UGC CARE, Scopus, Web of Science & DOAJ — All Four Explained
Four systems, four organisations, four different questions. What each one actually is, how to verify any journal in it, the eight UGC parameters JMVRA is aligned with — and, stated openly, where this journal is and is not indexed.
Four systems answer four different questions. Find the wording your institution uses, then check at the source named in the third column.
Requirement wording matched to the indexing system, where to check it and the status of this journal
Your requirement says
System it points to
Where to check
Metric that applies
JMVRA status
"As per UGC's suggested parameters"
UGC framework (no list since October 2024)
The journal's own published pages, parameter by parameter
None; it is a set of criteria
Aligned with all eight, evidenced below
"Scopus indexed journal"
Scopus (Elsevier)
scopus.com/sources, by ISSN; read coverage years
CiteScore, SJR, SNIP
Not indexed
"SCI / SCIE / Web of Science journal"
Web of Science Core Collection (Clarivate)
mjl.clarivate.com, by ISSN; read the index named
Journal Impact Factor and quartile (JCR)
Not indexed
"DOAJ listed open access journal"
DOAJ (non-profit directory)
doaj.org, by ISSN; read the full record
None; it publishes no metric
Not listed
"Indexed journal" with no database named
Unclear
Ask your research section which database, in writing
Depends on the answer
Depends on the answer
India’s framework, after October 2024
UGC CARE & the Suggested Parameters
UGC discontinued the UGC-CARE journal listing by public notice dated 3 October 2024 (584th UGC Meeting), reconfirming the position in February and July 2025. There is no current list for any journal to appear on. In its place, on 24 June 2025, UGC approved eight categories of suggested parameters for choosing peer-reviewed journals — a framework you apply yourself rather than a list you look a name up in.
Below is each of the eight categories, what UGC asks for, and how this journal answers it — every answer linked to the page on this site where you can check it rather than take it on trust.
Journal preliminaries Satisfied
UGC asks for: A valid ISSN, a regular and honoured publishing schedule, a stated peer-review policy, and a certified domain with a working website.
JMVRA: ISSN 2984-8911, verifiable on the ISSN Portal and in the ROAD directory. Monthly issues, every past issue openable in the archive. Published review policy. HTTPS domain. Browse the archive →
Editorial board Satisfied
UGC asks for: Named experts with verifiable academic credentials and full affiliation details — not a list of names without institutions.
JMVRA: Editors and reviewers published with names, affiliations and institutional detail, so any of them can be checked independently. Editorial board →
Editorial policy Satisfied
UGC asks for: A clearly defined scope, transparent article processing charges, and acceptance and review timelines that are realistic rather than advertised as instant.
JMVRA: Scope and article types published in the author guidelines. Charges published in advance and payable only after acceptance — ₹971 INR Indian authors, $41 USD international. Author guidelines →
Content quality Satisfied
UGC asks for: Academic relevance, proper citation standards and substantive contribution in what the journal actually publishes.
JMVRA: Every issue is open to read in full, so the standard is inspectable rather than asserted. Subject coverage is listed on the research areas page. Research areas →
Journal standards Satisfied
UGC asks for: Consistent structure, formatting, metadata and production quality across issues.
JMVRA: A published paper format, consistent typesetting, and a complete metadata record deposited for every article — title, authors, affiliations, abstract, keywords, ORCID, licence and references. Publication guide →
Research ethics Satisfied
UGC asks for: Plagiarism screening, an AI-use disclosure policy, and published positions on authorship, conflicts, corrections and retractions.
JMVRA: Similarity screening before review with the report shared with the author. COPE-aligned ethics, authorship and conflict-of-interest policies, plus documented correction and retraction procedures. Publication ethics →
Journal visibility Satisfied
UGC asks for: Presence in recognised databases and discovery services, verifiable at the database rather than asserted on the journal’s own site.
JMVRA: Indexed in Google Scholar, CrossRef, OpenAIRE, OpenAlex, ROAD, ResearchGate, Scilit and Zenodo. Where the journal is not indexed is disclosed openly further down this page. Indexing status →
Impact criteria Satisfied
UGC asks for: Citation performance and scholarly influence, described with the metric named and its provider stated.
JMVRA: Impact Factor 11.25, calculated from Google Scholar citation data — the provider is named rather than left vague, and it is not presented as a Clarivate JIF. Impact factor →
The structure UGC approved
Eight Parameter Groups, One Journal
The eight categories above as one ring. Each answer in the list belongs to one spoke.
UGC approved these eight groups of suggestive parameters on 24 June 2025. JMVRA answers every group above, with a link to the page where each answer can be checked.
Journal preliminaries
Editorial board
Editorial policy
Content quality
Journal standards
Research ethics
Journal visibility
Impact criteria
All eight parameters answered — so you can publish with JMVRA
If your institution frames its requirement in terms of the UGC parameters, every one of them is addressed above and evidenced on this site. Confirm your own university’s current rule in writing first — that is the one thing no journal can settle for you.
