Looking Back: Resources for Scientific Writing

In the 21st century, it is hard to find a phase of academia that does not utilize some form of technology in their everyday teaching, learning, and research. Today most people in the academic area do not remember life without the internet and have had technology like smartphones, iPads, laptops, smartboards and other devices available throughout most of their educational activity. Growing up with this technology gives everyone with a plethora of information at your fingertips.

Life was not the same in the past and I am grateful to have had the opportunity to observe and reflect how technology has facilitated learning in different stages of my career. When I was a postgraduate student in Jadavpur University (1982 -84) and wanted to know about say, cross reference of my postgraduate thesis research topic, I would go to library, find a few journals in a shelf dedicated to the subject/topic - then I would look at few cross-referenced words in such journals, go another path in the same room, and identify another bunch of journals on the topic.  Obtaining journal article reprints was a long and arduous process. It typically involved either submission of a request to the overseas author by airmail or to the Indian National Scientific Documentation Centre (INSDOC). You need to have tremendous patience to receive those reprints and follow up. My experience as faculty at Annamalai University (beginning with 1987) was nearly the same, only with a new addition of electronic typewriter and desktop computer for article printing.

However, my past little more than a decade of experience was a phenomenal one.

These days, I receive communications via WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook messenger, Google Allo or even LinkedIn. I find resources for teaching and others through internet search engines particularly Google Scholar. I edit, with my colleagues, department documents in Google Drive saving both time and paperwork. I maintain a profile in ResearchGate utilizing its multifunctional platform. I have an ORCID ID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) that helps peer-reviewing journal articles and offer a solution to automate the collection of research output. Very recently, I have been receiving credit for peer-reviewing journal papers through Publons. At a personal level, I maintain a blog to post my random thoughts.

The examples/experiences mentioned above are online spaces that allow me to utilize it. Our sense of orientation and various aspects of knowledge toward teaching and learning have changed dramatically over the years with the advent of the internet and most specifically, in this context, academic social networking sites including many popular social networking sites (SNSs).