predatory journals and publishers are entities that prioritize self-interest at the expense of scholarship and are characterized by false or misleading information, deviation from best editorial and publication practices, a lack of transparency, and/or the use of aggressive and indiscriminate solicitation practices.”
| Feature | Legitimate open-access journal | Predatory journal |
|---|---|---|
| Fee | Often charged, and stated clearly on the website | Charged, but details are often missing |
| Peer review | Described, and can lead to rejection | Promised but not performed |
| Invitations | May invite papers within its scope | Repeated, flattering emails, often outside your field |
| Contact and editors | Publisher address and editorial board can be verified | Contact details missing. Editors often cannot be verified |
| Indexing and metrics | Claims can be confirmed in the index itself | False or misleading claims |
The same Nature article cites a study of 46,000 researchers based in Italy, of whom about 5% had published in such journals. Jeffrey Beall, a librarian at the University of Colorado Denver, kept a list of suspected predatory journals from about 2008. The list ceased operation in 2017.
In India, UGC discontinued the UGC-CARE list of journals by a public notice dated 11 February 2025. In July 2025 it issued suggestive parameters for choosing peer-reviewed journals in its place. No list replaces checking the journal yourself: see the steps before you submit.
Publication ethics
What counts as misconduct in publishing?
The US Office of Research Integrity defines research misconduct as fabrication, falsification or plagiarism in proposing, performing or reviewing research, or in reporting research results. Honest error and differences of opinion are not misconduct.
- Fabrication
- making up data or results and recording or reporting them
- Falsification
- manipulating research materials, equipment or processes, or changing or omitting data or results, so that the research is not accurately represented
- Plagiarism
- the appropriation of another person’s ideas, processes, results or words without giving appropriate credit
Journals also act on duplicate publication of the same study, undisclosed conflicts of interest, authorship that does not meet the criteria, and trials that were not registered before enrolment. The ICMJE Recommendations cover authorship, disclosure of conflicts of interest and trial registration.
COPE, the Committee on Publication Ethics, began with a meeting of journal editors in April 1997, prompted by Michael Farthing during his first year as editor of Gut. It advises editors and publishers through guidance documents and flowcharts, including retraction guidelines. In July 2026 COPE published a Code of Conduct for Members, which replaced its retired Core Practices, together with new Core Principles.
Plagiarism
When does using someone else's work become plagiarism?
The UGC 2018 regulations define plagiarism as “the practice of taking someone else's work or idea and passing them as one's own”. The test is whether a reader can tell which words and ideas are yours.
How to avoid it
- Record the source of every note, figure and table as you read.
- Put copied words in quotation marks and cite them.
- When you paraphrase, change the wording and the sentence structure, and still cite the source.
- Cite your own earlier papers, and tell the journal about any overlap.
- Ask the copyright owner for permission before reproducing a figure or table.
- Use a reference manager, and check the final text with the similarity software your institution approves before you submit.
How it is detected
Similarity software compares your text with published and online sources and reports the percentage that matches. The percentage is not a verdict. Someone must read each match, because quoted text, references and standard terms also match. UGC 2018 requires every institution to check theses and publications with such software, and requires an undertaking from the student and a certificate from the supervisor that the work is free of plagiarism.
Plagiarism
What do the UGC 2018 regulations say?
The University Grants Commission (Promotion of Academic Integrity and Prevention of Plagiarism in Higher Educational Institutions) Regulations, 2018 are dated 23 July 2018 and were published in the Gazette of India on 31 July 2018. They apply to students, faculty, researchers and staff of all higher educational institutions.
Excluded from the similarity check (regulation 7): quoted work reproduced with permission or attribution, references, bibliography, table of contents, preface, acknowledgements, generic terms, laws, standard symbols and standard equations. The core of the work (abstract, summary, hypothesis, observations, results, conclusions and recommendations) should have no similarities, apart from common knowledge or coincidental terms of up to 14 consecutive words.
| Level | Similarity | Thesis or dissertation (12.1) | Academic and research publications (12.2) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | up to 10% | No penalty | No penalty |
| 1 | above 10% to 40% | Revised script within 6 months | Withdraw the manuscript |
| 2 | above 40% to 60% | Debarred from submitting a revised script for 1 year | Withdraw, lose one annual increment, no new research students for 2 years |
| 3 | above 60% | Registration for the programme cancelled | Withdraw, lose two successive annual increments, no new research students for 3 years |
Interactive
Move the similarity and see the UGC 2018 level and penalty
Try this: set the similarity to exactly 10%, then to 10.5%. The level changes because Level 0 is "up to 10%" and Level 1 starts "above 10%".
