To promote quality research, academic integrity and publication ethics among Indian Higher Education Intuitions, University Grants Commission (UGC), Government of India on 26th November 2018 formed a Consortium for Academic and Research Ethics (UGC-CARE) to develop a reference list of quality journals. The basic purpose of UGC-CARE list of quality journals is to discourage researchers from publishing in low quality journals or predatory journals. The UGC-CARE is managed by an Empowered Committee with the help of 31 UGC-CARE Members. Besides, there are four coordinating Universities to create awareness among the Researchers and also to provide necessary support and guidelines for the faculty and students in different zones.
UGC-CARE List of quality Journals.
The UGC-CARE List of quality Journals which was launched this year includes research journals from all disciplines and mainly divided into two groups. Group I Journals found qualified through UGC-CARE Protocol. Group II Journals indexed in globally recognized databases. The list is dynamic in nature and is being updated quarterly on the first of January, April, July and October every year.
UGC-CARE List Group I:
Anyone can recommend journal/s, whether Indian or foreigner, for inclusion in the UGC-CARE List, Group I by following the prescribed submission process available at https://ugccare.unipune.ac.in preferably through UGC-CARE Member or UGC Coordinating Universities or IQAC Cell of any college or University. Publishers can also submit journal title/s through IQAC Cell of any affiliated college / University following the prescribed submission process with the recommendation of teaching faculty along with the duly signed declaration form by competent authority .The title is/are reviewed by the UGC Empowered Committee and if qualified on parameters and UGC protocol, it is included in the list. Apart from these journals, a list of Indian journals, especially from disciplines of Arts, Humanities, Languages, Culture and Indian Knowledge Systems, is being prepared and updated quarterly. It has good organizational structure to identify and prepare a list of reputed journals not indexed in international indexing databases
The Journals which are included in reputed and globally recognised indexing databases such as indexed in Scopus (Source list) or Web of Science (Arts and Humanities Citation Index Source Publication, Science Citation Index Expanded Source Publication, Social Science Citation Index Source Publication) etc. have been included under this group.
What more?
For the benefit of the Scholars and Researchers from time to time UGC-CARE develops the guidelines and organized training programmes. On the recommendation of UGC-CARE, University Grants Commission has approved 2 Credit courses to create awareness about publication ethics and publication misconducts entitled Research and Publication Ethics (RPE) to be made compulsory for all PhD. Students for pre-registration course work. It is going to be 30 hours course and having six modules. UGC has also issued a notification that Researchers will not be having benefit of getting research score for the papers published in Journals not listed in UGC-CARE list.
I hope that this blog post may be useful and can start further discussion on the subject. For any further suggestions / information / clarification please feel free to contact me.
Professor (Dr.) Ramesh C. Gaur
Dean, Director (Library & Information) & Head, Kalanidhi Division
Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts (IGNCA)
rcgaur66@gmail.com