The Quality Mandate of the UGC emphasizes importance on promoting high quality research and creation of new knowledge by faculty members. The number of research articles published in reputed journals is one of the globally accepted indicators considered for various academic purposes including institutional ranking, appointment and promotions of faculty members and award of research degrees. The credibility of research publications is extremely important because it represents the academic image of an individual, institution and the nation. High-quality publications in reputed journals help in achieving higher global ranks and overall improvement in the quality of education. Publications in dubious sub-standard journals reflects adversely leading to long term academic damage and a tarnished image. The problem of dubious /sub-standard journals has become of serious concern worldover. The percentage of research articles published in poor quality journals is reported to be high in India, which has adversely affects its image.

Research Journals in disciplines under Science, Engineering, Technology, Agriculture and Bio Medical Sciences are well covered in globally accepted scientific database like SCOPUS and Web of Science (WoS) with three primary indexes such as Science Citation Index, Social Science Citation Index and Arts and Humanities Citation Index. Therefore, journals indexed in SCOPUS and WoS may be considered for all academic purposes in these disciplines.

For other disciplines such as the Social Sciences, Humanities, Languages, Arts, Culture, Indian knowledge systems etc., a list of credible quality journals needs to be prepared and maintained. For this purpose, the UGC has issued a public notice on 28th November, 2018 regarding the setting up of a Consortium for Academic Research and Ethics (CARE) and the subsequent formation of an Empowered Committee (EC) with a view to refine and strengthen its approved list of journals.

• To promote the quality Mandate of the UGC that emphasizes importance of promoting quality research by the faculty members and creating credible research
• To prevent publications in dubious substandard journals which reflect adversely and tarnish the image of research work and thus lead to a long term academic damage.
• To promote high quality publications in reputed journals that would help in achieving higher global ranks and overall improvement of the quality of research and education
• To Develop an approach and methodology for identification of good quality journals. academic evaluations
• To create and maintain a CARE Reference List of Quality Journals for various academic evaluations.
• To promote academic and research integrity and publication ethics..

CARE Reference List of Quality Journals

CARE has established for creation and maintenance of a “Reference List of Quality Journals” (henceforth named as CARE List). CARE List will have journals proposed by Statutory Councils/ Academies/ Government bodies in Social Sciences, Humanities, Arts and Fine Arts, Science, Medical, Agriculture, Engineering and the Association of Indian Universities (henceforth named as CARE members) and Regional Universities identified by the UGC (henceforth named as CARE Universities)

The journals submitted by CARE Members and CARE Universities will be analysed by UGC Cell as per Part I, II and III of the protocol. The CARE List will comprise of four groups.

• Group A: Research Journals in disciplines under Science, Engineering, Technology, Agriculture and Biomedical Sciences indexed in SCOPUS and/or Web of Science (WOS). No analysis will be done by the UGC Cell for journals in this group.
• Group B: Journals qualified after analysis as per the protocol from the existing UGC list.
• Group C: Journals from social sciences, humanities, languages and Indian knowledge systems recommended by CARE members, which are qualified as per the protocol.
• Group D: New Journals submitted by CARE Universities which are qualified as per the protocol.

CARE Councils

CARE councils includes relevant Government Statutory Councils and Academic Bodies from multiple disciplines.

CARE Universities

• Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, (Northern Region)
• The M. S. University of Baroda Vadodara, (Western Region)
• University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad (Southern Region)
• Tezpur University, Assam (Eastern Region)

UGC Cell for Journal Analysis

Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) has been entrusted responsibility of journal analysis and the UGC has established a “Cell for Journals Analysis” at SPPU, Pune. INFLIBNET Centre, Gandhinagar, will serve as supporting agency. UGC Cell at SPPU shall function under the supervision of CARE Empowered Committee (CARE-EC).

Consortium for Academic and Research Ethics (CARE) consists of Statutory Councils/ Academies/ Government bodies in Social Sciences, Humanities, Arts and Fine Arts, Science, Medical, Agriculture, Engineering and the Association of Indian Universities. Members of CARE as on January 1, 2019

1. India Council for Technical Education (AICTE)
2. Association of Indian Universities (AIU)
3. Bar Council of India (BCI)
4. Central Council for Indian Medicine (CCIM)
5. Central Hindi Sansthan (CHS)
6. Central Institute for Indian Languages (CIIL)
7. Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)
8. Indian Academy of Sciences (IASc.)
9. Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR)
10. Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR)
11. Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)
12. Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR)
13. Indian Council of Philosophical Research (ICPR)
14. Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR)
15. Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS)
16. Indian National Science Academy (INSA)
17. Indira Gandhi National Center for Arts (IGNCA)
18. Lalit Kala Academy (LKA)
19. Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE)
20. National Academy of Medical Sciences (NAMS)
21. National Academy of Sciences, India (NASI)
22. National Council for Educational Training and Research (NCERT)
23. National Council for Promotion for Urdu Language (NCPUL)
24. Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan (RSS)
25. Sahitya Academy (SA)
26. Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
27. M.S. University of Baroda, Vadodara
28. Tezpur University, Assam
29. University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad
30. INFLIBNET, Gandhinagar, Gujarat
31. Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune (UGC Cell)

CARE Empowered Committee (EC) will oversee the functioning of CARE and will supervise the functioning of the UGC Cell for Journal Analysis established at SPPU for CARE activity. Members of CARE as on January 1, 2019