The percentage is the similarity after the permitted exclusions (regulation 7).
Steps of 0.5%
| Thesis or dissertation (12.1) | The student submits a revised script within a stipulated time not exceeding 6 months. |
|---|---|
| Academic and research publication (12.2) | Withdraw the manuscript. |
Interactive
Decide which matches the similarity check excludes
Regulation 7 lists what the check leaves out. Everything else counts towards the similarity.
Try this: for each match in a made-up similarity report, decide whether the check excludes it or counts it.
Intellectual property
What is intellectual property, and what types are there?
Intellectual property rights (IPR) are legal rights over creations of the mind, such as inventions, written works, brand names and designs. For a set period they let the owner stop others from using the creation without permission, and let the owner sell or license that right.
Decide
Which protection fits what you made?
Answer one or two questions.
What did your work produce?
Which protection: all possible answers
- Patent: File before you publish or present. It must be new, involve an inventive step and be capable of industrial application (section 2(1)(j), Patents Act, 1970). Term: 20 years from the date of filing.
- Patent at risk: Under section 2(1)(l), a "new invention" is one not anticipated by publication anywhere before the filing date. Contact your institution's IP cell at once and publish nothing further until they advise you.
- Copyright: Copyright subsists in original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works, cinematograph films and sound recordings (section 13, Copyright Act, 1957).
- Trademark: Registered under the Trade Marks Act, 1999 for 10 years, and renewable for further periods of 10 years (section 25).
- Industrial design: Registered under the Designs Act, 2000. A design covers how the product looks. A new working mechanism needs a patent.
- Geographical indication: Registered under the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999.
Patents
Who owns a patent, and can it be transferred?
Under the Patents Act, 1970, an invention is “a new product or process involving an inventive step and capable of industrial application” (section 2(1)(j)). A patent gives its owner the exclusive right to prevent others from making, using, offering for sale, selling or importing the invention in India without consent (section 48).
Ownership
- An application may be made by the person claiming to be the true and first inventor, by that person's assignee, or by the legal representative of a deceased inventor, alone or jointly with others (section 6).
- The patentee is the person entered on the register as the grantee or proprietor (section 2(1)(p)).
- If you work in an institution or a company, read your appointment letter and the institution's IP policy. Where the right to apply has been assigned to the institution, the institution applies as assignee.
Transferability
- A patent, or a share in it, can be assigned, mortgaged or licensed. The document is valid only if it is in writing, sets out all the terms, and is duly executed (section 68).
- The new owner or licensee applies to the Controller to register the title or interest (section 69).
- The registered owner may assign the patent, grant licences and give receipts for any consideration received (section 70).
- From 3 years after grant, any person interested may apply for a compulsory licence if the reasonable requirements of the public are not met, the invention is not available at a reasonably affordable price, or it is not worked in India (section 84).
What cannot be patented, and the amendments
- Section 3 lists what are not inventions, including the mere discovery of a scientific principle, or of any living thing or non-living substance occurring in nature (section 3(c)).
- Section 3(d), substituted by the Patents (Amendment) Act, 2005, excludes a new form of a known substance that does not enhance its known efficacy. Salts, esters, polymorphs, isomers and other derivatives count as the same substance unless they differ significantly in efficacy.
- Since the Patents (Amendment) Act, 2002, the term is 20 years from the date of filing (section 53).
- The Patents (Amendment) Act, 2005 omitted section 5, which had allowed only method or process patents for certain classes of invention.
Copyright and royalty
Who owns your thesis and your published paper?
Under the Copyright Act, 1957, the author of a work is the first owner of its copyright (section 17). What happens after that depends on your employment and on what you sign.
- Employment. For a work made in the course of employment under a contract of service, the employer is the first owner unless there is an agreement to the contrary (section 17(c)).
