Achal Agrawal

Achal Agrawal
Born
India
EducationParis-Saclay University (Ph.D.)
Known forFounder of India Research Watch
AwardsNature's 10 (2025)
Scientific career
FieldsApplied mathematics, Data science, Research integrity, Scientometrics
WorkplacesIndia Research Watch

Achal Agrawal is an Indian data scientist, applied mathematician, and research integrity advocate. He is the founder of India Research Watch, a volunteer-run non-profit organisation established in November 2022 to investigate and raise awareness about scientific misconduct in India. In 2025, he was named to Nature's 10, the journal Nature's annual list of people who shaped science.

Education and Career

Agrawal received a Doctor of Philosophy in applied mathematics from the Paris-Saclay University in Orsay, France, in 2016. His doctoral research concerned coordination protocols and resource allocation in wireless communication networks. He returned to India in 2018 and worked as an academic in data science before founding the India Research Watch.

India Research Watch

Agrawal founded India Research Watch in November 2022 after an encounter with a student who had used paraphrasing software to repackage published work, an experience that prompted him to confront what he saw as widespread normalisation of research misconduct in Indian higher education

Utilizing public data repositories and the Retraction Watch database, Agrawal analyzed national publishing and retraction trends. His research demonstrated that India's retraction rate increased from 0.7 per 1,000 papers in 2014 to 4.8 per 1,000 in 2022. In 2024, Agrawal and collaborator Moumita Koley at the Indian Institute of Science flagged concerns that some universities may have been manipulating metrics used in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF). India Research Watch's advocacy is credited with contributing to a 2025 policy change by the NIRF to impose penalties on higher-education institutions with high numbers of retracted papers.

References

  1. ↑ Chakrabarty, Roshni (2025-12-23). "Meet Achal Agrawal, India's academic watchdog taking on research plagiarism". India Today. Retrieved 2026-08-02.
  2. ↑ "Shoddy commentaries—a quick and dirty route to higher impact numbers—are on the rise". www.science.org. Retrieved 2026-08-18.
  3. ↑ Naddaf, Miryam (2025-12-08). "This science sleuth revealed a retraction crisis at Indian universities". Nature. 648 (8094): 518–518. doi:10.1038/d41586-025-03839-2. ISSN 1476-4687.
  4. ↑ "Achal Agrawal Exposes Research Misconduct In India".
  5. ↑ "Calls beckon for a research watchdog in India - QS Insights Magazine 34". magazine.qs.com. Retrieved 2026-03-31.
  6. 1 2 Ravindranath, Prasad (2025-12-09). "Achal Agrawal, Research-Integrity Sleuth From India, Among 'Nature's 10 People Who Helped Shape Science In 2025'". Science Chronicle. Retrieved 2026-03-31.
  7. ↑ "Do we really need to worry about hyper-prolific authors?". Times Higher Education (THE). 2026-03-26. Retrieved 2026-03-31.
  8. ↑ Naddaf, Miryam (2025). "This science sleuth revealed a retraction crisis at Indian universities". Nature. 648: 518. doi:10.1038/d41586-025-03839-2.
  9. ↑ Andrei, Mihai (2025-12-08). "Ten People Who Shaped Science In 2025". ZME Science. Retrieved 2026-03-31.
  10. ↑ "Achal Agrawal's research works". ResearchGate. Retrieved 2026-03-31.
  11. ↑ "Science journal 'Nature' honours Raipur data scientist Achal Agrawal for exposing academic misconduct". Archived from the original on 2026-02-12. Retrieved 2026-03-31.
  12. ↑ Basu, Mohana (2024-01-22). "This Indian watchdog is cleaning up 'mess' in academia—falsification, fabrication & fraud". ThePrint. Retrieved 2026-03-31.
  13. ↑ "Penalise 'retraction hotspot' universities, says integrity expert". Times Higher Education. 2026-01-15. Retrieved 2026-03-31.
  14. ↑ Agrawal, Achal. "The scientific world does not need more bad quality papers". University World News. Archived from the original on 2025-07-02. Retrieved 2026-08-18.
  15. ↑ "Growing Cases of Scientific Misconduct in India Spark Worry Within the Academic Community". IndraStra Global. Retrieved 2026-03-31.
  16. ↑ Koley, Moumita (2023-06-14). "Explained | Is the National Institutional Ranking Framework flawed?". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2026-03-31.
  17. ↑ Agrawal, Achal; Koley, Moumita (2024-08-20), Are the Metrics being Gamed? A Closer Look at the Rise and Fall of Universities in NIRF 2024 Rankings, Zenodo, doi:10.5281/ZENODO.13350313, retrieved 2026-03-31
  18. ↑ Koley, Achal Agrawal, Moumita (2024-07-08). "NIRF parameters ill-designed & lead to absurd university ratings. Govt must order a review". ThePrint. Retrieved 2026-03-31.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  19. ↑ Mallapaty, Smriti (2025-08-01). "India to penalize universities with too many retractions". Nature. 644 (8076): 317–318. doi:10.1038/d41586-025-02364-6. ISSN 1476-4687.
  20. ↑ "NIRF ranking 2025: Higher education institutes to be penalised for retracted papers". Hindustan Times. 2025-08-08. Retrieved 2026-03-31.
  21. ↑ "NIRF to introduce negative marking for retracted papers, poor quality research". The Economic Times. 2025-10-03. ISSN 0013-0389. Retrieved 2026-03-31.