New Book "Women Scientists in India: Lives, Struggles, Achievements" | by Anjana Chattopadhyay, NBT

Women Scientists in India: Lives, Struggles, Achievements

by Anjana Chattopadhyay, National Book Trust, New Delhi, 2018, 492 pages, ISBN 9788123781440.

About the Book

The book is a landmark study focusing on rare facts related to the pioneering women scientists of India. It provides an overview of their relentless struggles and achievements that changed the course of science in India. The book has also covered the thrilling stories of foreign women missionaries who worked relentlessly for the wellbeing of people in India. The author has made an attempt to unfold the stories of great women scientists who remain hidden in scattered historical pages of unknown documents including newspapers, journals, dissertations and travelogues.

About the Author

Dr. Anjana Chattopadhyay (b. 1950), former Director General of Delhi Public Library System, was educated in University of Delhi and Annamalai University. She did her PhD from University of Bundelkhand. She served as the Deputy Librarian of the Jawaharlal Nehru University as well as Director, National Medical Library. During her tenure at various organisations, she had initiated several innovative programmes to make knowledge resources reachable to all. She started Electronic Resources in Medicine (ERMED), a network to provide free full-texts of articles from global journals to medical communities, including those, who are stationed at remote corners of the country. Dr. Anjana Chattopadhyay has written several articles and contributed many chapters in books. Besides, she has authored a series of books including Encyclopaedia of Indian Scientists (1995) and Dictionary of Indian Scientists (2002).

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New Book "Shadow Libraries: Access to Knowledge in Global Higher Education"

Shadow Libraries: Access to Knowledge in Global Higher Education

Edited by Joe Karaganis; The MIT Press, International Development Research Centre, & the American Assembly at Columbia University, 2018, 313 pages, ISBN: 9780262535014.

About the Book: Examining the new ecosystems of access that are emerging in middle- and low-income countries as opportunities for higher education expand but funding for materials shrinks.

Even as middle- and low-income countries expand their higher education systems, their governments are retreating from responsibility for funding and managing this expansion. The public provision of educational materials in these contexts is rare; instead, libraries, faculty, and students are on their own to get what they need. Shadow Libraries explores the new ecosystem of access, charting the flow of educational and research materials from authors to publishers to libraries to students, and from comparatively rich universities to poorer ones. In countries from Russia to Brazil, the weakness of formal models of access was countered by the growth of informal ones. By the early 2000s, the principal form of access to materials was informal copying and sharing. Since then, such unauthorized archives as Libgen, Gigapedia, and Sci-Hub have become global "shadow libraries," with massive aggregations of downloadable scholarly materials.

The chapters consider experiments with access in a range of middle- and low-income countries, describing, among other things, the Russian samizdat tradition and the connection of illicit copying to resistance to oppression; BiblioFyL, an online archive built by students at the University of Buenos Aires; education policy and the daily practices of students in post-Apartheid South Africa; the politics of access in India; and copy culture in Brazil.

Table of Contents

1 Introduction: Access from Above, Access from Below | Joe Karaganis

2 The Genesis of Library Genesis: The Birth of a Global Scholarly Shadow Library | Balázs Bodó

3 Library Genesis in Numbers: Mapping the Underground Flow of Knowledge | Balázs Bodó

4 Argentina: A Student-Made Ecosystem in an Era of State Retreat | Evelin Heidel

5 Access to Learning Resources in Post-apartheid South Africa | Eve Gray and Laura Czerniewicz

6 Poland: Where the State Ends, the Hamster Begins | Mirosław Filiciak and Alek Tarkowski

7 India: The Knowledge Thief | Lawrence Liang

8 Brazil: The Copy Shop and the Cloud | Pedro Mizukami and Jhessica Reia

9 Coda: Uruguay | Jorge Gemetto and Mariana Fossatti

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ADBR article "Safeguarding health and well-being of people: How Clinical Trials in Africa set for Sustainable Development Goals?" | by SK Patra & M Muchie

Safeguarding Health and Well-being of People: How Clinical Trials in Africa set for Sustainable Development Goals?

by Swapan Kumar Patra, & Mammo Muchie, Asian Biotechnology Development Review, 2017, 19(3), 3-23.

