New Delhi: The University Grants Commission (UGC) has asked all universities and colleges in the country to appoint and promote faculty members on the basis of its new list of approved journals, in which the higher education regulator has de-recognised names of all predatory papers.
In the new UGC-CARE (Consortium for Academic Research and Ethics) list, compiled by a team of experts including scholars and subject experts from various academic councils, around 800 verified and genuine journals have been included. The previous list had over 5,000 journals and nearly 88 per cent of them were found to be predatory. CARE is a government-appointed body.
The commission sent a notice to all universities on 16 September asking them to appoint and promote faculty using the new list as a reference point.
“The UGC approved list of journals has been replaced with UGC CARE reference list of quality journals and with effect from June 14, 2019 research publications only from the journals indexed in UGC-CARE list should be considered for any academic purposes,” read the notice sent out to all education institutes.
For appointments in universities, apart from other criteria, academic credentials of faculty members are adjudged on the basis of the papers that they have published and the journals in which those papers have been carried.
Explaining the rationale behind the new rule, UGC Vice-Chairman Bhushan Patwardhan told ThePrint, “So far, appointments and promotions were given on the basis of number of papers published by a candidate and not the quality of those papers. This ended up giving sub-standard researchers in colleges and universities… We want to change this, which is why we are now focusing more of quality of research work.”
He added, “Only those who have published their papers in approved journals will be promoted and appointed and if at all some good paper has been published in an unrecognised journal by mistake, it will be reviewed by an expert committee.”
In effect, the new rule means that faculty members who have published their research papers in de-recognised journals might be denied promotion if the quality of their papers is found to be sub-standard.
How the list came about
The new list was created after the UGC received complaints over the low quality of academic research, and how that affected faculty induction in education institutions.
In 2018, academicians from Savitribai Phule Pune University conducted a study and found that over 88 per cent of the journals in the previous UGC-approved list were predatory.
“We studied 1336 journals randomly selected from 5699 in the university source component of the ‘UGC-approved list’. We analysed 1009 journals after excluding 327 indexed in Scopus/Web of Science. About 34.5% of the 1009 journals were disqualified under the basic criteria because of incorrect or non-availability of essential information such as address, website details and names of editors.
“Another 52.3% of them provided false information such as incorrect ISSN (International Standard Serial Number, meant to identify a serial publication), false claims about impact factor, claimed indexing in dubious indexing databases or had poor credentials of editors,” the paper published in journal Current Science said. Patwardhan was among its authors.
“Our results suggest that over 88% of the non-indexed journals in the university source component of the UGC-approved list, included on the basis of suggestions from different universities, could be of low quality,” it added.
The paper had suggested that the UGC-approved list needed serious re-consideration.
Also read: 5 years after DU’s FYUP was scrapped, UGC recommends 4-year undergraduate course again
International journal of multidisciplinary educational research
ssn 2277 7781 ijmer
I hav publshed an article for ph.d in this.is this in ugc list.i doubt so.kindly make it clear.
Where can we find the new list of 500 journal.. .. .
The UGC isn’t bothered about the payscale in its associated universities.
Without maintaining it’s own ethics such rules are being enforced.
Journals ask payment for publishing articles, will the UGC think about renumeration for published articles.
CAN I UNIVERSITY STARTS A MASTERS DEGREE OF ANY NAME OWN ITS OWN WITH OUT PERMISSION FROM U. G. C. DESHBHAGAT UNIVERSITY, MANDI GOBIND GARH HAD STARTED A MASTERS DEGREE IN OPHTHALMOLOGY. CAN THIS TYPE OF MASTERS DEGREE IS IN ANY UNIVERSITY IN INDIA. PLEASE CLARIFY IS IT VALID DEGREE.
Well this is just a fraud on honest people. The list is highly suspect and plagarism is not a problem. If the people who have been promoted have to be checked for plagarism they might lose their jobs in countries that take academics seriously. Sadly, if what the UGC says is true check only the English Departments in the country. You will find that people are made professors not knowing English. How do they write and get promoted?
Sad claims the UGC makes.
Okk.. this a good step taken by UGC. But what happened to those papers which have already been published in the previously approved UGC journals but now are out of UGC care list. UGC should not entirely discarded them because many of the papers in such journals might have of some good quality and are the result of a hardwork of a student. It is also the case that many of the student trusted the previously UGC approved list and published their genuine research on the face value of the given journal.
What would be the fate of those teachers with promotion due in the meantime and already published papers in the ugc approved journals before June 2018 to gather requisite points for promotion?
I’m doing research since last more than 10 years for algorithms development in it/software. I didn’t found anything new in the journals published from Indian universities students… In India, publishing research paper or patent is just copy and paste information from the published foreign journals…..
Ugc care is is not as it is told.. Many useless paid journals still exist. These are externally non paid but internally. Only. Paid and they are paid through many vendors.. Hiding and doing business in various corners of the country. Those fake journals must be identified first.. Then real research will cime
UGC research papers WEBSITE KA NAAM BATAYE PLEASE
What the UGC will give if an academician proves
previous work in established scopus journal is incorrect / wrong ?
Why the UGC rules are changing frequently ?
What will happen if the rules on PhD or selection of lecturer is based on the following .
1. Independent publication with scopus journal impact factor minimum 5 is required for Lecturer / Asst .Prof . In all subjects except Languages .
2. 0.5 impact factor for PhD thesis submission .
3. For Readers/ Asso. Prof if 10
4.For Prof if impact factor is 15 .
5.If a comment in Scopus journal he/ she be given 5 increments at least.
Can UGC adopt this ?
UGC must be serious both on the quality research and the quality publications in journals
BIBHU BHUSAN NAYAK
NEW DELHI
UGC is hell bent on making only those journals approved , which publish articles if you pay money. Many journals useful to students are disapproved. A lot of journals published by various Universities too are not approved. The approved journals are of no use if you are looking for knowledge. What can’t the UGC itself publish a journal for promotion. And leave others for publishing useful articles.
Let us know one more study on current UGC care list
Journals in category of Indian languages..out if 66, 27 are published from Maharashtra out of which 12 does not have even an issn ..
Most of journals which does not have an issn, no website and some asking money over the phone are chosen.. What is the basic criteria in this so called UGC care?