About the Database

VIDWAN is the premier database of profiles of scientists / researchers and other faculty members working at leading academic institutions and other R & D organisation involved in teaching and research in India. It provides important information about expert's background, contact address, skills and accomplishments. The database developed and maintained by Information and Library Network Centre (INFLIBNET), An Inter-University Centre of UGC, Infocity, Gandhinagar. It offers research profiles of experts in various subjects from leading institutions in India and abroad. Consistent attempts have been made to provide relevant, accurate and updated information about experts. Web enabled interface has been developed to facilitate the search and browsing of profiles of experts. The databases can be searched on parameters such as name, designation, area of expertise, organisation, state, etc. Login IDs and passwords have been issued to experts whose profile is available in the database with a persistent URL enabling them to update their profiles

Purpose of the Database

  • Quickly and conveniently provide information about experts to peers, prospective collaborators, funding agencies, policy makers and research scholars in the country;
  • Enhance the transparency of the process through which experts are invited to participate into various scientific activities;
  • Establish communication directly with the experts who possess the expertise needed by users;
  • Identify peer reviewers for articles and research proposals
  • To create information exchanges and networking opportunities among scientists
  • Discover prospective collaborators for on-going research projects

Eligibility criteria for an expert

  • The applicant should have a post-graduate/Doctorate degree in their respective subject with 15 years of professional experience
  • Should be as an Associate Professor / Professor / Senior Scientist or equivalent position in teaching, research
  • National/international honours, awards and citation laureates

Mandatory fields for expert registration

  • Personal Information : personal details including contact information, url and photo
  • Qualification & Experience : academic qualification and professional experience
  • Expertise : area of expertise and brief information about expertise
  • Publication and other Information : publications, awards, scholarship/ Fellowship, professional engagement and any other information
  • Academic Identity : update publication from other academic identity such as ORCID, Google Scholar, Web of Science, Scopus

Methods to Populate Expert Database

  • By Policy Decision : written request to funding agencies and regulatory bodies to give direction to the all the universities, technical institutions and R&D organisationfor motivating all the faculty and scientist to register with VIDWAN database
  • By Nomination : written request to universities and R&D organisations to identify nodal officer to coordinate with the INFLIBNET Centre to populate the database. Also request them to nominate experts from the respective institutions to populate the database
  • By Invitation : invite national and international awardees, citation laureates, fellows of national level academies and societies, faculty, scientists through email or institute mail server to register in the VIDWAN database;
  • By Voluntary : self-registration of expert from academic institutions and R & D organisations.

Data processing methodology

Data collection stage

  • Registration in the expert database - process carried out by applicant experts for registering into the expert database. The experts' name, surname, email address and password are requested at this stage. The email address and the password are later required for login purposes, so to access the application form.
  • Filling in the application form - process carried out by applicant experts, to fill up all the mandatory fields including personal information, qualification, experience, academic accomplishment, academic identity, etc
  • Data validation and eligibility - evaluation process carried out by the Expert Database Team to assess whether all mandatory fields of information identified in the application form contain valid data.To be included in the database, applicant experts need to satisfy the following eligibility criteria, which will be assessed from the information provided with a valid application:
    • A post-graduate/Doctorate degree in their respective subject
    • Relevant professional experience in a specific subject area
    • Associate Professor / Professor / Senior Scientist or equivalent position in teaching, research
    • National/international honours, awards and citation laureates
  • Inclusion of experts in the database - Once the expert meet the eligibility criteria, the profile will be activated and the experts become searchable through search interface.

Search stage

  • Searching for experts and access profile : process carried out by end-users of the database with the intention of identifying expert(s) by use of predefined search parameters such as areas of expertise, organisation, designation, etc. The faceted search interface provides brief information about the expert with hyperlink to detailed profile information of the expert.

Management stage

  • Update ofprofiles by individual expert : experts included in the database have provided username and password with persistent URL. Expert any time access their profile and update appropriate information. In addition, the Expert Database Team will annually request experts to confirm their interest to remain listed in the database.
  • Update of profile by the Nodal officer : Institute level username and password will be provided to the authorised person form the institute. The Nodal Officer of the concern institute can update the profile information of respective institute.
  • Update of profile by Expert Database Team : Apart from the individual expert, the expert database team will also update the profile information based on the authentic information. Based on the academic identity, the publication will be updated periodically by the system automatically

Data renewal and update policy

  • a. Persistent URL with username and password will be provided to the experts to update their profile
  • b. The experts will be requested to confirm their interest one in a year to remain listed in the database and to update profile.
  • c. Nodal Officer will be identified and institutional level login have provided to the concern institution to update the profiles of concern institute.