UGC warns universities, colleges of fake websites

Hyderabad: The University Grants Commission (UGC) has warned the universities, colleges, researchers and faculty members over dealing with predatory websites posing as an official website of the UGC's CARE mechanism.

It may be mentioned here that the UGC had earlier come up with Consortium for Academic Research and Ethics (CARE). The CARE comprised several apex regulatory bodies from the education, research and professional.

They include All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), Association of Indian Universities (AIU), Bar Council of India (BCI),Central Council for Indian Medicine (CCIM),Central Hindi Sansthan (CHS),Central Institute for Indian Languages (CIIL),Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR),Indian Academy of Sciences (IASc.),Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR),Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR),Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR),Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR),Indian Council of Philosophical Research (ICPR),Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR),Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS),Indian National Science Academy (INSA) and several other universities.

In turn, the Consortium came up with another initiative called 'CARE reference list of quality journals' in short known as CARE List. That apart, the list of journals is being classified into four categories A, B, C and D.

According to the UGC sources, the research papers published in the CARE List of journals would be counted at the time of appointments, promotions and the like for the faculty members.

Besides, publication in the CARE List would also help the faculty members and researchers to apply for funding for the short-term or long-term products by various bodies like UGC, ICSR, and ICAR etc.

Speaking to The Hans India, a senior official from the NAAC, Bengaluru said the new mechanism became important to assess the quality of the research papers being published by the academicians.

Of late there are several journals, including those running online and collect a fee to publish the research papers. Some made it a business.

But it turned out to be a menace, as faculty working in colleges and universities found it easy to get their research papers published in such journals. In turn, they presented them as their research credentials for obtaining promotions and project.

It was to avoid all this that the CARE List came up with the participation of several apex education and research regulatory bodies and universities to maintain standards of research publications.

Taking cue of the potential now some are trying to come up with predatory websites asking the faculty and researchers to submit their papers online through their website.

Identifying one of such predatory website i.e., 'carejournals.in' the UGC sounded a caution to the universities, colleges and other stakeholders not to deal with such websites. It clarified that the CARE List will be announced on June 30.