Universities in developed countries have an established research culture. The research output of academia greatly contributes towards the development of these countries.

While universities in Pakistan have the convention of strong classroom teaching, when it comes to research, too little is being carried out to help Pakistan shape its economic, social and scientific policies.

I have been associated with academia and research for more than seven years, and it has always disturbed me to look at the quality of publications most of our researchers produce.

There are several reasons for the sloppy state of research activity in Pakistani universities. But many of these can be resolved with a few steps in the right direction.

Research for the sake of promotion

In 2002, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) started to introduce reforms in universities. Thousands of scholars were sent abroad for higher studies and many of them have already returned and are now serving in Pakistan.

However, although HEC makes sure that scholars do come back after completing their education in foreign countries by signing a legal bond with them, the HEC has set no criteria for the number and quality of publications produced during the course of these PhDs.

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Some supervisors fuss over the quality of research due to the international ranking of their research group, but most do not bother at all. Scholars pursuing their studies from reputed universities abroad publish fewer but quality papers whereas for the ones here, it is the other way round.

Universities in Pakistan require a certain number of publications along with a PhD for promotion. The quality of publications is conveniently ignored and so a person having fewer good publications with hundreds of citations is left