The Research Journals Division of CSIR-National Institute of Science Communication and Policy Research (NIScPR), New Delhi, is organizing the Vritika Research Internship on “Grooming academic publishing skills via a short term training course” during 1^st June to 30^th June 2022. The internship is sponsored by the Science & Engineering Research Board (SERB), Department of Science and Technology (DST), Govt of India, under Accelerate Vigyan Vritika scheme. The inaugural program began with lighting of the lamp led by Prof. Ranjana Aggarwal, Director, CSIR- NIScPR.

Prof Ranjana Aggarwal, Director, CSIR-NIScPR in her inaugural address, she emphasized that scholarly communication is the lifeline for a researcher. She added that the internship program will give an opportunity to the participants to learn about scholarly and popular science writing. She also highlighted about the rapid changes taking place in the scholarly communication landscape.

Shri. R S Jayasomu, Chief scientist, Head Jigyasa and RHMD, & Editor, Indian Journal of Experimental Biology, (IJEB), CSIR-NIScPR, in his address said that learning the art and science of research paper writing early on in the career is the very important for young researchers. He added that the scholarly publishing process has many challenges and noted that there are only a handful of indexed Indian publications.

Dr. G Mahesh, Senior Principal Scientist and Head Research Journals Division stated that CSIR- NIScPR offers the perfect environment for conducting internship where all the resources are available under one roof.

Dr N K Prasanna, Senior Scientist and the Scientific Editor Indian Journal of Biochemistry and Biophysics (IJBB), and the coordinator of the Vritika Research Internship, delivered the introductory address and gave a brief about the programme. She said the objective of the Vritika Research Internship is to encourage and nurture scientific temper among the budding scholars and groom them to acquire basic skills in research communication and gets a 'sense of pride' being an 'informed citizen' of this great nation with a historical tradition.

The Research internship was attended by 5 participants from both PG and PhD streams from various universities and colleges in offline mode. This internship provides necessary knowledge on converting research data into an indexed publication, exposure to processing of research manuscripts from preparation to publication, to know about the techniques behind copyediting, writing research paper and literature summary and seeks to foster a strong interest in scientific and engineering research as well as providing technical insight into the fields of science and engineering.

CSIR-National Institute of Science Communication and Policy Research (CSIR-NIScPR), a premier science publishing institute in India, has also been playing a key role in training of young researchers by conducting several workshops, Internships, and training programs in diverse fields.

The month-long intense internship program has lectures, practical, lab visits, and regular interactive sessions with CSIR-NIScPR scientists, Editors, and science communicators. It is expected that by the end of the program the students will be adequately skilled with latest scholarly publishing methods and best practices that would benefit them in their research career in the long run.

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