The University of Delhi (DU) has revised its guidelines governing the consideration of publications for academic purposes, introducing changes to the points system and the process for assessing journals for inclusion in the university’s approved list.
Under the revised framework, a minimum of 120 points out of 150 has been prescribed for publications in peer-reviewed journals. The changes apply to publications considered under the faculties of Arts, Social Sciences, Applied Social Sciences and Humanities, Commerce and Business Studies, Education, Law, Management Studies, and Music.
The updated guidelines were approved by the university’s Executive Council during meetings held on April 29 and July 30, 2026, according to the official notification.
There will, however, be no change in the existing publication guidelines applicable to the faculties of Science, Interdisciplinary and Applied Sciences, Mathematical Sciences, Technology, and Medical Sciences.
Publications under these faculties will continue to be required to appear in journals indexed in recognised databases, including the Web of Science, covering the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE), Arts and Humanities Citation Index (AHCI), or Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), or in Scopus. Journals listed in any other equivalent indexing database approved by the university will also continue to be considered under the existing provisions.
The revised guidelines have also specified changes in the composition and functioning of assessment committees at the faculty or department level. The committee will comprise the dean of the concerned faculty, head of the department, three senior-most professors, two senior-most associate professors and two senior-most assistant professors. The revised framework further states that members representing the three faculty categories will serve on a rotational basis for a period of two years.
At the university level, recommendations emerging from the assessment process will be examined by a separate committee. This university-level committee will consist of a nominee of the vice-chancellor, the director of the Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC), two subject experts nominated by the vice-chancellor, and a joint, deputy or assistant registrar of the IQAC.
The revised publication framework thus introduces a more structured mechanism for considering journals and academic publications in several DU faculties, while retaining the existing indexing requirements for science, technology, medical and related disciplines.