- Assignment. The owner may assign copyright wholly or partly, for all or part of its term (section 18). An assignment is valid only in writing, signed by the assignor or an authorised agent (section 19(1)).
- What an assignment must state. The work, the rights assigned, the duration and territorial extent, and the royalty and any other consideration payable (section 19(2) and (3)). If the period is not stated it is taken as 5 years. If the territory is not stated it is taken as India. Rights not exercised within 1 year lapse, unless the assignment says otherwise (section 19(4) to (6)).
- Term. For a literary work published in the author's lifetime, copyright lasts until 60 years from the beginning of the calendar year after the year the author dies (section 22).
- Fair dealing. Fair dealing with a work for private or personal use including research, for criticism or review, or for reporting current events is not an infringement (section 52(1)(a)).
When a journal asks you to sign a copyright transfer form, you assign some or all of these rights to the publisher. Read which rights you keep, such as sharing the paper through your institution's repository.
Royalty in scientific research
A royalty is a payment to the owner of intellectual property for each use or sale of it, agreed in a licence or an assignment. In research it arises when a patented invention, such as a diagnostic kit or a device, is licensed to a company that pays the owner a share of its sales, and when a textbook author assigns copyright to a publisher. The Copyright Act requires an assignment to specify the royalty payable (section 19(3)). For a patent, the registered owner receives the consideration for a licence (section 70). The division of royalty income between an institution and its inventors is set by the institution's IP policy and the licence agreement.
| Feature | Plagiarism | Copyright infringement |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Using another person’s words or ideas without credit | Doing, without permission, something only the copyright owner may do or authorise, such as reproducing the work |
| Kind of wrong | Academic misconduct | Violation of the owner’s legal rights |
| Who acts on it | The institution, the journal, UGC integrity panels | The copyright owner |
| Citing the source | Gives the credit that was missing | Does not replace permission |
| Example | A discussion paragraph copied without quotation marks or a reference | A publisher’s figure reprinted in a book, with a citation but without permission |
Clinical trial registration
Why must a trial be registered before the first patient is enrolled?
Registration puts the design and the planned outcomes of a trial on a public record before any results exist.
ICMJE lists the purposes: to prevent selective publication and selective reporting of outcomes, to prevent unnecessary duplication of research, to help patients and the public know which trials are planned or ongoing, and to give ethics committees a view of similar work. Retrospective registration, for example at the time of manuscript submission, meets none of these purposes. ICMJE journals consider trials that began on or after 1 July 2005 only if they were registered before the first patient was enrolled.
The Clinical Trials Registry – India (CTRI) was launched on 20 July 2007 and is hosted at the ICMR-National Institute for Research in Digital Health. It is free, online and a Primary Registry of the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform, so its trials can also be searched from the WHO portal. Registration began as a voluntary measure. Since 15 June 2009 the Drugs Controller General (India) has made registration of regulatory trials in CTRI mandatory. Since 1 April 2018 CTRI registers trials only prospectively, before the first participant is enrolled, and ethics committee approval must be uploaded.
The clinical trials chapter covers what to register and how.
By specialty
Publishing and IPR problems by specialty
An email invites you to publish your case report in 5 days. The journal website shows an "impact factor" of 5.8, but the journal does not appear in Journal Citation Reports.
The Journal Impact Factor is published only by Clarivate in Journal Citation Reports. Check the number there, not on the journal website.
A resident designs a new retractor and presents it at a conference. A company later offers to manufacture it, and asks whether a patent was filed.
An invention published before the filing date is not new under section 2(1)(l). File first, then present.
A multicentre study has 12 names on the author list, including a head of department who only signed the final version.
ICMJE requires all four authorship criteria. Anyone who meets fewer should be acknowledged, not listed as an author.
A company seeks a patent on a new salt of a known drug with no better efficacy.
Section 3(d) treats salts, esters, polymorphs and similar derivatives as the same substance unless they differ significantly in efficacy.
A resident translates a published questionnaire into Hindi and uses it in a survey without writing to its developers.
A published questionnaire can be protected by copyright. Citing it gives credit; permission to translate and use it is a separate request to the owner.
A laboratory develops a rapid test and a company wants to sell it.
