India, Jan. 28 -- In the last decade, India's research production has doubled. In 2024, India climbed to third rank in research output, behind only China and the US. While building up research capabilities is a vital step forward for the nation, an equal emphasis must be placed on research integrity to ensure that the volume of research does not come at the expense of quality and credibility. According to the 2025 Research Integrity Risk Index (RI2), India topped the global list of high-risk academic institutions with dubious research quality. Plagiarism, data manipulation, and paper mills are leading contributing factors, undermining India's research credibility at the international level.

This year, the National Institutional Ranking F...