Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA) organised talks on 2 June 2023 by Dr. Uttam K. Sinha, Senior Fellow & Managing Editor, Strategic Analysis, Mr. Vivek Kaushik, Associate Editor, Strategic Analysis, Ms. Madhavi Ratnaparkhi, Associate Editor, Journal of Defence Studies & website, Ms. Sindhu Dinesh and Ms. Mayuri Banerjee, Research Analysts on “Internal Publications of MP-IDSA” as a part of the ongoing “Orientation Programme for Young Scholars”. The research staff, including Associate Fellows, Research Analysts and Interns attended the Session.

Executive Summary

The MP-IDSA is India’s foremost think-tank on defense, strategic, and security issues. The Institute has several quality journals and different platforms to present analyses and research findings. The panelists shared their views on how to develop writing skills, enhance the quality of research, and on the publication process.

Detailed Report

“We are in the business of pushing the frontiers of knowledge forward and it is a privilege to be in the scholarly space that gives us the opportunity to write and share our views and findings”, Dr. Uttam Sinha thus began his talk. He further stated that the scholarly space is competitive with ideas being competed and narratives built and challenged. As scholars, we have to keep pace and be competitive. Writing is an important part of research activity and while it might seem easy it ends up as troublesome. The basic principle of writing is how effectively you are communicating. As he further explained, writing is not done in isolation. It is a process that comes about through reading, learning, and comprehending. He cautioned not to jump to writing but to build substantial knowledge on the subject before attempting to write. As a writer, “you have to understand the audience”. As MP-IDSA scholars there are essentially three levels of engagement with the audience: the public, the stakeholders, and the peer group.  Different formats can be used to address the audience: peer-reviewed journals, web commentary, policy/issue briefs, monographs, and books.

Mr. Vivek Kaushik talked about the institute’s flagship journal, Strategic Analysis, its history, and the process of publication. He informed the audience that Strategic Analysis is one of the oldest journals on security and strategic studies in India and was first published in 1968. It was a monthly journal till 2001 and later changed to a quarterly. In 2007 it began to publish with Routledge, the imprint of Taylor and Francis, UK and its periodicity changed to bimonthly. It now has a robust database. He then talked about the journal’s content, policies, peer review process, and the editorial committee.

Dr. Sinha informed the audience of an interesting debate. When Strategic Analysis was introduced, the idea was to bring out-of-the-box thinking and policy suggestions. The peer-review system that was introduced in 2001, it was argued, constrained such thinking. However, to make it international, credible, and acceptable, the peer review won the day.  He advised the audience to read other well-known peer reviewed journals and for brevity, structure, and expression to read editorials. He suggested reading The Economist in particular.  

Ms. Madhavi Ratnaparkhi talked about the Journal of Defence Studies (JDS) and writing for the website. The JDS with its focus on niche defense studies was an alternative to Strategic Analysis. It encourages research on core issues of defense and provides a platform for debate and critical thinking. For a wider outreach, it is available easily on the MP-IDSA website. The speaker briefed about how the journal articles get approved and published and advised the audience to carefully read the norms of submission available on the website. She then focused on web commentaries, issue briefs, and backgrounders, their essence, style, and format, and explained other writing activities that research analysts and interns are encouraged to do, particularly making notes/summaries of Monday Morning Meetings, round-table talks, and seminars.

Ms. Sindhu Dinesh, Research Analyst, talked about the citation format for web commentaries, issue briefs, and backgrounders. She stated the references and proper sources are critically important as authors are responsible for factual accuracy.

Stressing on referencing and sources, Dr. Sinha suggested using Press Information Bureau (PIB) reports for authenticity. He also warned against plagiarism. Honesty in research, he added, is valuable as is modesty and humility. Noting down references as one is writing is a good practice rather than leaving it to the end. That can often lead to inadvertent mistakes, he said.

Ms. Mayuri Banerjee, Research Analyst, briefed the audience about rapporteuring. She shared her experience and pointed out that a report should not be a transcript of the event but should be systemic, structured, and highlight the relevant information. She emphasised that report writing helps sharpen writing skills.

Q&A Session

Maj. Gen. (Dr.) Bipin Bakshi (Retd.) appreciated the speakers for their views and presentations. He stated that such an exercise, recently introduced, to familiarise the new entrants to MP-IDSA is useful and needed.

The report was prepared by Mr. Karan Phular, Intern, Centre of Europe and Eurasia, MP-IDSA.