A licence under a patent is valid only in writing (section 68) and should be registered (section 69). The licence states the royalty the company pays.
A thesis introduction is copied from a review article. The similarity report shows 32% after the permitted exclusions.
Under UGC 2018 this is Level 1 (above 10% to 40%): the student must submit a revised thesis within 6 months.
A trial of a uterotonic starts enrolling women in January and is submitted to CTRI in March.
Since 1 April 2018 CTRI registers trials only before the first participant is enrolled. ICMJE journals expect registration at or before first patient consent.
Common myths
Common mistaken beliefs
Myth: A high impact factor means every paper in that journal is good.
The impact factor is a journal average. In the teaching example it was 3.56, but the median item was cited once. DORA advises against using it to judge individual articles.
Myth: Open-access journals that charge a fee are predatory.
Many legitimate open-access journals charge a fee. A predatory journal is identified by misleading information, poor editorial practice, lack of transparency and aggressive solicitation.
Myth: Below 10% similarity means there is no plagiarism.
Level 0 under UGC 2018 carries no penalty, but one copied paragraph without credit is still plagiarism. Someone must read the matches.
Myth: If I cite the source, I can reproduce any figure.
Citation gives credit. Reproducing a copyright figure also needs permission from the copyright owner, who is often the publisher.
Myth: The head of department is automatically an author.
ICMJE authorship needs all four criteria. General supervision alone does not qualify.
Myth: A patent lasts 20 years from the date it is granted.
The term is 20 years from the date of filing the application (section 53).
Why this matters to you
Five consequences of getting publishing and ownership wrong
Thesis returned
Similarity above 10% to 40% means a revised thesis within 6 months. Above 60%, registration for the programme is cancelled.
A paper few will read
A paper in a predatory journal had no real peer review, and other researchers can overlook work published there.
An authorship dispute
Journal editors do not arbitrate authorship conflicts. The institution investigates, and every listed author must sign any change to the author list.
An invention you cannot patent
Presenting a device or an assay at a conference before filing can mean it is no longer new.
A trial journals will not consider
CTRI registers trials only before the first participant is enrolled, and ICMJE journals expect prospective registration.
History
History of citation indexing, publication ethics and research IP rules
- 1955
Eugene Garfield
Proposed a citation index for science in the journal Science.
- 1960
Institute for Scientific Information
Founded by Garfield. It later produced citation indexes and journal statistics.
- 1960s
Garfield and ISI
Invented the journal impact factor, according to Garfield.
- 1964
Institute for Scientific Information
Produced the first Science Citation Index.
- 1970
Parliament of India
Enacted the Patents Act, 1970.
- 1997
Michael Farthing and journal editors
Held the first meeting of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) in April.
- 2004
ICMJE
Announced that its journals would consider trials beginning on or after 1 July 2005 only if registered before the first patient was enrolled.
- 2005
J.E. Hirsch
Proposed the h-index in PNAS.
- 2005
Patents (Amendment) Act
Omitted section 5, which had allowed only process patents for some inventions, and substituted section 3(d).
- 2007
CTRI
Clinical Trials Registry – India launched on 20 July.
- 2009
Drugs Controller General (India)
Made registration of regulatory trials in CTRI mandatory from 15 June.
- 2012
DORA
Editors and publishers meeting in San Francisco recommended against using journal impact factors to judge individual articles or scientists.
- 2015
Hicks, Wouters and colleagues
Published the Leiden Manifesto: ten principles for using research metrics.
- 2017
Beall’s list
The list of suspected predatory journals ceased operation.
- 2018
University Grants Commission
Notified the regulations on academic integrity and prevention of plagiarism, with four levels of similarity.
- 2019
Grudniewicz and colleagues
Published a consensus definition of predatory journals in Nature.
- 2025
University Grants Commission
Discontinued the UGC-CARE list of journals (notice of 11 February).
- 2026
COPE
Published a Code of Conduct for Members, replacing its retired Core Practices.
Guidelines
Publishing and IPR in guidelines and law
Authorship is based on 4 criteria: “Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work” or the acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data, drafting or critical review, final approval, and agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work. “All those designated as authors should meet all four criteria for authorship.”
