



































Developing a Supercourse Help Desk for India


 

 

 

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Developing a Supercourse Help 

Desk for India 
 
 

 

Mita Lovalekar1, Harish K. 

Pemde2, Babu L. Verma3  
 
1Department of Sports Medicine and 
Nutrition, University of Pittsburgh; 2Lady 
Hardinge Medical College, Kalawati 
Saran Children's Hospital, New Delhi, 
India; 3Maharani Laxmi Bai Medical 
College & Hospital, Jhansi, India 

 

 

 

Vol. 2, No. 2 (2013)   |   ISSN 2166-7403 (online)    

DOI 10.5195/cajgh.2013.50   |   http://cajgh.pitt.edu 

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LOVALEKAR 

 

 

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Central Asian Journal of Global Health 

Volume 2, No. 2 (2013) | ISSN 2166-7403 (online) | DOI 10.5195/cajgh.2013.50 | http://cajgh.pitt.edu 

  

 

Keywords:  Help desk, Supercourse 

 

Developing a Supercourse Help Desk 

for India  
 

Mita Lovalekar1, Harish K. Pemde2, 

Babu L. Verma3  
 
1Department of Sports Medicine and 
Nutrition, University of Pittsburgh; 2Lady 
Hardinge Medical College, Kalawati Saran 
Children's Hospital, New Delhi, India; 
3Maharani Laxmi Bai Medical College & 
Hospital, Jhansi, India 

Editorial 

Despite a vast majority of the world’s 

population residing in developing countries like India, 

only a small fraction of the total number of global 

scientific publications come from these countries. This 

is an unhappy situation, undesirable because of several 

reasons. 

In order to reduce the double impact of 

infectious and non-communicable diseases that are 

common in India, health care of the country needs to be 

based on evidence generated from research studies. 

Research on diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria, 

dengue and their relationship with malnutrition and 

some other locally prevalent factors, can only be 

conducted locally. Research capacity to investigate such 

endemic diseases in India is limited due to lack of 

adequate access of growing professionals to training in 

research methods, biostatistics, epidemiological 

methods, logical interpretation of public health concepts 

and also, medical research literature in journals. It is a 

well-known fact that developing countries have 

relatively fewer research articles submitted for 

publications to journals, and also, have a lower 

acceptance rate. Whether enhancing professionals’ 

knowledge in research methods and biostatistics in 

developing countries like India, will produce increased 

research opportunities in terms of scientific 

contributions, is to be investigated and published. Such 

research can incorporate local cultural practices that are 

unique to the country. 

In addition to these theoretical reasons for 

increasing research output in India, there is also an 

important practical reason. A commonly cited mantra in 

academia is publish or perish. Similar to faculty in 

developed countries, medical teachers in India are under 

pressure to publish regularly. Guidelines of the Medical 

Council of India (MCI) – a Government autonomous 

agency, responsible for regulation, control and 

monitoring standard of medical education in the 

country, issued in 1998, listed minimum qualifications 

for teachers in medical institutions in the country.
1 

Thus, 

as per the MCI, for almost all teaching specialties, 

minimum of 4 research publications, indexed in Index 

Medicus/recognized national journals, is desirable for 

promotion to the post of reader/associate professor. In 

addition, for promotion to the post of Professor in most 

teaching specialties, one publication in an international 

journal is desirable. Furthermore, MCI has made it 

mandatory for post graduate students to publish (sent for 

publication) at least one research paper before they will 

be eligible to appear in their final examination. These 

steps of MCI have increased pressure on teaching 

faculty to publish. 

Despite pressure to publish more journal 

articles, the publication output from India is much lower 

than expected (Figure 1). In fact, during recent years, 

there has been an increase in productivity in India, as 

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CENTRAL ASIAN JOURNAL OF GLOBAL HEALTH 

 

 

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Central Asian Journal of Global Health 

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compared to some other South Asian countries (Figure 

1). However, there is still a wide scope for further 

improvement. In spite of being the second most 

populous country in the world, India is not among the 

top countries in the world in terms of research 

productivity. India, undoubtedly, has the potential to 

become a research giant in public health. 

 

Figure 1: Published documents, selected countries, 

1996-2012. 

 

A recent article published in the International 

Journal of Epidemiology reviewed status of 

epidemiology in the WHO South-East Asia Region 

(SEAR).
2
 The authors searched for peer-reviewed 

epidemiology publications in PubMed. Less than 5% of 

these articles were from SEAR, with 54.9% of the 

SEAR articles being only from India. The authors 

accepted that the number of publications might have 

been under-estimated by their search criteria. Further, 

the paper also describes a lack of adequate 

epidemiological and public health education, training 

and research in this region, though the situation is 

gradually improving.
2
 Pertinent to the issue of lack of 

training in epidemiology, a study on the quality of 

reporting statistics in two Indian pharmacology journals 

revealed that inappropriate descriptive statistics were 

used in 78.1% of the articles, and information about 

checking assumptions was missing in many articles, 

among other issues.
3 

A recent review report (2012) in the Indian 

Journal of Public Health on biostatistics education in 

India,
4
 found that presently 19 institutions offer 

biostatistics education of different forms in the country. 