Scopus is Elsevier’s abstract and citation database, covering journals, book series and conference proceedings across every discipline. Inclusion follows evaluation by an independent review board against criteria on editorial policy, content quality, standing, regularity and online availability. It is a coverage decision about a journal, not a certificate issued to it — Elsevier issues none.
Metrics: CiteScore (citations per document over four years), SJR (prestige-weighted), SNIP (field-normalised) and the subject percentile.
How to verify: search the ISSN at scopus.com/sources, compare the exact title and publisher, then read the coverage years — the step most authors skip. Elsevier updates source profiles monthly and maintains a separate discontinued-sources list, so a journal indexed in 2019 may not be indexed now.
The Web of Science Core Collection is Clarivate’s curated citation index. When an Indian university asks for an “SCI journal”, this is the database it means. The critical thing to understand is that it is four separate indexes, at different selection bars:
SCIE — Science Citation Index Expanded. The established science index, and what “SCI journal” now means.
SSCI — Social Sciences Citation Index.
AHCI — Arts & Humanities Citation Index.
ESCI — Emerging Sources Citation Index. Journals under evaluation that have not yet met the full SCIE, SSCI or AHCI criteria. A real index, at a deliberately lower bar.
A journal advertising “Web of Science indexed” without naming the index is usually in ESCI and would rather you assumed SCIE. Roughly 22,972 journals carry at least one Core Collection index.
Metrics: the Journal Impact Factor and the Q1–Q4 quartiles, both from Journal Citation Reports — a separate product, not the Master Journal List record.
How to verify: search the ISSN at mjl.clarivate.com/search-results and read the Web of Science Coverage field to see which index the journal is actually in.
DOAJ is an independent, non-profit index of peer-reviewed open access journals. It is free to search, free to apply to, and it is the first check most librarians run on an open access title they do not recognise.
It is not a citation index. DOAJ publishes no impact metric and ranks nothing. What it verifies is that a journal is genuinely open access and genuinely transparent — no embargo, a described peer review process, a named editorial board, clear copyright and licensing, and disclosed fees. That makes it a floor, not a ranking, and unusually good at catching predatory titles: a fake journal can invent a metric, but it struggles to produce a named board, a specific licence and a disclosed fee that all survive review.
Important and widely missed: the DOAJ Seal was retired at the end of March 2025. Guidance telling you to “look for the Seal” is out of date. DOAJ moved to specific labels instead, and introduced a Publication Facts Label in April 2026.
How to verify: search the ISSN at doaj.org and read the full record — licence, APC, review model and archiving are all shown there.
Beyond the big four, authors run into these constantly. Some are indexes, some are rankings, some sell a metric — and the difference matters.
SCImago Journal Rank (SJR)
Metric & ranking portal
Built on Scopus data. Ranks journals by prestige-weighted citations and publishes the Q1–Q4 quartiles most authors actually mean when they say “quartile”. Free to browse.
The Australian Business Deans Council list, rating business, economics and management journals A*, A, B or C. Widely used by management faculties, and entirely separate from any indexing database.
Scientific Journal Impact Factor and similar services sell a number that is not the Clarivate Journal Impact Factor. Not inherently fraudulent, but frequently displayed to imply a JIF. Always ask which organisation calculated a quoted figure.
A Poland-based indexing service publishing an ICV score. Commonly cited by journals in South Asia and Eastern Europe; recognised in some institutional criteria and not in others.
The not-for-profit registry that mints DOIs and holds the canonical metadata record most other services harvest. Membership is checkable, and a DOI that does not resolve here is not a DOI.
A fully open index of works, authors, institutions and citations, with a free public API and no paywall. Increasingly the default for bibliometric analysis.
Subscription discovery platforms that most university libraries buy. Coverage here means students reach your paper through the library search, which matters more than authors expect.
The US National Library of Medicine’s index. Essential in medicine and life sciences, irrelevant elsewhere — a reminder that the right index is field-specific.
Operated by CERN. Provides a preserved copy of an article independent of the publisher’s own infrastructure, which is what makes archiving different from indexing.
The rule that covers all of them. Whatever the service, an indexing or metric claim is only worth what you can confirm at the provider’s own site. A logo is an image, a certificate is a PDF, and a screenshot is a screenshot. Search the ISSN at the source — every time, for every journal, including this one.
The negatives included
Where JMVRA Is — and Is Not — Indexed
Checked against each service and published in full. A journal that lists only its positive results is asking you to trust an edited picture.
JMVRA is not indexed in Scopus, not indexed in Web of Science and not listed in DOAJ. That is stated here for the same reason the whole of this page exists: you should be able to check a journal rather than be asked to trust it.