Editors should require “registration of clinical trials in a public trials registry at or before the time of first patient consent for enrollment as a condition of consideration for publication.”
Level 0 up to 10%, Level 1 above 10% to 40%, Level 2 above 40% to 60%, Level 3 above 60%, after excluding attributed quotations, references, bibliography, table of contents, preface, acknowledgements, generic terms, laws, standard symbols and standard equations.
“Do not use journal-based metrics, such as Journal Impact Factors, as a surrogate measure of the quality of individual research articles, to assess an individual scientist's contributions, or in hiring, promotion, or funding decisions.”
An assignment, mortgage or licence of a patent “shall not be valid unless the same were in writing”, with all the terms set out in a duly executed document.
“No assignment of the copyright in any work shall be valid unless it is in writing signed by the assignor or by his duly authorised agent.”
Registration of regulatory clinical trials has been mandatory since 15 June 2009. Since 1 April 2018 CTRI registers trials only before the first participant is enrolled.
Steps
Checking a journal before you submit
- Find the journal yourself, through a database or your guide, not through an email invitation.
- Check the ISSN in the ISSN portal, and check that the publisher gives a full address and contact details.
- If the journal claims an impact factor or indexing, confirm it in Journal Citation Reports or in the index itself, not on the journal website.
- Read the peer review policy. A promise of acceptance or a very short review time is a warning sign.
- For an open-access journal, find the fee on the website and check whether the journal is listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ).
- Check whether the publisher is a member of COPE.
- Read two or three recent articles, and check that editorial board members can be found at the institutions listed.
Reading a paper
Five checks on a published paper
- Is the journal peer reviewed, and can its indexing be confirmed in the index itself?
- For a trial, is a registration number given, and was the trial registered before enrolment began?
- Do the primary outcomes in the paper match those in the registry record?
- Are the authors’ contributions, the funding and any conflicts of interest stated?
- Are reproduced figures and tables credited, with permission where needed?
Why is it called that?
Word surgery
“Patent”
On the ward: open. A patent airway, a patent ductus arteriosus.
A legal right over an invention that lets the owner stop others from making, using or selling it for 20 years from filing.
“Impact”
The effect of a study on patients or on practice.
In "impact factor": a citation average for a journal over a two-year window. It does not measure effect on patients.
“Blind”
Unable to see.
In peer review: not told a name. In double-blind review, neither the authors nor the reviewers are told the other side’s names.
Patent: 20 years from filing. Copyright in a literary work published in the author's lifetime: until 60 years after the author's death. Trademark: 10 years, renewable.
Plagiarism
Latin plagiarius: "kidnapper", used by Martial for a literary thief
Taking another person’s words or ideas and presenting them as your own.
Patent
Latin patens: "open, lying open". Letters patent were open letters from an authority granting a right
The same root as a patent ductus arteriosus.
Peer review
Latin par: "equal". "Peer review" is recorded by 1970
Review of a manuscript by equals: experts in the same field.
Royalty
Old French roialte, from Latin regalis: "royal". Later a payment to a landowner for a mine (1839), then to an author (1857)
A payment to the owner of intellectual property for each use or sale.
Predatory
Latin praedator: "plunderer", from praeda: "prey"
A journal that takes authors’ fees without providing the peer review and checks it promises.
Copyright
everyday meaning: the right to copy
The exclusive right to reproduce a work, or to authorise others to do so.
Exam answers
Model answer outlines
Impact factor: definition, calculation, and critical evaluation as an indicator of journal quality
Ph.D. RM 2014, 2015, 2016, 2019, 2021 · MCh Surgical Oncology 2017, 2019 · MD Community Medicine 2023- Definition: all citations in the current year to items a journal published in the previous two years, divided by the scholarly items (articles, reviews, proceedings papers) it published in those two years.
- Publisher: Clarivate, every year, in Journal Citation Reports. Garfield wrote that ISI invented it in the 1960s.
- Teaching example: (540 + 420) ÷ (120 + 150) = 960 ÷ 270 = 3.56.
- Uses: comparing journals within one subject category, selecting journals for a library, choosing where to submit.
- Limitations: a mean of a skewed distribution (in the example, median 1 citation), differs between specialties, raised by review articles, numerator includes letters and editorials, can be manipulated by editorial policy, counts only two years, limited to journals indexed by Clarivate, and no measure of any single article.