Abstract: To make availabile cheap medicines for number of diseases is one of the pressing challenges in Africa. Clinical trials are the foundation for making new medicines and continuation of the existing medicine. With the diverse patient population, African continent is a fertile ground for conducting clinical trials by many pharmaceutical firms, universities or research institutes. Governments of many African countries have adopted suitable pharmaceutical policies to make these countries comparatively researcher friendly and thus attracting firms or institutes to conduct the clinical trials. Governments of these countries are considering in making them centre of excellence in pharmaceutical and healthcare research. As a result, over the past few decades, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of registered clinical trials all -over Africa. This study is an attempt to map the clinical trial activities in African continent using data from the clinical trial database (ClinicalTrials.gov) website of the United State Government. It has been observed that although there has been a growth of clinical trials all -over African continent in the recent years, it is comparatively lower to other parts of the globe. The total number of the trials have shown that they are only conducted and that too to a limited extent in a few countries of the continent having stronger science and technology (S&T) base. The study concludes with some policy recommendations, including uniform research guidelines, and ethical regulations for further improvement of clinical trial research in Africa.

Keywords: Healthcare, Africa, Clinical Trial, Internationalization, Globalization, Globalization of R&D

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New Book "Ecosystem Services and Poverty Alleviation: Trade-offs and Governance"

Ecosystem Services and Poverty Alleviation: Trade-offs and Governance

Edited By Kate Schreckenberg, Georgina Mace, Mahesh Poudyal. Routledge, 2018, 352 pages, ISBN 9780429016295. 

About the Book: Understanding how to sustain the services that ecosystems provide in support of human wellbeing is an active and growing research area. This book provides a state-of-the-art review of current thinking on the links between ecosystem services and poverty alleviation. In part it showcases the key findings of the Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) programme, which has funded over 120 research projects in more than 50 countries since 2010. ESPA's goal is to ensure that ecosystems are being sustainably managed in a way that contributes to poverty alleviation as well as to inclusive and sustainable growth. As governments across the world map how they will achieve the 17 ambitious Sustainable Development Goals, most of which have poverty alleviation, wellbeing and sustainable environmental management at their heart, ESPA's findings have never been more timely and relevant.

The book synthesises the headline messages and compelling evidence to address the questions at the heart of ecosystems and wellbeing research. The authors, all leading specialists, address the evolving framings and contexts for the work, review the impacts of ongoing drivers of change, present new ways to achieve sustainable wellbeing, equity, diversity, and resilience, and evaluate the potential contributions from conservation projects, payment schemes, and novel governance approaches across scales from local to national and international.

The cross-cutting, thematic chapters challenge conventional wisdom in some areas, and validate new methods and approaches for sustainable development in others. The book will provide a rich and important reference source for advanced students, researchers and policy-makers in ecology, environmental studies, ecological economics and sustainable development.

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CSIR-NISCAIR introduces PhD & M.Sc. in Science & Technology Communication

CSIR-National Institute of Science Communication and Information Resources (CSIR-NISCAIR), New Delhi

Offers

PhD Science & Technology Communication &

M.Sc. Science & Technology Communication

Last date for online application: 24.05.2018

Detailed Instructions/ Guidelines

Application Form

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Article "Research and Innovation in South African Universities: from the Triple Helix's Perspective" | by SK Patra & Mammo Muchie

Research and Innovation in South African Universities: from the Triple Helix's Perspective

Swapan Kumar Patra & Mammo Muchie, Scientometrics, 2018, Doi: 10.1007/s11192-018-2764-0

Abstract: This study explores the research and innovation in South African universities within the triple-helix framework. Patents and publications data have been used as output indicators to map the R&D activities of South African universities. The study observed that universities are the most prolific publishers and constitute about 91% of total South African publications. However, universities altogether produce only about 14% of total South African patents. Only a few universities are responsible for both patenting and publication portfolio of South Africa. The collaboration patterns from joint patents show that only about 19% patents are collaborative patents. South African public research institutes are more active in joint patents with universities followed by the foreign universities but local firms are less active in collaborative patents. The similar trends are observed in co-authored articles also. The study recommends that collaboration between universities and local firms need to be strengthened to develop technological capabilities in South Africa. South African universities need to collaborate more with the industries, particularly the local industries or institutes to achieve the 'entrepreneurial university' in terms of patents and technology transfer. 

Keywords: South African universities, Triple helix, Industry–academia, linkages Social network analysis, Patents, Scientometrics

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DST India invites Applications for participation in 3rd BRICS Young Scientist Conclave in South Africa

DST India invites Applications for participation in 3rd BRICS Young Scientist Conclave at Durban, South Africa.

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