Have you been told to publish articles on the UGC CARE List?
OR
You have already published articles, but your university is not accepting them for thesis submission or job application as they are not published on UGC CARE list.
Many researchers often wonder what the UGC CARE list is and how they publish their articles with journals on the list.
Whether you are submitting your thesis or not, publishing with journals in the list will establish you as a reliable author and improve your API score as well. India was witnessing widespread unethical publication practices such as the pay and publish trends in the last decade. The authors had to pay a particular amount to the journal, and their papers will be published without a peer review or good publication practices. Many predatory journals published unsolicited articles without following proper publication procedures. It led to a large number of sub-standard articles that corrupted knowledge creation. It also created public mistrust in research and existing literature.
The UGC came up with the UGC CARE List to maintain the quality of research and articles. It set up a Journal Analysis cell at the Savitribai Phule Pune University that assesses and approves journals through UGC protocols. The UGC CARE (Consortium for Academic Research and Ethics) list is a list of high-quality journals approved by the UGC. The list was made to promote quality research and prevent publications in sub-standard journals. It is updated quarterly every year and will keep changing. Predatory journals and cloned journals are excluded from the list.
The UGC CARE list has 2 groups
Group I: Journals that are qualified through UGC protocols (through Pune University). Usually, these journals are recommended by faculty and researchers after approval by the competent authority.
Group II: Journals that are indexed on global databases. All the journals that are indexed on Scopus, Web of Science (Arts and Humanities citation index, Science Citation Index, Social Science Citation Index) are in Group II.
Many researchers panic when they don’t see the journals where they have published their articles on the list. Here’s how to check if your journal is on UGC CARE List.
Register your name with the UGC portal by clicking this link:https://ugccare.unipune.ac.in/Apps1/User/lr/login
If you want to search in Group I, type the name of your journal in the box provided on the homepage of UGC CARE list as shown below.
If you can’t find your journal in this group, go to group II. For group II, you may require to check with more than two links to find your journal. If you click Scopus, it will take you to the Scopus website. You may find the list of journals by clicking the Scopus Source List. If you still can’t find it, you may try on Web of Science. Almost all high-quality journals are indexed on either Scopus or Web of Science or on both.
To promote academic and research integrity, publish with journals that are on the UGC CARE List. The guidance document of UGC, ‘Good Academic and Research Practices’, will inform you about the research and publication practices.
Note: UGC CARE List is required for researchers associated with Indian Universities. On the 3rd of October, 2022, the UGC announced that it had withdrawn mandatory research publications before PhD thesis submission to enhance quality. It has been found that mandatory publication has not helped maintain research quality.
