Page 164 - Academic and Research Book_WEB

Overview of CARE

Archana Thakur

The first and foremost requirement in quality education is educational or academic integrity along
with the culture of value orientation and ethical practises in all around activities performed within
any institution of higher education. The ancient Universities of Takshashila and Nalanda, which were
global centres of higher education in India were known for their quality education. They followed
the model of interactive residential education where the initial step was building a bond between the
teacher and the student, that is, guru and shishya, through series of dialogues for inculcating universal
values and for character building. The Indian education system has evolved through multiple phases
from the ashram-based gurukul to the university-based kulaguru system. Rediscovering virtues and
learning from the glorious past of the Indian education system can help us to pave the way towards
a bright future. In the words of Swami Vivekananda, “We want that education by which character is
formed, strength of mind is increased, the intellect is expanded, and by which one can stand on one’s
feet.”

The increased incidence of compromised publication ethics and academic integrity is a growing
problem, contaminating all domains of research. Unethical practises are leading to an increased
number of dubious journals across the globe. In India, the percentage of research articles published
in predatory journals his high. Unethical practices leading to the “pay and publish trash” culture need
to be foiled straightaway. Research and innovation involves rigorous scientific efforts in the quest of
new knowledge contributing to the global standards in publications. Plagiarism should be stopped
from scientific research in order to safeguard ethics and integrity. Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, one
of the greatest philosophers of recent times stated that to help students to earn a living is one of the
functions of education but education according to Indian tradition is not merely a means of earning
or living it; is initiation into the spiritual life, a training of the human soul in pursuit of truth, and the
practice of virtue. He also said, “All education is, on the one side, a search for truth, on the other side
it is pursuit of social betterment.”

Background

A Standing Committee was constituted by the University Grants Commission (UGC) for the purpose
of identifying journals in different domains of knowledge and prepare a list of UGC-approved
journals. The Standing Committee developed filtering criteria for the inclusion of journals in the
UGC-approved list of journals. After careful analysis as per the criteria, the list of journals, approved
by UGC, was uploaded on the UGC website for stakeholders. It was agreed to upload all the Journals
listed in the Web of Science, Scopus, and Indian Citation Index on the UGC website.

Predatory Journals to be Removed as and When Identified

The Committee observed that a number of sources of predatory journals were identified. It was
recommended that these sources of predatory journals be used as an indicator of predatory journals,
however, every journal, except for those covered by Web of Science or Scopus, should go through
the filter defined by the Standing Committee for inclusion in the UGC-approved list of journals. The
Committee authorized UGC to remove journal titles found predatory/-questionable in the UGC-
approved List of Journals as soon as they were identified, based on the filtering criteria identified by
the Standing Committee. It was also resolved that every journal, except those that are covered by Web

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