Though this number has gradually progressed in recent 

years, such institutions are geographically unevenly 

distributed – mostly existent in the Southern part of the 

country. Authors noted that in health research, 

biostatistics has not been given proper importance in the 

country. Many times, it does happen that a group of 

researchers start a study without including a 

biostatistician on board and involve them only at a late 

stage. By giving a citation, authors have pointed out that 

amongst medical colleges in India, biostatistics is 

considered to be one of those subjects which students 

dislike the most. It is important to look for the reasons 

as to why motivation for learning biostatistics by 

medical students has been so low in the country. This 

could be one of the reasons for poor biostatistical 

quality of medical papers from India, at times. The 

paper also speaks of need for capacity building efforts 

in the country, especially in the area of research 

methods and biostatistics. Authors have also 

emphasized the need for availability of trained 

professionals in biostatistics to help health researchers 

and clinicians, and for biostatistical training including 

support of research methods for increasing research 

productivity in the country. 

The Supercourse is an Open Source lecture 

library developed at the University of Pittsburgh Web 

server, and all Supercourse lectures are available 

without charge to any one.
5,6

 The Supercourse team has 

developed the Indian Supercourse Network as a part of 

the main Supercourse.
7
 The Indian Supercourse 

Network is a collection of lectures in epidemiology, 

public health and community medicine, on topics of 

particular interest to teachers and students in India. 

Currently, we have 6,700 collaborators in India, who are 

physicians, public health professionals, academicians 

and researchers. They have contributed more than 200 

lectures. The Indian Supercourse allows a 2-way 

exchange of public health information from India to the 

rest of the world, and then back to India. 

The question is - how can publications in 

public health by authors from India be increased? The 

solution lies in enhancing research knowledge and skills 

of Indian researchers along with consistent guidance to 

improve research capabilities. A research methods 

“Supercourse Help Desk” will provide the platform, 

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LOVALEKAR 

 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License. 

 

This journal is published by the University Library System of the University of Pittsburgh as part  

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Central Asian Journal of Global Health 

Volume 2, No. 2 (2013) | ISSN 2166-7403 (online) | DOI 10.5195/cajgh.2013.50 | http://cajgh.pitt.edu 

 

 

needed for such support to researchers in India. The 

Supercourse Help Desk was launched in June 2013.
8
 We 

have a team of over 250 research methods experts who 

are ready to answer research methods and biostatistics 

questions. The Indian Supercourse Help Desk will 

connect researchers in India with research experts 

around the world. After a question is submitted on the 

Help Desk Website, the client is directed to research 

methods lectures and bio-statistical lectures from the 

Supercourse and also from other sources. After 

examining the background material, if the client still 

needs help, questions will be presented to the research 

methods experts. Our Help Desk is thus, designed not 

only to answer specific Help Desk questions, but also to 

build capacity and teach basic research skills. The 

Supercourse is uniquely poised to launch a research 

methods Help Desk for India due to the extensive 

network of Indian Supercourse faculty and local “buy 

in” for the Supercourse from India. Professional medical 

associations can play a critical role in extending these 

resources to their members. Such steps are likely to 

improve patient care, based on locally produced health 

research based evidences. 

 

 

 

References 

1. Minimum Qualifications for Teachers in Medical Institutions 

Regulations, 1998. Available from  

http://www.mciindia.org/RulesandRegulations/TeachersEligibilit

yQualifications1998. aspx.  

2. Dhillon PK, Jeemon P, Arora NK, Mathur P, Maskey M, 

Sukirna RD, Prabhakaran D. Status of epidemiology in the WHO 

South-East Asia Region: Burden of disease, determinants of 

health and epidemiological research workforce and training 

capacity. Int. J Epidemiol. 2012; 41(3): 847-60. 

3. Jaykaran, Yadav P. Quality of reporting statistics in two 

Indian Pharmacology journals. J Pharmacol Pharmacother. 

2011; 2(2): 85-9. 

4. Singh R, Zodpey SP, Sharma K, Bangdiwala SI, Ugade S. 

Landscaping biostatistics education in India. Indian J Public 

Health. 2012; 56(4): 273-80. 

5. Global Health Network Supercourse. Available from 

www.pitt.edu/~super1. 

6. Linkov F, Omenn GS, Serageldin I, Cerf V, Lovalekar M, 

LaPorte R. Multilayer and multimetric quality control: the 

Supercourse. J Cancer Educ. 2010; 25(4): 478-83. 

7. Lovalekar MT, Linkov F, Mathur SC, Bhave SY. Indian 

Supercourse in Epidemiology. J Contin Educ Health Prof. 2010; 

30(4): 260. 

8. Supercourse and Library of Alexandria Help Desk (Beta 

version). Available from  

http://ssc.bibalex.org/staging/helpdesk/introduction.jsf. 

9. SCImago. (2007). SJR — SCImago Journal & Country Rank. 

Available from http://www.scimagojr.com/countryrank.php. 

Accessed August 29, 2013. 

  

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http://www.mciindia.org/RulesandRegulations/TeachersEligibilityQualifications1998.%20aspx
http://www.mciindia.org/RulesandRegulations/TeachersEligibilityQualifications1998.%20aspx
http://www.pitt.edu/~super1
http://ssc.bibalex.org/staging/helpdesk/introduction.jsf
http://www.scimagojr.com/countryrank.php


 

 

LOVALEKAR 

 

 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License. 

 

This journal is published by the University Library System of the University of Pittsburgh as part  

of its D-Scribe Digital Publishing Program and is cosponsored by the University of Pittsburgh Press. 

 

Central Asian Journal of Global Health 

Volume 2, No. 2 (2013) | ISSN 2166-7403 (online) | DOI 10.5195/cajgh.2013.50 | http://cajgh.pitt.edu 

  

 

Figure 1: Published documents, selected countries, 1996-2012.9  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Subject Area: Medicine; Subject Category: Public Health, Environmental and 
Occupational Health 

United States

India

China

Pakistan

Bangladesh

Sri Lanka

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