Abstract
This communication highlights a very pertinent and recent case of an erroneous representation of the Indian borders in an article ‘India by the numbers’ by Richard Van Noorden in Nature (http://www.nature.com/news/india-by-the-numbers-1.17519) where a considerable part of the Jammu and Kashmir State of India is missing in the map incorporated in the article. The article received a series of comments showing disappointment on the issue and a need for the correction to the depicted Indian borders. The editor instead of making corrections to the map has issued a statement that ‘the map shows land areas currently administered by the Indian Government’, that in no way can be considered as an acceptable argument. We wish the focus of this well written article had remained on science rather than introducing unnecessary controversies.
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References
National Archives of India. (2015). http://nationalarchives.nic.in/. Accessed 4 Aug 2015.
Noorden, R. V. (2015). India by the numbers—Highs and lows in the country’s research landscape. Nature, 521, 142–143. doi:10.1038/521142a.
PoK Issue. (2011). Get your map corrected, India tells US. Reddif.com, November 21, 2011. http://www.rediff.com/news/report/pok-issue-get-your-map-corrected-india-tells-us/20111121.htm. Accessed 4 Aug 2015.
Science in India. 2015, 521, 141 (14 May 2015). http://www.nature.com/news/science-in-india-1.17516. doi:10.1038/521141a.
Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful to their respective universities (Manipal University and Panjab University) for encouraging research and publications in international journals of repute. Corresponding author wishes to acknowledge the present Vice Chancellor Prof. Arun Kumar Grover and former Vice Chancellor Prof. RC Sobti for their untiring efforts to encourage quality research and publications for better research outputs.
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