UGC CARE Journal Checks
Journal checks now the UGC-CARE list is gone, and clone-journal detection before you pay any fee.
We help scholars find and check journals their university accepts, including formerly UGC CARE-listed ones, since the UGC discontinued the UGC-CARE list in 2025. For many years, if a scholar asked which journals count?, people simply said “UGC CARE-listed” and that was that. That reply does not work any more. In February 2025 the University Grants Commission announced that it is discontinuing the UGC-CARE list of journals. After that it issued suggestive parameters, and universities and colleges are expected to use them for judging journal quality on their own. So now there is no single live national list where you can look up a journal.
Practically, the rules are with your university now. Some universities still accept journals which were CARE-listed. Some have made their own approved list or formed a committee for it. Others are asking for Scopus or Web of Science journals instead. So first know what your university is accepting today, then pick the journal. Please check the UGC website and your university’s latest circulars yourself also, because things are still settling in this area.
Scholars are still searching for “UGC CARE journals”, so we have kept UGC CARE in the name of this service. The actual work follows the rules as they are today.
Quick answers
- Is there still a UGC CARE list to publish in?
There is no live list. In February 2025 the UGC announced that it is discontinuing the list. What counts now is whatever your university’s current regulation or circular accepts.
- What does this service include?
First we check the latest rule of your university. Then the journals you are considering are tested against that rule and against the UGC’s suggestive parameters. We also confirm the website really belongs to the journal. If you want, we can also give feedback on your manuscript and check its formatting. Every draft comes back with a similarity report, and you can compare it with the limit your university has set.
- What is the usual time from draft to a published paper?
The rule check takes 1–3 working days and journal evaluation takes 3–5. Manuscript work needs 2–4 weeks. After that the journal’s own review runs 1–6 months, and an annual journal may keep an accepted paper waiting for up to a year.
- Can you promise acceptance?
No. Acceptance is decided by the editor and reviewers. What we can do is check the journal is genuine and that your university accepts it.
- What is the first step?
It starts with a free consultation. You share your university’s latest circular and your draft with us. We then send a written scope with a fixed price and the revision rounds for each stage. If some agent has offered you a journal, we will check that one also, free of cost.
Scope
What’s included
Each stage can be taken separately. Still, we request everyone to begin with the first one, which is finding out what your university accepts at present.
Current rule check
We go through your university’s latest PhD regulation or circular along with you. We write down exactly which journals it accepts now and what it says about journals that were CARE-listed earlier. The points you should get confirmed in writing are also marked.
Journal evaluation
Every journal you are considering is tested against your university’s criteria and the UGC’s suggestive parameters. We look at the ISSN, the editorial board and the peer-review policy. We also look at how regularly it publishes, and at its ethics and archiving.
Journal website verification
We confirm that the website where you will submit belongs to the real journal. For this we check the domain history, the ISSN record and the publisher or society details. Contact addresses on the site are matched with independent sources.
Manuscript feedback
A reviewer from your own field goes through the structure, argument and language of the paper and gives you comments. Many of these journals are from humanities, social sciences, commerce and education, and conventions there are different from the sciences.
Formatting check and submission guidance
We check your paper against the journal’s own guidelines. For society and university journals these guidelines are sometimes very short or out of date. When something is not clear in them, we tell you what to ask the editor. You submit from your own account.
Free journal check
Has some agent offered to put your paper in a “UGC CARE” journal? Just send us name of the journal and we will tell you what we find about it. This check is free, whether you work with us or not.
Quality
How quality is verified
These are the checks every piece of work goes through before it reaches you.
Your rule, quoted and dated
Our suggestions start from the actual text of your university’s current regulation, quoted with its date. When the rule is unclear, we will not guess. We tell you what to ask and whom to ask.
ISSN checked at the source
We look up the journal’s ISSN in the ISSN International Centre’s portal. Then we see whether the title, publisher and medium match with that record. Copied journal websites many times reuse the ISSN of a real print journal.
Website ownership traced
The submission site is compared with the publisher, university or society which owns the journal. We see when the domain was registered. We also look for an official link from the owner to that site.
Editorial board members verified
We spot-check whether the listed editors really exist and work where the journal says. We also check if they know about their role on the board. An editorial board you are not able to verify is one of the most useful signs to check.
Similarity report and references checked
Every draft comes back to you with a similarity report. Each reference is also checked against its source before the paper goes out.
Time
Realistic timelines
In India, university and society journals vary more than any other group. Some finish review in a few weeks, and some take many months. A few of them publish only once or twice in a year.
| Stage | Typical time | What it depends on |
|---|---|---|
| Current rule check | 1–3 working days | How clearly your university’s circular is written |
| Journal evaluation and website check | 3–5 working days | Number of candidate journals |
| Manuscript feedback and formatting check | 2–4 weeks | How developed the paper is, and your turnaround on drafts |
| Peer review to decision | 1–6 months | The journal and its reviewers |
| Wait for the next issue | Up to a year for annual journals | The journal’s publishing schedule |
Status as of our last review
Where the UGC CARE list stands now
What is written here is based on public UGC notices and reporting up to our last review of this page. Something may have changed after our review, please see the UGC website and circulars of your university.
