India, Aug. 8 -- The National Board of Accreditation (NBA), which oversees the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) rankings, will penalise higher education institutions (HEIs) if a significant number of research papers published by their faculty are retracted, in a move aimed at curbing the rising instances of academic misconduct in the country, officials said on Thursday.

NBA chairperson Anil Sahasrabudhe said negative marking for retracted papers in NIRF ranking 2025 is aimed at tackling the rise in retractions of papers. He said it was noted that several institutions pressure students and faculty to publish low-quality research (which later gets retracted) to boost their rankings.

India ranks only next to China in the num...