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| Year : 2021 | Volume
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| Issue : 3 | Page : 229-230 |
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| Impact of research in dentistry |
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Sekar Mahalaxmi
Department of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics, SRM Dental College, Ramapuram, Chennai - 600 089, Tamil Nadu, India
Click here for correspondence address and email
| Date of Submission | 30-Nov-2021 |
| Date of Decision | 30-Nov-2021 |
| Date of Acceptance | 30-Nov-2021 |
| Date of Web Publication | 08-Dec-2021 |
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How to cite this article:
Mahalaxmi S. Impact of research in dentistry. J Conserv Dent 2021;24:229-30 |
Dear Readers,
Research impact is defined as the effect or contribution of research not only in academic platforms, but also on the economic, social and cultural aspects of the society.[1] The research protocols in India have drastically changed in the past few decades. Regulatory bodies have made it mandatory to conduct research and publish for both postgraduate students and faculty for professional advancements.
Personal and overall academic growth of universities happens mainly through research activities, starting from a simple requirement for partial fulfillment of the postgraduate course, faculty promotion, regulations of apex bodies, contributions to ranking prospects in accreditation consultancies, etc. Research institutions are now focusing on return of investment; more often, many of the institution ranking systems look at the quantity of publications rather than the quality.[2] Recently, some universities have adopted ways of motivating academic research and publication with perks like providing authorship incentive/grants for good proposal/paying the article processing fee, etc.
At an individual level, an academician is recognized by the thrust area of his/her research, and the related publications. The impact of their research is assessed based on bibliometrics, the number of publications and their citations, the cumulative impact factor, the h- and i-10 indices.[1] Currently, it is not only scientific journals, but also blogs, social and news media, and many other ways where information is disseminated, and the article level impact (altmetrics) came into practice. This in turn resulted in the mushrooming of several journals that are predatory in nature causing a dilution of quality research.[3] In a hustle to publish, authors knowingly or unknowingly send their manuscripts to deceiving and seemingly indexed predatory journals, and end up losing their hard work.
The reason that most of our research does not necessarily benefit the society, is because at an institutional level, studies start and end at the laboratory bench stage, with little or no translation to in vivo studies and clinical usage. There is a need for more and more clinical studies to be conducted, since that can be directed towards better treatment prospects for the patients. However, the gap between academic research and clinical translation is slowly closing, though it is a long road ahead. Randomized control trials are the need of the hour. Clinical trials need to be registered at the Clinical Trials Registry of India (CTRI) mandatorily, even before the start of the first recruitment. For clinical drug trials, the Central Drug Standards Control Organization (CDSCO) provides standard operating protocols and guidelines to be followed, known as the Good Clinical Practices (GCP).[4] GCP is an ethical and scientific quality standard for designing, conducting and recording trials that involve the participation of human subjects. Using these guidelines ensures that the rights, safety and well-being of trial subjects are protected, consistent with the principles enshrined in the Declaration of Helsinki. The GCP helps institutional review and ethics boards in streamlining the scrutiny of clinical trials in their institutions.[5]
In this aspect, at the university level, institutions and organizations play a vital role in bridging the laboratory studies to clinical practice gap. This can be achieved by regular reinforcements through research training, research faculty exchange programs, research methodology workshops and research collaborations. The research/academic faculty can be appraised based on the Hong Kong principles that encourages transparent reporting and intern incentive research achievements.[6]
Finally, policy-makers in health and technology sectors need to identify and invest in priority areas that impede oral health research in India, so as to mitigate the oral disease burden.[7]
 References | |  |
| 1. | Hutchinson A. Metrics & research impact. Science Libraries in the Self Service Age: Developing New Services, Targeting New Users. Ch. 8. Cambridge, UK: Chandos Publishing; 2018.  |
| 2. | Eaton KA, Giannobile WV, Sourgen DL, Balaji SM, Honkala E, Lynch CD. Improving the quality of papers submitted to dental journals: Transcription of session for editors, associate editors, publishers and others with an interest in scientific publishing held at IADR meeting in Cape Town on Wednesday, 25 June 2014. J Dent 2015;43:855-64. |
| 3. | Grudniewicz A, Moher D, Cobey KD, Bryson GL, Cukier S, Allen K, et al. Predatory journals: No definition, no defence. Nature 2019;576:210-2. |
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| 6. | Moher D, Bouter L, Kleinert S, Glasziou P, Sham MH, Barbour V, et al. The Hong Kong Principles for assessing researchers: Fostering research integrity. PLoS Biol 2020;18:e3000737. |
| 7. | Balaji SM, Mathur VP. Dental practice, education and research in India. Oral health inequalities and health systems in Asia Pacific. Nat India 2017;28:241. |
Correspondence Address:
Dr. Sekar Mahalaxmi
Department of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics, SRM Dental College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/jcd.jcd_588_21
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