Keeping in view the fact that India in current time is one of the largest markets of the substandard research journals, the University Grants Commission has decided to set up a Consortium of Academic and Research Ethics (CARE), which will be responsible for approving the new list of academic publications.
Bhushan Patwardhan, UGC vice-chairman said that CARE will become operational within three months and will completely replace the existing system of approval for the official journals.
A special committee has been constituted by the UGC under the guidance of Padmanabhan Balaram, former director of IISc-Bangalore which will review the existing guidelines and will recommend new suggestions in order to “promote quality in research”.
“Members of CARE will prepare lists of quality journals in their respective disciplines within a defined time frame. These lists will be critically analysed and curated for quality by a special cell at the entrusted institution using defined criteria,” Patwardhan said.
“Finally, a dynamic ‘Reference List of Quality Journals’ will be maintained by the CARE and this will be used for all academic purposes. The existing UGC-approved list of journals will remain valid till the CARE Reference List of Quality Journals is released,” he said.
Patwardhan further said that CARE will be established in the category A university and will have representatives from around 20 statutory bodies, including National Council for Educational Training and Research (NCERT), All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR).