Mitra has taken increasing interest in the structure of scientific ideas through articles of a general nature in Pramana, Current Science etc., as well as through invited talks. He was a Member, Board of Editors of Few-body System. He edited several books such as Few-Body Dynamics (North Holland 1976); Niels Bohr A Profile (INSA, 1985); Quantum Field Theory; India in the World of Physics: Then and Now (Pearson Education, New Delhi, 2008); and a monograph Basic Building Blocks (INSA, 1984).