- Position statements: DORA (2012) advises against using it to judge individual articles or scientists. The Leiden Manifesto (2015) gives ten principles for using research metrics.
- Alternatives: the 5-year impact factor, article-level citation counts, the h-index for researchers, and expert reading of the work.
- Conclusion: a journal-level citation average, to be used together with informed peer review.
Citation index and citation analysis as a tool for research evaluation
Ph.D. RM 2013, 2017, 2018- Citation index: a database listing, for each paper, the later papers that cite it. Garfield proposed it in Science in 1955. ISI produced the first Science Citation Index in 1964. Clarivate maintains it as the Web of Science index.
- Citation analysis: counting and following citation links to study the use and influence of research.
- Uses in evaluation: citation counts of papers, the h-index of researchers, the impact factor of journals, comparison of departments, and mapping how a topic develops.
- h-index (Hirsch, 2005): h papers with at least h citations each. Example: 8 papers cited 14, 11, 9, 7, 6, 5, 2 and 1 times give h = 5.
- Limitations: critical citations count the same as approving ones, self-citation, specialty differences, time needed to accumulate citations, and database coverage.
- Good practice: use citation indicators together with expert peer review (DORA 2012, Leiden Manifesto 2015).
Peer review: simple (single) blind and double-blind methods
Ph.D. RM 2013- Definition: evaluation of a manuscript by experts in the same field, who advise the editor before publication.
- Purpose: check the methods, the results and whether the conclusions follow, and improve the paper before readers rely on it.
- Process: submission, editor check, review by usually two or more experts, decision to accept, revise or reject, publication.
- Single-blind: reviewers know the authors. Authors do not know the reviewers. Simple, but reviewers may be influenced by names or institutions.
- Double-blind: names and affiliations are removed, so neither side knows the other. Reduces bias based on the authors, but reviewers can sometimes guess.
- Open review: names known to both sides. Some journals publish the reports.
- Limitations of all types: reviewers see only the manuscript, not the raw data, so peer review cannot confirm that the data are genuine.
Predatory journals
Ph.D. RM 2019- Definition (Grudniewicz et al., Nature 2019): entities that prioritise self-interest at the expense of scholarship, with false or misleading information, deviation from best editorial and publication practices, lack of transparency, and aggressive, indiscriminate solicitation.
- How they work: accept papers and authors' fees without the promised peer review or checks for plagiarism and ethical approval.
- Warning signs: flattering email invitations outside your field, a promise of rapid acceptance, missing contact or fee details, editors who cannot be verified, false claims of indexing or impact factor.
- Harm: unreviewed findings reach readers and patients, researchers' work is overlooked, funds are wasted.
- Checking a journal: Think. Check. Submit. checklist, ISSN portal, DOAJ for open-access journals, COPE membership, confirming indexing in the index itself.
- India: UGC discontinued the UGC-CARE list in February 2025 and issued suggestive parameters for choosing peer-reviewed journals in July 2025.
Publication ethics
Ph.D. RM 2021- Research misconduct (US ORI): fabrication, falsification and plagiarism. Honest error is not misconduct.
- Authorship (ICMJE): all four criteria. Others are acknowledged. AI tools cannot be authors.
- Other issues: duplicate publication, undisclosed conflicts of interest, unregistered trials, reproducing material without permission.
- Bodies: COPE (first meeting 1997) gives guidance and flowcharts to editors and publishers. ICMJE Recommendations cover authorship, conflicts of interest and trial registration.
- India: UGC 2018 regulations require institutions to teach research and publication ethics, check theses for plagiarism and apply graded penalties.
- Correction: errors and misconduct are handled by correction or retraction, following COPE retraction guidelines.
Plagiarism: definition, types, how to avoid it, and how to prevent it in scientific reports
Ph.D. RM 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2020, 2021, 2025- Definition: “the practice of taking someone else's work or idea and passing them as one's own” (UGC 2018). ORI: appropriation of another person's ideas, processes, results or words without appropriate credit.
- Types: word-for-word copying, patchwork of phrases from several sources, paraphrase without citation, idea plagiarism, reuse of one's own published text without citation.
