A new rule introduced by the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) in India will make it mandatory for grant applicants to disclose past retraction details.
The move aims to address India's high rate of research retractions, accounting for 20% of global retractions in 2025, despite publishing only 5% of the world's research papers.
Under the new rules, principal investigators and co-investigators must declare details and reasons for any publication retractions in the past five years.
The ANRF has also introduced a 'zero tolerance' policy for plagiarism, with all submissions undergoing third-party plagiarism checks.
The new guidelines are part of the Advanced Research Grant (ARG) programme, which supports investigator-driven research on complex scientific and societal challenges.
Researchers and scientists from recognised Indian academic institutions can submit pre-proposals on the ANRF website from May 15 to June 10, 2026.