What changed
In late 2024 the UGC decided to stop maintaining the UGC-CARE list. A public notice about this came out in February 2025. Then in mid-2025 the UGC approved a set of suggestive parameters for peer-reviewed journals. They come under headings like editorial policy and content quality, and also research ethics and visibility. Higher education institutions were asked to use them, adapted to their own disciplines, when they decide which journals to recognise. Reportedly a copy of the list, as it was at the time of discontinuation, was made available for reference only, and the note with that copy said a journal being in it does not mean endorsement.
What it means for your PhD
Earlier the question scholars asked was “is this journal on the CARE list?” Now the question to ask is “does my university accept this journal?”. Each university have responded in its own way. In some places even departments inside the same university follow different rules. A paper you already published in a formerly listed journal may well still be accepted. But only your university takes that call, so ask them once before you count on it.
Why copied journal websites mattered
Many journals on the list were print journals run by universities, societies or small publishers. Some of them had hardly any presence on the web. Third-party websites took the titles and ISSNs of some of these journals, collected fees and published papers which the real journal never received. Because of this, some scholars found later that their “CARE-listed” paper was not there in the genuine journal. The same thing is still happening with Scopus and Web of Science journals. The signs we look at are listed in our UGC CARE guide, and our predatory journal checklist has more.
If your university now requires indexed journals
Some universities have moved towards Scopus or Web of Science for PhD requirements. If your university is one of them, see Scopus journal selection and submission guidance. The timelines and checks are different there.
Pricing
How pricing works
A rule check with journal evaluation is a small, contained job. Feedback on the full manuscript is a bigger one. In both cases you get a fixed quote after we have seen your regulation and your draft, and it is agreed in writing before any work starts.
Many genuine university and society journals charge very little or nothing for publishing. If the journal does have a processing or publication fee, you pay it to the journal directly after acceptance. Genuine journals mostly ask for fees only after review and acceptance. So when exactly they ask you for payment is a useful thing to check.
What the quote depends on
- Which stages you need
- How many candidate journals we have to evaluate
- How far the manuscript is already developed
- Subject area and language conventions of the target journal
- Your deadline, if it squeezes the time for our part of the work
Every quote includes
- A written scope listing exactly what will be delivered
- A fixed price agreed before any payment
- Payment in stages, tied to delivery
- Revision rounds stated in the scope
Process
How it works
Free consultation
A call or message with a specialist in your subject. We review your material and say plainly whether we are the right fit.
Written scope and quote
You get a written scope, a timeline and a fixed price. Work and payment begin once you agree to it.
Staged delivery
Work arrives in stages you review, each with a similarity report where text is involved. You pay stage by stage.
Revisions and hand-over
Revision rounds are included. At the end you get the final files, and an explanation of anything you’ll need to defend.
Keep reading
Guides and related services
How to choose a journal for your paper
Scope, indexing, speed and fees: a shortlisting method that avoids desk rejection and predatory journals.
The UGC CARE list, explained
What the list is, what the groups mean, how to verify a journal — and how to recognise clone journals.
How to spot a predatory journal
A checklist to run before you submit anywhere — and what to do if you’ve already submitted.
PhD timeline and milestones in India
Coursework to viva under the UGC 2022 regulations, year by year, with the usual sticking points.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Is the UGC CARE list still valid?
In February 2025 the UGC announced it was discontinuing the UGC-CARE list. In its place it gives suggestive parameters, and institutions use those to evaluate journals themselves. There is no live national list any more where a journal can be newly added. Your university decides what it accepts. Check its latest rules and the UGC website, as practice is still changing.
I published in a CARE-listed journal before the list was discontinued. Does my paper still count?
In many cases, yes. Universities still recognise such papers. But each university takes its own decision on this. Ask your department or research cell to give you the answer in writing, and mention the journal, its ISSN and your publication date when you ask.
An agent says my paper will be in a UGC CARE journal in 20 days. Is it genuine?
We would be very careful with this one. No journal is getting newly CARE-approved now, and peer review goes as per the journal’s own schedule. Even earlier, such quick offers were many times coming from copied journal websites. Put the journal details on our contact page and we will check it free.
Will my paper surely get accepted in a university-recognised journal?
No, that is in the hands of the journal’s editor and reviewers only. What we do is help you choose a journal which your university accepts, and check it is genuine. After that we give feedback on your manuscript so it gets a fair chance.
What were Group I and Group II?
Group I was the set of journals which UGC-CARE assessed directly. Journals that qualified through indexing in Scopus or Web of Science came under Group II. If your university’s rules still talk about Group I and Group II, then only it matters, because the list itself is discontinued.
Do you write the paper, or add an author with publications to it?
No. It must be your own paper, which you can explain and defend yourself. Only people who contributed to the research get authorship, so nobody from our team goes on the author list. How we work is set out in our ethics policy.
Is my paper kept confidential?
Yes. Your paper is seen only by the reviewer working on it, and it is used for your project only. After the engagement we delete it if you ask. We will sign a non-disclosure agreement also, if you wish.
Talk it through with a specialist for free
Send us where you are and what you need. We’ll reply within one working day with clear advice, a written scope and a fixed quote. No obligation.
Book a free consultation