- Avoid: note every source, quote and cite, paraphrase in your own structure and cite, cite your own earlier work, get permission for figures, use a reference manager.
- Detect: similarity software, then a person reads each match. Percentage alone is not a verdict.
- UGC 2018 levels: up to 10% no penalty, above 10% to 40% revise within 6 months, above 40% to 60% debarred from resubmitting for 1 year, above 60% registration cancelled (thesis).
- Institutional prevention: approved software, student undertaking, supervisor certificate, Departmental and Institutional Academic Integrity Panels.
Intellectual property rights: definition and types
Ph.D. RM 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025Definition: legal rights over creations of the mind that let the owner exclude others for a set period and sell or license the right. TRIPS lists seven categories.
| Type | Protects | Indian law | Term |
|---|---|---|---|
| Patent | New, inventive, industrially applicable product or process | Patents Act, 1970 | 20 years from filing |
| Copyright | Literary, dramatic, musical, artistic works, films, sound recordings | Copyright Act, 1957 | Literary work: until 60 years after the author's death |
| Trademark | Name, logo or sign for goods or services | Trade Marks Act, 1999 | 10 years, renewable |
| Industrial design | Shape or appearance of a product | Designs Act, 2000 | See the Act |
| Geographical indication | Goods identified with a place of origin | GI of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999 | See the Act |
| Layout-designs of integrated circuits, undisclosed information | TRIPS categories | Less relevant to clinical research | |
In research: decide ownership before the work begins, file patents before publishing, and follow the institution's IP policy.
Ownership of patents and their transferability
Ph.D. RM 2013- IPR: legal rights over creations of the mind. A patent is the IPR for inventions.
- Patentability: new, inventive step, industrial application (s. 2(1)(j)). Not inventions: s. 3, including 3(d) for new forms of known substances.
- Who applies (s. 6): true and first inventor, assignee, or legal representative, alone or jointly.
- Owner: the patentee entered on the register (s. 2(1)(p)), with exclusive rights (s. 48) for 20 years from filing (s. 53).
- Institutional work: ownership set by the employment contract and IP policy. The institution applies as assignee.
- Transfer (s. 68): assignment, mortgage or licence valid only in writing, with all terms, duly executed.
- Registration (s. 69): the new owner or licensee applies to the Controller.
- Dealing (s. 70): the registered owner may assign, license and receive consideration (royalty).
- Compulsory licence (s. 84): after 3 years from grant, on public-requirement, affordability or non-working grounds.
Copyright, and royalty in scientific research
Ph.D. RM 2014, 2016, 2017, 2020- Copyright: the exclusive right to do or authorise acts such as reproducing a work (s. 14). It subsists in original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works, films and sound recordings (s. 13).
- First owner: the author (s. 17). For work made under a contract of service, the employer, unless agreed otherwise.
- Assignment: in writing, signed (s. 19(1)), stating rights, duration, territory and royalty (s. 19(2) and (3)). Unstated period 5 years, unstated territory India.
- Term: literary work published in the author's lifetime, until 60 years after the author's death (s. 22).
- Fair dealing: private use including research, criticism or review, reporting current events (s. 52(1)(a)).
- Royalty: payment to the owner of IP for each use or sale, under a licence or assignment. In research: licensing a patented kit or device to a company, textbook contracts with publishers. The share between institution and inventor follows the institution's IP policy.
- Copyright is not plagiarism: citation avoids plagiarism but does not replace the owner's permission.
Clinical trial registration in India: CTRI, its role in transparency and accountability, and its importance
Ph.D. RM 2017, 2019 · MD Community Medicine 2024 · MD Pharmacology 2025- Registry: public record of a trial's design and planned outcomes, made before enrolment.
- CTRI: launched 20 July 2007, hosted at ICMR-National Institute for Research in Digital Health, free and online, a WHO ICTRP Primary Registry.
- Mandate: voluntary at first. Mandatory for regulatory trials since 15 June 2009 (DCGI). Prospective registration only since 1 April 2018. Ethics committee approval must be uploaded.
- Transparency: the public, patients and ethics committees can see which trials are planned or ongoing.
- Accountability: published outcomes can be compared with registered outcomes, which exposes selective reporting and unpublished trials.
