Dubious journals let scholars pay and publish

PUNE: A requirement that scholars get at least two research papers published in a University Grants Commission-approved journal before submitting their doctoral theses, coupled with pressure on university teachers to get their research published regularly in academic periodicals, has produced an unexpected side-effect: It has led to a proliferation of f dubious journals.

A study to be published in the March 25 issue of Current Science notes a spurt in the number of predatory and dubious journals offering ‘pay and publish’ services to gullible authors.

For the study titled “A critical analysis of the ‘UGC-approved list of journals,’” a team of six researchers, in association with the human resource development (HRD) ministry, analysed 1,336 academic periodicals randomly selected from a list of 5,699 journals in the so-called university-source component. Their conclusion: “Over 88% of non-indexed journals in the university source component of UGC-approved list could be of low quality.”

While the UGC website lists 32,659 journals, university source journals (5,699) are those which are recommended by various universities in the country, the paper notes.

UGC has admitted that it received several complaints about the inclusion of low-quality journals soon after the release of its approved list of journals on June 2, 2017.

The UGC has removed a few journals after an evaluation, the paper said.The dubious publications were identified by the team of researchers that included Bhushan Patwardhan, a professor at(SPPU, a special invitee member on the UGC Standing Committee for Notification of Journals and former vice-chancellor of Symbiosis International University. The other academicians who worked on the analysis were Shubhada Nagarkar (Department of Library and Information Science, SPPU), Sh rid ha rR Gadre (Interdisciplinary School of Scientific Computing, SPPU), Subhash C Lakhotia (Department of Zoology, Banaras Hindu University), Vishwa Mohan Katoch (Rajasthan University of Health Sciences, Jaipur) and David Moher.