The research integrity crisis appears particularly acute in Southern India, with multiple states contributing significantly to the global risk rankings.
Published Jul 03, 2025 | 8:00 AM ⚊ Updated Jul 03, 2025 | 8:00 AM
India emerges as the epicentre of global research integrity concerns. (Representative image)
Synopsis: The dominance of technical and engineering institutions in the rankings raises particular concerns about India’s technology education sector. The RI2 findings also coincide with India’s ambitious goals to establish itself as a global education hub and achieve significant improvements in international university rankings. The research integrity crisis could undermine these objectives and damage the international credibility of Indian academic credentials.
India has emerged as the epicentre of global research integrity concerns, with nine of the world’s ten high-risk academic institutions located within the country, according to the latest Research Integrity Risk Index (RI2) rankings released in June 2025.
The damning assessment places several of India’s prominent universities in the “Red Flag” category, indicating “extreme anomalies” and “systemic integrity risk” that could undermine the credibility of Indian academic research on the international stage.
Graphic Era University, of Dehradun topped the global risk rankings with an alarming RI2 score of 0.916, followed by Vel Tech University (0.868) and Koneru Lakshmaiah Education Foundation (0.834).
Other Indian institutions in the list are:
Only Daffodil International University from Bangladesh breaks India’s monopoly on the top ten, ranking tenth with a score of 0.630.
The RI2, developed by Professor Lokman Meho at the American University of Beirut, evaluates institutions using two critical metrics that expose different dimensions of research misconduct.
The first warning sign counts how many research papers had to be completely withdrawn or “retracted” because they were so badly flawed. Think of this like a car manufacturer having to recall vehicles due to dangerous defects. When a research paper gets retracted, it means the work was so problematic —perhaps the data was fake, the experiments were done wrong, or someone plagiarized— that it had to be removed from scientific records entirely.
“R Rate–the number of retracted articles per 1,000 publications, capturing evidence of serious methodological, ethical, or authorship violations,” said the authors.
The second warning sign measures how often universities publish in “bad” journals—publications that were later removed from major academic databases for being unreliable or fraudulent. This is like a restaurant being shut down by health inspectors —once that happens, you know the food wasn’t safe to eat.
“The D Rate calculates the percentage of an institution’s publications appearing in journals recently delisted from major databases Scopus or Web of Science for failing quality standards,” said the authors.
Indian institutions demonstrate alarming patterns across both metrics.
Graphic Era University recorded a staggering retraction rate of 37.29 per 1,000 publications— meaning nearly 4 percent of its research output was deemed so fundamentally flawed it required complete withdrawal. By comparison, global research integrity standards suggest retraction rates should remain well below 1 per 1,000 publications.
Anna University, one of India’s one of most prestigious institutions with 16,871 publications in the assessment period, registered 374 retractions and a rate of 23.54 per 1,000— indicating systemic rather than isolated problems. Similarly, Saveetha Institute, despite its medical focus where research standards should be particularly rigorous, recorded 170 retractions from 10,429 articles.
The delisted journal crisis appears equally severe. University of Pune published 15.35 percent of its research in venues subsequently removed from major databases, while Koneru Lakshmaiah Education Foundation reached 15.02 percent. These figures suggest substantial portions of Indian academic output may have appeared in predatory or substandard publications.
The dominance of technical and engineering institutions in the rankings raises particular concerns about India’s technology education sector.
Multiple campuses of Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University —a system educating hundreds of thousands of engineering students — appeared in the top ten, with JNTU Hyderabad publishing nearly 1,000 articles in delisted journals alone.
Visvesvaraya Technological University— ranked 13, and other technical institutions like Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Technical University being listed demonstrates that integrity problems span India’s engineering education landscape.
The presence of Anna University, Tamil Nadu’s flagship technical institution, at seventh position is particularly troubling given its role in setting academic standards across the state’s engineering colleges.
The crisis extends beyond engineering to medical education, with Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences ranking sixth globally. Medical research integrity violations carry heightened concerns due to potential impacts on patient care and clinical practice.
Even comprehensive universities aren’t immune. The University of Pune, one of India’s oldest and most respected institutions, ranks ninth primarily due to its extensive use of delisted journals rather than high retraction rates.
The research integrity crisis appears particularly acute in Southern India, with multiple states contributing significantly to the global risk rankings.
Andhra Pradesh leads with three institutions in the top 100: Koneru Lakshmaiah Education Foundation (3), JNTU Anantapur (5), and Vel Tech University (2, though primarily Tamil Nadu-based).
Tamil Nadu shows an alarming concentration of high-risk institutions, with Anna University (7) joined by Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences (6) and VIT University (54).
The state’s “engineering education hub” status makes these findings particularly concerning for India’s technology sector.
Karnataka contributes Visvesvaraya Technological University (13) and Christ University Bangalore (84).
The presence of VTU, which oversees engineering education across Karnataka, and affiliates hundreds of colleges, suggests integrity problems may cascade through the state’s entire technical education system.
Telangana appears through JNTU Hyderabad (4) and Osmania University (48), indicating that the newly formed state’s higher education institutions face significant integrity challenges despite recent administrative reforms.
Even Kerala, traditionally known for higher educational standards, has institutions appearing in the broader rankings, though none in the extreme risk categories in the top 100.
The concentration in Southern India —home to the country’s information technology industry and major technical universities —raises questions about whether rapid commercialization of education and intense competition for research output may have compromised academic standards.
These states collectively train a significant portion of India’s engineers and technology professionals, making the integrity crisis particularly consequential for the nation’s technological competitiveness.
While India dominates the highest-risk categories, the complete top 100 rankings reveal broader regional patterns. Saudi Arabia contributes 18 institutions, China 15, and Pakistan 12, suggesting research integrity challenges may be concentrated in rapidly expanding higher education systems.
The concentration of Indian institutions in the highest-risk category is unprecedented, with the country claiming 27 of the top 100 positions— more than a quarter of all institutions flagged for serious integrity concerns globally.
The geographic clustering raises questions about whether systemic factors— including publication pressure, inadequate oversight mechanisms, or predatory publisher targeting— may be driving integrity failures across entire regions rather than isolated institutional problems.
King Saud University, Saudi Arabia’s flagship institution, appears at rank 88 despite publishing over 27,000 articles, demonstrating that even well-resourced universities in expanding systems face integrity challenges.
Indonesian universities, including Bina Nusantara University, ranked 11, show particularly high rates of publishing in delisted journals —with some institutions placing nearly 18 percent of their output in subsequently removed venues.
The RI2 findings coincide with India’s ambitious goals to establish itself as a global education hub and achieve significant improvements in international university rankings. The research integrity crisis could undermine these objectives and damage the international credibility of Indian academic credentials.
The concentration of technical universities in the rankings may reflect broader systemic issues including publication pressure on faculty, inadequate research ethics training, or insufficient institutional oversight of publication practices.
(Edited by Sumavarsha)