- Research efficiency: prevents unnecessary duplication of trials.
- Journals: ICMJE requires registration at or before first patient consent. Retrospective registration meets none of the purposes.
- Details: see the clinical trials chapter.
The one thing to remember
Decide authorship and ownership in writing before the work starts.
Impact factor, citation-distribution and h-index numbers are made-up teaching examples. Legal text is summarised from the Acts as amended. For a real patent or copyright question, consult your institution's IP cell.
Sources: Garfield E. Citation indexes for science. Science 1955;122(3159):108–11 (doi:10.1126/science.122.3159.108, PMID 14385826). Garfield E. The Clarivate Impact Factor (essay first published in Current Contents, 20 June 1994). Clarivate. The History of ISI and the work of Eugene Garfield. Clarivate. Journal Citation Reports glossary. Seglen PO. Why the impact factor of journals should not be used for evaluating research. BMJ 1997;314:498–502 (doi:10.1136/bmj.314.7079.497, PMID 9056804). Hirsch JE. An index to quantify an individual's scientific research output. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2005;102(46):16569–72 (doi:10.1073/pnas.0507655102, PMID 16275915). San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment, 2012 (sfdora.org). Hicks D, Wouters P, Waltman L, et al. The Leiden Manifesto for research metrics. Nature 2015;520:429–31 (doi:10.1038/520429a, PMID 25903611). Beall J. Predatory publishers are corrupting open access. Nature 2012;489:179 (doi:10.1038/489179a, PMID 22972258). Grudniewicz A, Moher D, Cobey KD, et al. Predatory journals: no definition, no defence. Nature 2019;576:210–2 (doi:10.1038/d41586-019-03759-y, PMID 31827288). Think. Check. Submit. journal checklist. UGC public notice on UGC-CARE journals, 16 July 2025. ICMJE. Recommendations: Defining the role of authors and contributors, and Clinical trials (icmje.org). De Angelis C, Drazen JM, Frizelle FA, et al. Clinical trial registration: a statement from the ICMJE. N Engl J Med 2004;351:1250–1 (doi:10.1056/NEJMe048225, PMID 15356289). US Office of Research Integrity. Definition of research misconduct. COPE. History of COPE, publicationethics.org, last updated 5 August 2026. University Grants Commission (Promotion of Academic Integrity and Prevention of Plagiarism in Higher Educational Institutions) Regulations, 2018. Gazette of India, Part III, Section 4, No. 287, 31 July 2018. WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, Part II. The Patents Act, 1970 (incorporating amendments till 1 August 2024). The Copyright Act, 1957. The Trade Marks Act, 1999. The Designs Act, 2000. The Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999. Clinical Trials Registry – India, home page and FAQ (ctri.nic.in).
Past papers
Every TNMGRMU question on publishing and ipr
Each one is answered in this chapter. Tap a sitting to open the university's own question paper.
- ×8Impact factor
- ×5Intellectual property rights
- ×2What is plagiarism? Describe methods to avoid plagiarism
- ×2Copy right
- ×2Plagiarism
- ×1Clinical trial registries and their importance
- ×1What is Plagiarism? How Plagiarism can be avoided?
- ×1How Clinical trial registry in India plays a role in improving transparency and accountability of clinical research?
- ×1Critically evaluate ‘Journal Impact Factor’ as an indicator of quality of a journal
- ×1Publication Ethics
- ×1What is Plagiarism and how to prevent it Scientific Reports?
- ×1Explain Royalty in Scientific Research
- ×1What is Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and what are the types?
- ×1Describe clinical trial registration in India
- ×1Write briefly on intellectual property rights
- ×1Predatory journals
- ×1Briefly describe impact factor and citation index
- ×1Citation Index
- ×1Clinical trial registration
- ×1Explain in brief about impact factor and citation index
- ×1Copyright and Royalty
- ×1Explain the term “Plagiarism”
- ×1What do you understand by the term, “Peer Review”? Discuss the “Simple Blind” and “Double blind” Peer Review methods
- ×1What is Citation Analysis? How is it used as a tool for research evaluation?
- ×1What are Intellectual Property Rights? Discuss ownership of Patents and their transferability