UGC move to thwart ‘pay and publish trash’ culture
UGC secretary Rajnish Jain has issued a public notice on academic integrity for Indian academic community dated June 14, 2019.
The University Grants Commission (UGC) has made it clear that any publications in predatory, dubious journals or presentations and dubious conferences will not be considered for academic selection, confirmation, promotion, performance and appraisal, besides award of scholarship or academic degrees or credits in any form.
UGC secretary Rajnish Jain has issued a public notice on academic integrity for Indian academic community dated June 14, 2019. It reads: With immediate effect, research publications only from journals indexed in UCG-CARE List should be used for all academic purposes. Any attempt of compromised academic integrity should be challenged, questioned and de-recognised all levels, it reads.
The UGC has setup a consortium for academics and research ethics (CARE) to identify, monitor and maintain ‘UCG-CARE Reference List of Quality Journals’ available at the , with useful resources as relevant publications, audio visual materials, videos, web link etc. UCG-CARE website also provides FAQ’s, feedback and grievance redressal mechanism.
It has been reported that in India the percentage of research articles published in predatory journals is high. Unethical practices are leading to ‘pay and publish trash’ culture that needs to be thwarted immediately.
Through this public notice, teachers and researchers have been advised to avoid publication in predatory/dubious journals or participation in predatory conferences. They were further told that they must not get associated (as editors/advisers or in any other capacity) with journals/ publishers / conferences involved in fraudulent, dubious and deceptive practices, the notice reads.
Vice chancellors, selection committees, research supervisors, guide and such other experts involved in academics evaluation one or assessment are hereby advised that they must insure that their decisions are primarily based on quality of research work and not merely on number of publications.
Jain stated that here has been increased incidence of compromised publication ethics and deteriorating academic integrity is a growing problem contaminating all domains of research. It was found that unethical/deceptive practices in publishing are leading to an increased number of dubious/predatory journals worldwide.
“Research and innovation involve rigorous scientific effort in search of truth, creation of new knowledge contributing to socioeconomic benefits for global good. It is important to ensure prevention of academic misconduct including plagiarism in academic writing among student, faculty researcher and staff,” the UGC notice reads.
For this purpose, responsible conduct of research and safeguarding ethics and academic integrity in scientific research were extremely crucial. Indian Academy community need to ensure that journals/conferences they choose to publish follow standard ethical policies.
