UGC scraps CARE record, suggests parametres to universities to decide on journals

The parametres, developed by specialists, have been placed on the UGC web site for public suggestions till February 25.

UGC chairperson M Jagadesh Kumar stated the discontinuation of UGC-CARE will restore educational freedom and autonomy to Larger Training Establishments (HEIs) as they are going to have their course of to pick the journals for publication. The brand new system instructed by specialists locations the accountability of journal analysis and choice within the fingers of HEIs and fosters a way of possession and accountability for sustaining excessive educational requirements, he stated.

Analysis publications in peer-reviewed reputed journals are essential in college choice, promotion, and profession development. Academicians have welcomed the choice however raised considerations over inconsistency in UGC’s insurance policies.

The choice to scrap the UGC-CARE record was taken within the educational physique’s assembly held on October 3 final yr based mostly on the suggestions of the knowledgeable committee, UGC stated in an official discover issued on Tuesday.

“In supersession of the Public Discover dated twenty eighth November 2018 for establishing UGC- CARE, the Fee, in its 584th assembly held on October 3, 2024, based mostly on the suggestions of the knowledgeable committee has determined to discontinue UGC-CARE itemizing of journals and develop suggestive parameters for selecting peer-reviewed journals by college members and college students,” the UGC stated within the discover.

In response to considerations in regards to the high quality of analysis publications and the prevalence of predatory journals, the upper schooling regulator in 2018 launched the UGC-CARE record to make sure that solely “respected” journals are recognised for college picks, promotions, and analysis funding functions.

The fee stated that the UGC-CARE record confronted criticism for its opaque, centralised course of, delays, and inclusion of predatory journals whereas excluding credible ones, particularly in Indian languages. Researchers additionally struggled with restricted publishing choices.

In December 2023, the UGC determined to ascertain an knowledgeable committee to overview the UGC-CARE scheme. “The knowledgeable committee discovered that the UGC-CARE mannequin launched various ranges of subjectivity within the evaluation course of. It was significantly criticised for its strategy to dealing with journals in non-science, expertise, engineering, and arithmetic (STEM) disciplines, which led to questionable authenticity claims for UGC-CARE listed publications,” Kumar stated.

“Primarily based on the committee’s suggestions, the UGC unanimously accredited discontinuing the UGC-CARE record. As a substitute, it beneficial that HEIs develop their very own credible institutional mechanisms for evaluating the standard of publications and journals,” he added.

The suggestive parametres developed by a bunch of specialists and academicians are categorised into eight standards, together with analysis ethics, journal preliminary standards, journal visibility, and journal influence standards. The UGC has suggested college and college students to make use of these parametres to pick peer-reviewed journals appropriate to their disciplines and analysis focus.

“The brand new strategy locations the accountability on the establishments, encouraging them to create a tradition of educational integrity, accountability, and excellence. HEIs will guarantee college publish in credible journals as a result of their popularity and rating rely upon it. Universities and faculties compete for accreditation, analysis grants, and rankings. If an establishment fails to uphold analysis high quality, its college’s publications might be devalued, affecting its credibility and attractiveness to college students and researchers,” Kumar stated.

Lecturers have raised considerations over inconsistency in UGC’s insurance policies and requested the fee to develop a mechanism to verify predatory journals.

“UGC has failed to take care of coverage stability. First, UGC-CARE was made obligatory, forcing 1000’s of school members and researchers right into a inflexible system. Now, immediately, it has been scrapped with none concrete various,” Rajesh Jha, a former member of the manager council at Delhi College (DU), stated.

Abha Dev Habib, affiliate professor at DU’s Miranda Home, stated even after the UGC-CARE record scrapping, “the vital query stays on the proliferation of predatory journals that aren’t peer-reviewed by one of the best of individuals within the self-discipline for which it’s publishing papers. UGC must formulate a mechanism to verify the rise of predatory journals”.

DU educational council member Jitendra Meena stated the discontinuation of the UGC-CARE record has introduced again the system that was in place earlier than the introduction of the record in 2018.

“The schools and students in departments of each college know high-quality journals of their self-discipline and can select them for analysis publication like they used to do earlier than the introduction of this record. Each college has its personal ethics committee, and they’ll select credible journals for publication like they used to do earlier than the introduction of the UGC-CARE record,” he stated.