Name	Designation
Prof. Bhushan Patwardhan Vice Chairman, UGC	Chairman
Prof. V.S. Chauhan Former Member, UGC	Member
Prof. Jagadesh Kumar Vice-Chancellor, JNU & Commission Member	Member
Prof. Uma C. Vaidya Commission Member	Member
Prof. V.K. Malhotra Member Secretary, ICSSR	Member
Prof. Appa Rao Podile Vice-Chancellor, University of Hyderabad	Member
Prof. S.K. Srivastava Vice-Chancellor, NEHU, Shillong	Member
Prof. Parimal H Vyas Vice-Chancellor, MS University of Baroda	Member
Prof. V K Jain Vice Chancellor, Tezpur University	Member
Prof. Pulok Mukherjee Jadavpur University, Kolkata	Member
Prof. Shridhar Gadre Distinguished Professor, SPPU, Pune	Member
Prof. J P S Joorel Director, INFLIBNET	Member
Dr. Shubhada Nagarkar UGC Cell at SPPU, Pune	Member
Dr. Archana Thakur Joint Secretary, UGC	Coordinator

Group A Research Journals in disciplines under Science, Engineering, Technology, Agriculture and Biomedical Sciences indexed in SCOPUS and/or Web of Science (WOS). No analysis will be done by the UGC Cell for journals in this group.	1. Journals indexed in Web of Science. 2. Journals indexed in Scopus.
Group B Journals qualified after analysis as per the protocol from the existing UGC list.	Search
Group C Journals from social sciences, humanities, languages and Indian knowledge systems recommended by CARE members, which are qualified as per the protocol.
Group D New Journals submitted by CARE Universities which are qualified as per the protocol.

Proposals for submission of new journals for consideration of inclusion in CARE List shall be done only through the CARE Portal to be established by UGC Cell at Pune. CARE portal can be accessed only by CARE Members and CARE Universities for submission of journal proposals. UGC office or UGC Cell at SPPU will not entertain requests for submission of new journals in any other manner.

CARE Members

The CARE members should provide basic information and submit journals to be recommended on CARE portal as per Part I of the protocol.

CARE Universities

• The CARE Universities should submit proposals for new journals on CARE portal in accordance with the Part I and II of the protocol.
• Each CARE university should follow the procedure given below for adding journals on CARE portal:
• Consult existing list of UGC approved journals before recommending any new journal.
• Enter basic information of the journal on CARE portal.
• Validate the Journal as per the primary criteria.

Universities and colleges

Only professors and teaching faculty from universities should recommend the new journals. Recommendations of new journals should be routed through universities and colleges as follows:

• Universities: IQAC cell to respective regional CARE University
• Affiliated colleges: College IQAC cell to parent university’s IQAC cell. Parent university IQAC cell will forward to respective regional CARE university

Publishers

Publishers can submit journal information through IQAC Cell of affiliated college / IQAC cell of the university in prescribed format with the recommendation of Professor / Teaching Faculty along with the declaration form

1. Publishers can submit journal information to IQAC cell of either affiliated college (AIDED college) / IQAC cell of the university from the respective region.
2. IQAC of affiliated college will forward the request to IQAC of parent University.
3. IQAC cell of parent university will forward submitted journal to IQAC of respective regional CARE University.
4. The CARE Universities will identify a nodal person to receive proposals from IQAC cell of CARE university.

Basic Information

1. Journal Title
2. Journal Broad Discipline and Focus Subject
3. Name of Publisher
4. Country of Origin and Registered address
5. Journal Language/s
6. Publishing Frequency
7. Editor name, Editorial office address, phone, email and website
8. Current Status (print/online/both) (date of last issue)
9. ISSN / eISSN
10. Other registrations/memberships such as RNI / COPE/ CARE

The UGC Cell at SPPU, Pune shall analyse the existing journals listed on the UGC website as well as all proposals for new journals as per the protocol approved by the CARE-EC. The protocol for journal analysis consists of three sections:

• Basic information (Part I)
• Primary Criteria (Part II)
• Secondary Criteria (Part III)

Part I of the protocol gives details which are meant for receiving basic information about a journal from a publisher (given below). Part II and III of the protocol are to be used for internal analysis and assessment purpose, which includes due diligence, verification process and critical appraisal using sequential algorithmic elimination process and weightage-based metrics on a scale of 10. The objective assessment of the quality of any journal as per Part II and III of protocol is based on verification of information regarding its history, consistency, peer recognition, market reputation, academic credentials of editors, peer review process, indexing, citations, charges/fees and related financial matters, etc. The information required for journal analysis as per Part II and Part III sections of protocol will be obtained for analysis directly from public domain (website, emails, flyers, advertisements, hard copies of the journal in libraries etc). The journal can be disqualified at any stage if found to be giving false / misleading / incorrect / insufficient information or unsubstantiated claims.

CARE Protocol Part I

Basic Information

1. Journal Title
2. Journal Broad Discipline and Focus Subject
3. Name of Publisher
4. Country of Origin and Registered address
5. Journal Language/s
6. Publishing Frequency
7. Editor name, Editorial office address, phone, email and website
8. Current Status (date of last publication) (print/online/both)
9. ISSN / eISSN
10. Other registrations/memberships such as RNI / COPE/ CARE

Part II and III of the protocol are meant for analysis and assessment purpose to be used by UGC Cell for Journal Analysis.