If your institution requires Scopus or Web of Science coverage specifically, this journal does not meet that requirement, and you should choose accordingly. If it frames its requirement around the UGC parameters, every one of the eight is answered above. Confirm which applies to you with your research section, in writing.
Check it yourself
Where JMVRA Can Be Looked Up
The journal's own profiles and listings, and three search links. None of these is Scopus, Web of Science or DOAJ; the table above states that position plainly.
Discovery links, not indexing claims. Crossref Search, OpenAlex and Google Search open search results; they show what those services find, not that the journal is indexed there or holds a DOI prefix. The profile and listing links open the journal's own records.
Apply every check on this page to us
Submit Your Paper to JMVRA
JMVRA (Journal of Modern and Versatile Research Approach) is a transparent, peer-reviewed, open access journal, ISSN 2984-8911, publishing across arts and science, management, engineering and technology. Following the discontinuation of UGC and UGC-CARE journal listing, JMVRA is aligned with UGC’s Suggested Parameters for Choosing Peer-Reviewed Journals — see how each parameter is met.
Every submission is peer reviewed before any decision, screened for similarity, and published open access with a Crossref DOI. The publication charge applies only after acceptance — nothing is payable to submit or to be reviewed. Run the same verification on us that this page asks you to run on anyone else; the policies are published in full for exactly that reason.
Ready to submit?
Read the author guidelines and the current call for papers to confirm scope and article types, then submit online. Publication charge ₹971 INR Indian authors · $41 USD international, payable after acceptance.
These visible answers also power the FAQ structured data on this page.
What is the difference between UGC CARE, Scopus, Web of Science and DOAJ?
They are four separate systems run by four separate organisations. UGC CARE was an Indian listing framework, discontinued in October 2024 and replaced by suggested parameters. Scopus is Elsevier’s citation database. Web of Science is Clarivate’s curated citation index. DOAJ is a non-profit directory of open access journals. Coverage in one says nothing about the others.
Is the UGC CARE list still valid in 2026?
There is no current list to be valid. UGC discontinued the UGC-CARE List by public notice dated 3 October 2024 and reconfirmed the position in February and July 2025. A snapshot of 1,474 journals as on 10 February 2025 remains available for reference only.
What are the eight UGC parameter categories?
UGC approved them on 24 June 2025: journal preliminaries, editorial board, editorial policy, content quality, journal standards, research ethics, journal visibility, and impact criteria. Each is set out on this page, with how JMVRA answers it and a link to check.
Is JMVRA UGC CARE approved?
JMVRA is a Transparent, Peer-Reviewed, Open Access Journal (Refereed Journal). Following the discontinuation of UGC and UGC-CARE journal listing, JMVRA is aligned with UGC’s Suggested Parameters for Choosing Peer-Reviewed Journals. Each of the eight categories, and the evidence for it, is set out on this page.
Is JMVRA indexed in Scopus, Web of Science or DOAJ?
No. JMVRA is not indexed in Scopus, not indexed in Web of Science and not listed in DOAJ, and this page states that openly rather than leaving it unsaid. It is indexed in Google Scholar, CrossRef, OpenAIRE, OpenAlex, ROAD, ResearchGate, Scilit and Zenodo. Verify any of it yourself using the links in the indexing status table.
Why does the journal publish where it is not indexed?
Because a journal that lists only its positive results is asking you to trust an edited picture. Publishing the negatives lets you make your own decision, and it is the same standard this site asks you to apply to every other journal you consider.
Which indexing matters most for my PhD or promotion?
Whichever your own institution names in its regulations. That differs by university, by programme and by admission year, and no website can answer it for you. Ask your research section in writing and keep the reply.
What is SJR, and is it the same as the Impact Factor?
SJR is the SCImago Journal Rank, built on Scopus data, and it produces the Q1–Q4 quartiles most authors mean when they say quartile. The Journal Impact Factor is Clarivate’s, built on Web of Science data and published in Journal Citation Reports. Different providers, different databases, different numbers.
Is SJIF the same as the Journal Impact Factor?
No. SJIF and similar commercial services sell a number that is not the Clarivate Journal Impact Factor. They are not automatically fraudulent, but they are frequently displayed in a way that implies a JIF. Always ask which organisation calculated a quoted figure.
What is the ABDC list?
The Australian Business Deans Council journal quality list, rating business, economics and management journals A*, A, B or C. It is a ranking list used by management faculties, not an indexing database, and it is separate from Scopus and Web of Science.
Can anyone guarantee publication in a Scopus or SCI journal?
No. Any offer to place a paper in a named indexed journal for a fee should be treated as a warning rather than an opportunity, and many Indian institutions treat such arrangements as research misconduct.
Where do I submit a paper to JMVRA?
Read the author guidelines and the current call for papers to confirm scope and article types, then submit through the online submission page. Nothing is payable to submit or to be reviewed.
