ULAB roundtable calls for responsible research and publication practices

Academics at a national roundtable in Dhaka called for reforms in research assessment, publication practices and university policies to strengthen responsible research in Bangladesh's humanities and social sciences.

The Department of English and Humanities at the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB) organised the roundtable, titled "Responsible Research and Publication in the Humanities", at its campus yesterday (1 October). According to the press release, scholars and academic leaders from public and private universities participated.

ULAB Associate Professor Dr Abu Saleh Mohammad Rafi convened and moderated the discussion, which examined the purpose and quality of research, publication choices, citation practices, authorship, mentorship, generative artificial intelligence (AI), research assessment and institutional responsibilities.

ULAB Vice-Chancellor Professor Shamsad Mortuza inaugurated the roundtable with reflections on the changing nature of research in literature and language. He noted that formal research training had historically received less encouragement in humanities disciplines such as English, while scholarly publication had grown considerably in recent years, particularly in applied linguistics.

"Our first generation scholars did not actually focus on this trend of publication…because they were more interested in expanding knowledge in humanities," Shamsad said.

He discussed the pressure on university departments to meet publication benchmarks set by what he described as "institutional masters" and "ranking markets." He said ranking bodies often treated arts and humanities departments as a liability because their publication metrics were generally lower than those of science departments.

Shamsad warned against unethical practices, including purchasing affiliations, publishing in predatory journals and buying citations. He suggested interdisciplinary collaboration to increase publication output and share resources, particularly in response to what he described as systematic gatekeeping in academic publishing and distribution.

Turning to the purpose of research, BRAC University Professor Shaila Sultana said meaningful research should address specific problems and bring about changes in communities, creating practical impact.

Shahjalal University of Science and Technology Professor Dr Mohammad Shafiqul Islam said research helps develop an understanding of human existence and reinterpret existing knowledge. North South University's Dr Nazia Manzoor emphasised that research should challenge dominant assumptions and generate new insights into social phenomena and policymaking.

Participants also examined publication choices and the indexing of national journals. Speakers said Bangladesh lacked Scopus-indexed journals dedicated to the humanities or social sciences.

They questioned the heavy emphasis on journal articles in university promotion systems, noting that book chapters and monographs published by prestigious presses such as Oxford and Cambridge might not receive comparable recognition.

Shaila said the tension between meeting promotion requirements based on publication metrics and pursuing deeper qualitative inquiry remained a central challenge for Bangladeshi academics.

Shafiqul noted that publishing in leading journals from established presses involved rigorous, demanding processes. He argued that the publishing industry in South Asian countries lagged significantly behind global practices.

Shaila and Nazia also questioned why scholarly communication through blogs and newspapers should necessarily be considered inferior to academic journals. They argued that researchers should critically examine the global academic norms reflected in the emphasis on Scopus indexing and citation-based university rankings.

Nazia further questioned why academic promotion systems did not recognise creative writing and translation as serious scholarship.

The roundtable also explored the challenges facing local academic journals. University of Dhaka academic Dr Qumrul Hasan Chowdhury said balancing national and international publication remained difficult because many scholars regarded local journals as inherently inferior.

Drawing on his experience of editing and managing national journals, Qumrul said submissions were often insufficient. He added that even papers co-authored by senior scholars and graduate students could fall below expected standards.

Other discussants agreed that local journals were often viewed as less prestigious and that university authorities awarded authors fewer points or less recognition for publishing in them.

ULAB Office of Faculty Research Director Professor Dr Anwar H Joarder questioned the use of citation metrics to assess scholarly value.

"Citation counts are not necessarily a reliable measure of the depth or breadth of intellectual contribution," he said.

University of Chittagong Professor Dr Farzana Yesmen Chowdhury noted that citation rates varied across research fields. She also said limited access to open-access journals at public universities could hinder citation rates for some faculty members.

Participants discussed the financial and ethical concerns surrounding article processing charges and discouraged researchers from publishing in journals with high fees.

Shaila, however, noted that pressure from universities to publish quickly could push young scholars towards questionable paid journals.

Authorship ethics was another focus, with speakers examining the balance between supporting students and maintaining academic integrity when determining authorship. They advocated incorporating research ethics into university curricula to help prevent future integrity-related problems.

Farzana and other participants discussed the implications of generative AI for research practices and integrity. Speakers suggested that universities develop clear policies on acceptable uses of AI in research and require researchers to acknowledge its use where applicable.

The discussion also covered the difficulties of balancing teaching and research, alongside the need to reform institutional assessment and higher education policies.

Participants called for stronger institutional support, including adequate funding, travel grants and research facilities before projects began, rather than a primary focus on rewarding completed research.

They said heavy teaching loads could prevent faculty members from devoting sufficient time to quality research. Universities could consider separate tracks focusing on teaching excellence and intensive research, they suggested.

Speakers also emphasised that research should inform teaching, allowing the two activities to support and strengthen each other.

Rafi concluded the discussion, followed by closing remarks from ULAB Department of English and Humanities Head Arifa Ghani Rahman.

Arifa expressed concern that pressure to secure university rankings through faculty publications was obscuring research's purpose: generating knowledge and addressing real-world problems. She said these institutional demands often placed academics under strain.

She thanked the speakers, expressed solidarity with their concerns and encouraged the conversation to continue.