Implications of internet in research: opportunities and challenges

Internet plays a very vital role in the development and growth of modern societies. It has produced a revolutionary new way of doing things by making it easier, faster, cheaper more efficient than past. Studies revealed that Internet has strong implications on economy and society. Research cannot be the exception either. The major benefit of using Internet in research is that it is easy to get online, get information and post new information. In most cases, an online researcher can search to find secondary or tertiary sources to support their endeavor. Added to these, research can access the relevant material from all over the world with just a click. Researchers are submitting their paper online within a fraction of second, which was not possible in traditional media. Research institutes are promoting online journal thereby reducing the cost of publication and protecting the environment. Internet also plays a vital role in verifying the research. Now a day's people submit their paper as working paper and demand for the critical comments to improve the quality of research. The down side? Anyone can easily post information- even if it is inaccurate. Further, it requires special skills to search the material on the Internet. The present paper makes an attempt to discuss the implications of Internet on research. The paper emphasized the role of Internet in research in the form of opportunities provided to the researcher in today's context. Authors also highlight the problems of using Internet especially for research purposes i.e. lack of context, permanence and selectivity of coverage etc. In last, an attempt has been made to identify the skills required for using Internet effectively for research. Finally, the authors summarizes the idea with concluding remarks.