With the introduction of UGC Approved Journals List, the research students are privileged to get their paper published in good quality journals. Now, there is no old system or mandate by the universities for publishing in any particular journal. Instead, all universities and colleges are bound to allow their students to get published in any of the UGC Approved journals. On every successful publication in the journal, there would be an increase in the researcher’s academic performance indicator (UGC API).
The UGC Approved Journal List is a blend of national paid and unpaid journals, Anna’s annexure 1 or annexure 2, Scopus-indexed, SCI-indexed journals and other international journals. Due to this amalgam of the journals, the publication is made easy, but the journal selection process is made tougher than ever.
If you are an aspirant looking out for a suitable UGC approved journal, you need not worry about it. We have charted out the criterion to select a suitable journal from UGC Approved Journal List:
Step 1: Indexing and Subject-wise categorization
As of now, UGC contains over thousands of journals from almost every research area. Therefore, you are advised to browse the complete list on the basis of your interested subject area. By filtering the search, you can shortlist the top 50 or 100 journals falling under the particular subject area. Further, you can prioritize and select the journals as per their indexing. Suppose, your area of expertise is social sciences, and there are four journals having high impact factor but different indexing; two are Scopus indexed, and the others are SCI indexed. It is up to the caliber of your research paper to decide which UGC approved journal would be more suitable for publishing.
Step 2: Declared Periodicity
Let us take the previous example only. If you need to choose one between Scopus indexed journal and SCI-indexed journal, your next step should be to check the declared periodicity of the journal. Many journals are published more frequently, and many are published occasionally or monthly. Where the journals which are rarely published would mean that the journal is not active, frequent publishing of the journal is a sign of lenient assessment of the manuscript which always bears the possibility of compromising the quality of the content published. Therefore, it would make a good choice if you opt for the ones which are published not too frequently and not too rarely.
Step 3: Format of a Journal
Apart from the periodicity of the journal, you must also keep the journal’s nature of publication in mind. UGC Approved Journal List consists the journals which are published only online, only in print and online as well as in print. The journals that are published both online and in print mode have better visibility and reach amongst the researchers. Therefore, make sure you select a journal which is available in both print and online medium. However, if the journal is international and the publisher is located overseas, you may opt for the journal which is published online.
Step 4: Total Score of a Journal
If you have already chosen a particular journal to get published with, then you must check its relevance score. Following is the complete checklist which helps the UGC Standing Committee to determine a journal’s worth and assign them a specific score. You may use this checklist for getting an idea of which journal would be more suitable for you to publish with.
If a journal scores more than 5 point, it is definitely good to go option for you.
Publishing a paper with any journal from UGC Approved list would bring high academic performance indicator and credited as a reputed researcher-author. Hope this guide would help you select a good UGC approved journal!
