Dear Cameen, The situation in Iran is similar to Thailand, i.e., we have to publish in accredited journals by our Ministry of higher education. Actually the ministry publishes a black-list of unacceptable journals some of which have even IF in ISI/JCR or Scopus  

My understanding is that this practice is most popular in Asia, and much less so in Europe and North America. For example, where I study in Spain, it is not a direct requirement to have work published, but it is considered most desirable. At the end of the day, for a newly graduated PhD student looking for a postdoc, the most important things that a prospective employer will consider are experience and publications, the actual PhD certificate will probably be merely a prerequisite.

My understanding is that in many Asian countries, standards of science are rapidly rising, and hence universities and governments demand that students publish their work to try to raise the profile of the university and its host country. The problem with this, however, is that even if a student does 3 to 5 years of good work, that doesn't necessarily mean that they will be able to publish their results (although it usually will). It may well be the case that there needs to be more research done before a publication is warranted. However, since students absolutely must publish something, anything, in order to graduate, this has led in recent times to an explosion of commercial, predatory publishers, who will charge large sums of money to students to publish their work in "author-pays open-access journals". These journals know there are many students, some very good, who are desperate to publish, and these publishers often bombard students with emails asking to publish their work. It's very rare that these journals will review articles at all, as it is in their interest to accept just about anything in order to charge the student for publishing it. I won't mention any of these publishers by name, as they have a history of filing vexatious lawsuits against anyone who criticises them publicly, but have a look on the internet and you can find some articles about who these people are.

The result of this is that many universities are now aware of this situation (that they in part have created by demanding that students publish in order to graduate), so now universities which have this policy are trying their best to identify which journals are bogus, commercial ventures, and which are good, genuine publishers. Therefore, they restrict the journals they accept to one that appear in the kind of popular databases that you mention.

This is simply how I understand the situation; I have not studied at an institution which demands such a criterion and most of what I have learned about this topic originates from reading articles on the subject. In my opinion, these policies are a terrible way to assess students, as they look purely at the number of publications accepted, and disadvantage good students who have not yet obtained publishable material. I think that these policies detract from the science involved and are ultimately harmful for students and their universities. But this is just my opinion. Feel free to ask if you have any questions.

Dear Cameen

In Colombia we received recognition as best researcher only if we published in journals indexed in SCI and Scopus, there are other databases included, but you will not reach the highest qualification.

When there is a new journal, there is no chance to publish there, because even well supported by a good editorial (Elsevier, Springer, etc), until is available in SCI or Scopus, will not considered by the Department of Science of the country.

Finally, please if you consider this answer appropriate, please upvote it using the green up arrow click. Thanks.

In Oman we receive incentive if we publish in international journals. Publishing in Local and online journals which are not indexed in scopus will not be recognised and not appreciated

In Sudan it depends on the university at which someone works. Some universities require that publication should be in certain specific journals but the majority see that it is better to have publications in both national and international journals. In my university it makes no difference where someone publishes. Assessment depends on the nature of the contribution of your publications to the development of the community.

Dear all,

Thank you very much for sharing information and your experiences. It's great to hear about similarities and differences regarding this publication issue in other places in the world.

Sincerely,

Cameen 

Dear Cameen, The situation in Iran is similar to Thailand, i.e., we have to publish in accredited journals by our Ministry of higher education. Actually the ministry publishes a black-list of unacceptable journals some of which have even IF in ISI/JCR or Scopus  

Dear Cameem, here some journals are not allowed, just like Iran.  I respect Iran that it's a country with so many scientists.  That skilled people is their wealth.  I believe that the education ministry is acting for the good of the scholars.

The second link is to the journals forbidden in my place.

'IDOSI Journals No Longer to be Indexed in Scopus

Scopus has prospectively de-listed (removed) all IDOSI journals from its database. Previously, Scopus had indexed six IDOSI journals. Retrospective indexing data will be retained in the database.

 IDOSI means International Digital Organization for Scientific Information. Its URL is http://www.idosi.org, and it claims to be based in Dubai, but it may really be managed from Iran. This publisher has been on my list for a long time — with good reason. IDOSI offers quick and easy acceptance of scholarly articles, a hallmark of low quality and questionable publishers. I strongly recommend against submitting papers to all IDOSI journals. IDOSI publishes 88 gold open-access journals.

Why have the journals been de-listed? I don’t have any solid information on that, but it seems that these and other IDOSI journals have a high number of self-citations. An easy way for a journal to increase its impact factor is to have new articles in the journal cite older articles in the journal.  This manipulation can be detected and lead to the de-listing of journals in scholarly indexes and metrics. '

http://scholarlyoa.com/2014/05/13/idosi-journals-no-longer-to-be-indexed-in-scopus/

http://rimc.uum.edu.my/index.php/en/publication/blacklisted-journals-by-moe

 Dear Dr. Omid and Dr. Yeoh,

Thank you very much for kindly sharing information about this publication issue in your country. It feels great to hear about situations in other places in the world. 

Sincerely,

Cameen

This is a good question with as many answers as there are universities in the world.

In my University, it is important to publish in indexed journal, preferably with a high impact factor.   From the University's perspective, this is understandable, since the evaluation of our academic programs includes an assessment of both the quality and quantify of our journal, conference and book publications.

In Syria,

The situation is similar to Iran and Thailand:  i.e., we have to publish in accredited journals by our Ministry of higher education. Actually the ministry publishes a black-list of unacceptable journals some of which have even IF in ISI/JCR or Scopus. Both acceptable and unacceptable journals  are renewed periodically(each 6 months).

 Dear Dr. Peters and Dr. Sulayman,

Thank you very much for kindly sharing the information and views about my question.

Sincerely,

Cameen

In my University (Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria) here in Nigeria, an academic staff is required to publish his research articles in reputable journals of your chosen research area. The University has a policy of striking out articles published in some substandard (blacklisted) journals, thereby costing a staff his promotion to the next level if he fails to abide by what the university requires.

In India you make a free choice. But sometimes refers NAAS rating or SCI journal.

Regards

Krishna

For PhD defence u need 3 articles from journals of Higher Attestation Commission list in Russia, 15 articles for Doctor (full Professor) plus up to 40 articles in other journals. Now being Phd i also need articles from the list for annual report. I thus avoid this requirement when publishing books, because i think it is better and even cheaper to make. Articles are read rarer than books, books are always preferable