MUMBAI: For the first time, the country’s research and development apex, the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF), has asked researchers applying for grants to declare whether their publications have been retracted in the past five years. The applicant, principal investigator (PI) or co-principal investigator is requested to provide the reasons for such withdrawal.ANRF insists it has zero tolerance for plagiarism and also requires researchers to sign a pledge that their research proposal (or any significant part of it) is not generated by AI. “A combination of tools could be used to detect the use of AI or retractions of publications over the past five years and alert technical program committees of decisions.”Conditions against plagiarism and other unethical behavior in academia are included in the latest round of calls for the foundation’s flagship program, the Advanced Research Grants Program, announced two days ago. Applications for the program, which supports high-impact frontier research in science and technology, will be accepted starting May 15. The researcher must hold a regular position in a recognized academic institution, national laboratory or other recognized research institute within India.Government officials said the move is part of continued efforts to introduce policy reforms in research and development. It comes amid a global focus on strengthening ethical practices and accountability in academic research.No other funding body is currently requesting details of retractions from researchers, according to senior academics. Generally, publications will be retracted if there is evidence of data manipulation, plagiarism, or ethical violations. A senior professor at IIT said the retraction was unusual, rare and available in the public domain.ANRF emphasized that research proposals must be original in conception and content. “All submissions are subject to third-party plagiarism checking, and submissions found to contain plagiarized content will be rejected. Any form of text that is included verbatim from another source must be identified using quotation marks and with appropriate citations (including the use of AI tools).” “Applicants are strongly encouraged to pre-check their proposals for plagiarism before submission to avoid rejection,” the policy states. India Research Watch, a private, non-profit initiative dedicated to improving the quality of research in India, called the ANRF move a “groundbreaking change” and called for similar reforms from other funding agencies. Founder Achar Agrawal said that when researchers are asked for a list of publications, they should also be asked for a list of retractions.
