Jindal Global Law School (JGLS) of O.P. Jindal Global University (JGU) has reached the remarkable landmark milestone of 300+ academic research publications by its faculty members of which 280+ are indexed in SCOPUS during 2020-2021. Scopus is the largest database of peer-reviewed literature in the world. The record 280 faculty publications comes in the middle of the pandemic, where the stress on all individuals was enormous. Academicians in JGLS, and other educational institutions, have been balancing teaching and research commitments since March 2020. The persistent efforts of Jindal’s law faculty is a testament to the commitment and dedication of India’s number one ranked law school towards cutting-edge research and scholarship.
It is important to put these numbers in perspective. There are 23 National Law Universities (NLUs) in India. The first Indian NLU on this list is 35 years old and the top four/five NLUs were established in the 1980s and the 1990s. An analysis of the SCOPUS database managed by Elsevier publishing house reveals that, for the same period, Jindal Global Law School’s record 280 Scopus-indexed publications are twice the number of Scopus-indexed publications listed by all the 23 NLUs combined. On average, one NLU can be credited with 6 SCOPUS publications in 2020-21.
Professor (Dr.) C. Raj Kumar, Founding Vice Chancellor, O.P. Jindal Global University & Founding Dean, JGLS, extending his compliments to all faculty members who contributed to this significant accomplishment, stated, “This is an extraordinary feat by the Jindal Global Law School. 280+ articles in reputed journals and edited books is an outstanding achievement for a young law school that is just 12 years old. Of course, a large body of research work is published in reputed journals that may not be indexed in SCOPUS. This is a remarkable sign of the strength and resilience of the law faculty of JGU and legal scholars and practitioners in general. I feel this is an important day in Indian legal research and education where the overall Indian knowledge ecosystem stands to benefits greatly from this achievement. I congratulate the faculty members of JGLS and the Office of the Research Dean of JGLS for their committed, continuing, and commendable efforts”.
Professor (Dr.) Sreejith S.G., Executive Dean, JGLS stated that, “Faculty members of JGLS, who are also outstanding scholars in their respective fields, turned the conditions created by the COVID-19 Pandemic into ‘perspectives’ to study the state of play and the new normal. Many of the publications responded to the questions the world had on the sustenance during the Pandemic and rediscovering the post-Pandemic world. Their research hence has the spirit of reimagination, recovery and redemption and has the story of courage, confidence, and capacity”.
This achievement is the result of consciously evolved policies and practices that have systematically prioritized faculty research, created an enabling environment for research and carefully guarded research space and time of JGLS faculty members. JGLS has also set up a dedicated Research Deans’ Office under the leadership of Prof. Dipika Jain, Vice Dean (Research) and Prof. Shivprasad Swaminathan (Associate Dean, Research) and Albeena Shakil (Associate Dean, Research), which has organized several faculty research seminars and faculty research colloquia for discussing the working papers of faculty members, and workshops on the process of publishing throughout this difficult pandemic period. They consulted over 200 faculty members to create comprehensive policies on research and put in place robust processes and enduring institutional structures for propelling research at JGLS. The Office created a framework of mentoring faculty members in their early-career and enabled them to publish in high impact journals. The importance of SCOPUS publications in the context of a university’s benchmarking to international standards cannot be overstated.
Professor Dipika Jain, Vice Dean (Research), JGLS explained the School’s efforts during the period. “As a research centric University, we identified research initiatives which brought together scholars presently at different points of their intellectual journey into the collegial enterprise of supporting each other’s research. The approach of the School towards research has been ‘publish and flourish’. This motto became a hope during the murkier phase of the Pandemic. This hope drove us to build an ecosystem of collaborative knowledge creation, as we sensed that world which would recover from the Pandemic would need ideas for restoration. Mindful of this, we motivated our colleagues to unfold their thoughts and enabled the younger ones by collaborating and deliberating on the art and joy of critical reading, thinking, and writing”.
Professor Dabiru Sridhar Patnaik, Registrar, JGU observed, “With this stellar achievement of JGLS, all schools of JGU will encourage its faculty members to redouble their efforts towards further sustaining a vibrant culture of research that has been fostered over the last decade or so at JGLS — a culture in which scholars thrive and along with it. JGLS continues to build on its position as a premier institution for research not just in India, but globally. I would like to extend my heartiest congratulations to the faculty members of JGLS and wish them the very best in scaling even greater heights in the time to come.”