The system faced significant criticisms, including over-centralisation, delays in including or excluding journals, and lack of transparency in its decision-making process
The University Grants Commission (UGC) has officially announced the discontinuation of the UGC-Consortium for Academic and Research Ethics (CARE) journal listing.
In place of the CARE journal listing, the UGC has introduced a set of suggestive parameters for faculty members and students to guide their selection of academic journals for research and publication. These new parameters were developed by a group of experts and academicians, and are now open for public feedback.
This move, which supersedes the Public Notice dated November 28, 2018, follows the recommendations of an expert committee. “In supersession of the Public Notice dated 28th November 2018 for establishing UGC Consortium for Academic and Research Ethics (UGC- CARE), the Commission, in its 584th meeting held on 3rd October 2024, based on the recommendations of the expert committee, has decided to discontinue UGC-CARE listing of Journals and develop suggestive parameters for choosing peer-reviewed journals by faculty members and students,” the UGC notice read.
“The suggestive parameters, developed by a group of experts and academicians, are now placed in the public domain for their feedback till 25th February 2025 at email id: journal@ugc.gov.in. The stakeholders, including Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs), faculty members, may take note of it,” it adds.
Suggestive parameters for peer-reviewed journals
The UGC notice emphasises that HEIs are committed to promoting high-quality research and dissemination through peer-reviewed publications. To achieve this goal, HEIs are encouraged to adopt the suggestive parameters, put in public domain by the UGC. The UGC recommended that HEIs establish internal review committees to fine-tune these parameters based on their academic needs and ensure adherence to evolving quality standards.
Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar, chairman, UGC says that the UGC-CARE list was introduced in 2018 to ensure that only reputable journals were recognised for faculty selections, promotions, and research funding applications. The list was designed in response to concerns about the quality of research publications and the prevalence of predatory journals.
UGC-CARE System faces criticisms
However, the system faced significant criticisms, including over-centralisation, delays in including or excluding journals, and lack of transparency in its decision-making process. Additionally, some highly respected journals, especially those published in Indian languages, were excluded, while less credible ones were included. Researchers also faced challenges such as the pressure to publish in UGC-CARE listed journals and the uncertainty when journals were abruptly removed from the list.
Review and discontinuation of UGC-CARE List
Addressing these issues, Prof Kumar says that the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 criticised the heavy regulation of academic publishing. This led the UGC to establish an expert committee in December 2023 to review the UGC-CARE scheme. The committee's recommendations culminated in the decision to discontinue the CARE list and encourage HEIs to create their own credible institutional mechanisms for evaluating journals.
“This new approach gives institutions more flexibility,” Prof Kumar says, adding, “It allows them to create models that align with academic norms and the unique needs of different disciplines. Researchers will no longer be constrained by a centralised list of journals.”
In addition, Prof Kumar emphasises that HEIs will play a key role in combating predatory journals under this new system. Institutions will need to establish credible mechanisms for journal evaluation to protect their reputations and maintain scholarly standards. Experienced faculty members are also encouraged to guide younger researchers in identifying credible journals and avoiding predatory ones.
Restoring academic freedom and autonomy
The decentralisation of journal evaluation is seen as a step towards restoring academic freedom. “By discontinuing the UGC-CARE list, the UGC has returned the journal selection process to HEIs,” he says, adding, “This restores academic freedom and autonomy, allowing researchers to publish in journals that best align with their discipline and audience.”
HEIs will now have the responsibility to accommodate newer and rapidly evolving fields in their journal evaluation models. This flexibility allows for the recognition of journals that may not have been sufficiently acknowledged by traditional indexing models, ensuring that the evolving nature of academic publishing is addressed.
For further details, stakeholders are encouraged to refer to the UGC’s official communications and share their views on the newly proposed parameters before the deadline.
