Special Lecture on theme, “Effective Search Strategy for Accessing E-Resources in Social Science Research”

Chandigarh, April 24, 2024: The Department-cum-Centre for Women’s Studies & Development, Panjab University, Chandigarh organised a Special Lecture on the theme, “Effective Search Strategy for Accessing E-Resources in Social Science Research”, for the faculty, guest faculty, research scholars, students of the university under the aegis of Special Lecture Series. Dr. Neeraj K. Singh, Deputy Librarian, A.C. Joshi Library, was the resource person for the session.

The speaker formed the background of the presentation, by highlighting Indian scholars citation index at the global level which is ranked at number 3 presently, and how it can be improved further. To further increase the impact of research, there is a need to maintain the right balance between the quality and quantity of the research articles, as asserted by the speaker.

Effective search strategy by mixing online and offline sources was stressed in order to access quality literature for conducting research. Prestigious E-resources like SCOPUS, EPWRF, Indian Stat, JSTOR, Sage Publications, Mendeley, Emerald, Proquest, Dissemin, Oxford, National Digital Library of India, etc. were explained and demonstrated, and the hands-on experience was provided to the research scholars and students. Open access and free access of resources was also mentioned, and how to improve the output from these resources was delineated upon.

The students were also motivated to do better research by sensitizing them about research ethics, publication ethics, fieldwork and preservation of data, even after conducting research. The optimum use of technology to improve the quality of research was discussed threadbare. The idea of “Publish or Perish”, was also stressed upon and the social, gender and moral impact of research was also focused upon. The special lecture was interspersed with extensive queries and deliberations from the participants, across sister disciplines and was well attended by participants across sciences & social sciences.

Earlier, Prof. Manvinder Kaur, Chairperson, welcomed the esteemed speaker and introduced the theme of the discussion. The Speaker was felicitated by Dr. Ameer Sultana and Dr. Rajesh K. Chander delivered the formal vote of thanks.