Higher education regulator of the country, University Grants Commission, popularly referred to as the UGC has recently revealed that more than 35,000 journals have been approved by it. Moreover, the research work published in these journals will be considered as a basis for promotion and for the purpose of direct recruitment of varsity teachers.
Earlier, the teaching community, as well as other stakeholders, had been asking for a list of notified journals since a very long time now. The main objective behind that was to set a benchmark for research and related activities with respect to the field of higher education.
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Now, the University Grants Commission has released the list of journals that are approved. The published works will be taken up for consideration as per the Career Advancement Scheme, also known as CAS. Recruitment of teachers and academic staff will be dependent on the same to quite an extent.
Highlighting more about the journals, the UGC secretary, Mr. Jaspal Sandhu said in a letter that was addressed to the VCs of all universities, that the list of journals is available in the form of a web-based database. The UGC website contains all these details with a search and browse interface to make it easy to find concerned journals for reference purposes. In the letter, he also added that the universities can further recommend the inclusion of additional peer-reviewed journals that are presently not listed in the current list. This can be done through a university-level academic journal expert committee. All universities have been further directed and requested to send in their recommendations latest by 15th May 2017.
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The listed journals have been categorized into three streams - Social Sciences, Sciences and Arts & Humanities.
The direct recruitment of teachers, as well as other academic staff, is carried out under the University Grant Commission's or UGC (Minimum Qualifications for Appointment of Teachers and other Academic Staff in Universities & Colleges, and Measures for the Maintenance of Standards in Higher Education) (4th Amendment), Regulations, 2016.