Keeping Up with Research: Lists of Research in Progress

Imagine spending three years on a doctoral thesis, only to discover that a scholar in another state completed nearly the same study last year. This kind of wasted effort is exactly what lists of research in progress are designed to prevent. As a category of tertiary sources, these compilations record studies that are currently underway rather than already published, giving researchers, funding bodies, and institutions a live snapshot of what the academic community is working on right now.

What lists of research in progress actually are 🔗

In the standard classification of information sources, documents are grouped into primary, secondary, and tertiary categories. Primary sources include original research articles, theses, patents, and conference proceedings. Secondary sources, such as indexing and abstracting journals, reviews, and textbooks, repackage and analyse that primary material. Tertiary sources sit one level higher: they are compiled lists and guides that help you locate information rather than supply it directly.

Lists of research in progress fall squarely into this tertiary group. Alongside directories, yearbooks, and guides to literature, they are treated as tertiary documents because they point you towards research activity instead of reporting findings. The crucial distinction is timing. A thesis or journal article describes work that is finished. A list of research in progress, by contrast, documents projects that have only just begun, are partway through data collection, or are awaiting completion.

This makes them a unique kind of source. They are less about the content of any single study and more about the landscape of ongoing inquiry. A scholar consulting such a list is not looking for results to cite but for signals about who is studying what, where, and under whose supervision.

Why they matter as a tertiary source 🔗

Tertiary sources are valued because they organise and condense information for easy access. Lists of research in progress extend this logic to the cutting edge of scholarship. They convert scattered, often invisible research activity across hundreds of institutions into a single searchable record. Without them, the only way to know whether a topic is being studied would be informal networking or sheer luck.

The purpose of research lists 🔗

The value of these lists rests on two closely linked goals: reducing duplication and tracking the direction of ongoing work.

Reducing duplication of effort 🔗

Research funding, laboratory time, and a scholar’s years of effort are all scarce. When two teams independently pursue identical questions without knowing about each other, much of that investment is wasted. Lists of research in progress act as an early-warning system. By checking whether a problem is already being addressed, a researcher can refine the scope of a study, choose a fresh angle, or even open a collaboration instead of competing.

This concern is built directly into India’s national repositories. The synopsis-collection initiative run by the Information and Library Network Centre explicitly states that its repository, on one hand, reveals the trends and directions of research in Indian universities and, on the other, helps avoid duplication of research. Preventing two scholars from registering near-identical PhD topics is one of the clearest practical benefits of such a system.

Tracking ongoing research and trends 🔗

Beyond avoiding overlap, these lists serve a broader intelligence function. Funding agencies use them to identify gaps and decide where new grants are most needed. Departments use them to map their own strengths. Individual scholars use them to spot emerging themes before those themes appear in published literature, which is often two or three years behind the actual research.

Examples of research lists in India 🔗

Several established systems compile and circulate information about ongoing research. Looking at them concretely shows how the idea works in practice.

Research in CSIR laboratories 🔗

The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research operates a large network of national laboratories spanning biological, chemical, physical, engineering, and information sciences. Because these institutes run thousands of projects at any given time, CSIR maintains records of its R&D projects, technologies under development, and ongoing programmes through its central planning and innovation management directorates.

Compilations describing current research projects across these laboratories function as classic lists of research in progress. They allow a scientist at one institute to see what colleagues elsewhere in the network are pursuing, which supports both coordination and the avoidance of redundant work within a publicly funded system. The national science and technology portal further aggregates information about these research institutions, making the wider ecosystem easier to navigate.

Research compiled by the Inter-University Board of India 🔗

The body originally known as the Inter-University Board of India, established in 1925 and now called the Association of Indian Universities, has long played a role in documenting academic research across member universities. It maintains a specialised research library in the field of higher education and historically published information on doctoral work and theses accepted by Indian universities.

The Association continues to hold a collection of PhD theses accepted by Indian universities and organises research conventions that bring ongoing scholarly work into view. Publications listing dissertations completed and in progress across member institutions are a textbook example of how a coordinating body turns dispersed university research into a usable tertiary source.

Shodhgangotri: a modern digital list 🔗

The most significant contemporary example is Shodhgangotri, a repository maintained by the Information and Library Network Centre under the University Grants Commission. It is described directly as a repository of Indian research in progress. Research scholars and supervisors deposit the approved synopsis submitted to their university at the point of registering for a PhD, and the scheme has since expanded to cover major research projects and fellowships.

This is distinct from its companion repository, Shodhganga, which archives completed theses and dissertations. The pairing is deliberate: Shodhgangotri captures research as it begins, while Shodhganga preserves it once finished. Together they trace a project from proposal to completion, and the synopsis-stage repository is precisely the kind of “list of research in progress” this topic describes.

Challenges in tracking ongoing research 🔗

Useful as these lists are, they face real limitations that students and researchers should understand.

Keeping records current 🔗

The defining feature of research in progress is that it changes constantly. A project listed today may be abandoned, redirected, or completed next month. Any list is therefore only as good as its most recent update. Printed compilations age quickly, and even digital repositories depend on scholars and institutions submitting information promptly. When synopsis deposits or project updates lag, the list drifts out of step with reality and loses some of its protective value against duplication.

Uneven coverage and accessibility 🔗

Coverage is rarely complete. Studies of the Shodhgangotri repository have noted that submissions are concentrated in certain regions and universities while others contribute little, which skews the national picture. Analyses of the repository have highlighted that participation varies widely, with some states and a relatively small group of universities accounting for a large share of uploaded synopses. A list that omits whole institutions cannot fully prevent duplication.

Accessibility is a second hurdle. Some research records sit behind institutional walls, in print-only formats, or in databases that are hard to search. Confidential or commercially sensitive research, common in industrial laboratories, may never be listed publicly at all. For users, this means no single list is comprehensive, and locating the right one can itself take effort.

Inconsistent standards 🔗

Different bodies record research in progress in different ways, with varying detail, terminology, and metadata. A synopsis in one repository may describe a project richly, while another offers only a title and a name. This inconsistency makes it difficult to search across systems or compare research activity at a national level.

Future prospects 🔗

The direction of travel is clearly digital and integrated. Centralised online repositories such as Shodhgangotri have already transformed what used to be scattered printed registers into searchable, freely accessible databases. As more universities are brought into mandatory deposit schemes, coverage should steadily improve.

Several developments are likely to strengthen these lists further. Linking research-in-progress repositories with plagiarism-detection systems, completed-thesis archives, and union catalogues creates a connected ecosystem where a single search can reveal whether a topic is proposed, underway, or already done. Better metadata standards and persistent identifiers would make cross-database searching far more reliable. Over time, real-time updating and wider institutional participation could turn these lists from periodic snapshots into a continuously refreshed map of national research activity.

For the student or early-career researcher, the practical lesson is simple. Before committing to a topic, consult the relevant list of research in progress. It is a small step that can save years of duplicated effort and reveal exactly where your own contribution can be most original.

What do you think? If you were starting a research project tomorrow, how would you check whether someone else is already working on the same question? And what single improvement to India’s research-in-progress repositories would make them most useful to you?

References

1. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/tertiary-source
2. https://library.uwsp.edu/InformationSourcesInTheSciences
3. https://shodhgangotri.inflibnet.ac.in/
4. https://www.csir.res.in/en/csir-laboratories
5. https://www.indiascienceandtechnology.gov.in/organisations/laboratories/csir-research-laboratories
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_of_Indian_Universities
7. https://aiu.ac.in/frontpage/faqs/
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shodhganga
9. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342328410_Indian_Research_in_Progress_An_Analysis_of_Shodhgangotri_Repository