AVP Research Foundation | Clinical Care, Research & Ayurvedic Education
DHARA is the acronym for Digital Helpline for Ayurveda Research Articles. It is the first comprehensive online indexing service exclusively for research articles published in the field of Ayurveda.
With an evolutionary history that spans several thousands of years, Ayurveda is one of the oldest and meticulously codified systems of health care in the world.
A specialized repository for Ayurveda research publications.
Quick and detailed search capabilities.
Comprehensive coverage of Ayurveda-related journals.
Easy online access to research information.
A lot of research that happens in Ayurveda languish in the form of unpublished theses submissions or dissertations. Most of what gets published remain inaccessible because they are published in journals in regional languages or other India journals that are not indexed in international databases, such as PubMed. DHARA is the first systematic and comprehensive initiative to fill this gap.
At this point of time, DHARA has indexed research articles on Ayurveda that have been published in more than 4100 journals worldwide. The total number of indexed articles exceed 52,000. Care has been taken to exclude publications that would not qualify as research journals, such as magazines and souvenirs. However, research journals which have not disclosed their editorial policies in the field of Ayurveda have also been included due to paucity of research publications dealing exclusively with Ayurveda. These journals also publish high-quality articles occasionally.
The simple way to search for information in DHARA is to just type the keyword in the search field. The search field is displayed prominently on all pages and will fetch all information related to the keyword.
The search results are displayed by default as article titles with author names sorted by the date of publication.
On the right side, the search summary is given indicating how many articles are available for the search with breakup of files, abstracts and paid or free full text access.
Keyword search has limitations because it may pull up information not directly relevant to the keyword.
It is hoped that DHARA will serve as a national and international resource base for reviewing and improving research initiatives and publications in the field of Ayurveda.
DHARA will bring visibility to many journals published in the field of Ayurveda from India.
This means increased access to the articles published in these journals and in turn scope for critical review and feedback.
This can have a positive impact on the quality of research publications in Ayurveda.