Javadekar says, UGC has addressed predatory and sub-standard journals

New Delhi, July 23: Union Minister for Human Resource Development Prakash Javadekar said that University Grants Commission (UGC) has addressed the problem of predatory and sub-standard journals claiming to publish scholarly articles. He was replying to a starred question in the Lok Sabha on Monday.

Accordingly, the Standing Committee of the UGC on notification of journals has been constituted which, after due verification, has removed 4102 substandard journals.

The UGC currently recognizes only the following categories of academic Journals that included journals indexed in Web of Science or Scopus, Journals recommend by the Standing Committee and Language Committee - suggested by experts primarily in the field of languages and Journals recommended by Universities.

Javadekar said that in order to stop predatory and sub-standard journals to be published the ministry asked universities to review the adaptation before the final recommendation for a journal to the ministry. While talking about plagiarism the minister said that all universities have been asked to scan all submitted thesis through software so that plagiarism gets exposed.

He further said that beside these two steps ministry has revised the Academic Performance Indicators (API) for promotion of college teachers where College teachers will no longer be bound to pursue research but it will remain mandatory for university teachers.

The purpose of this step is to engage teacher more in teaching and community activities rather than research activities. The Minister said that all three steps together will end the menace of predatory journals.