UGC, the national higher education regulator, asked the academic community to avoid publication in predatory journals or publications whose integrity is dubious.  According to the UGC, “It has been observed that unethical/deceptive practices in publishing are leading to an increased number of dubious/predatory journals worldwide”. The commission has also concluded that in India, people are publishing research articles in a great number.

Many predatory journals in India are publishing any research paper after charging an x amount of fee. While most of such papers do not add anything to the body of knowledge, these papers are merely done to amplify API scores.

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Last year, a survey found that over 88% of the non-indexed journals in the university source component of the UGC-approved list, included on the basis of suggestions from different universities, could be of low quality.

“Any publications in predatory/dubious journals or presentations in predatory/dubious conferences should not be considered for academic credit for selection, confirmation, promotion, performance appraisal, an award of scholarship or academic degrees or credits in any form,” UGC notification said.

It also asked the academia to use research publications only from journals indexed in UGC-CARE List (a system established by UGC to monitor research publications) for all academic purposes.