A journal that falls off the Department of Higher Education and Training-accredited list can have serious consequences for academics where careers are influenced and past research invalidated.

South Africa's higher education system relies heavily on the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) accredited journal list to determine research subsidies, academic performance, promotion criteria and institutional prestige. Academics are repeatedly encouraged to publish in journals that appear on the department's list, often after lengthy peer review processes and significant financial and intellectual investment.

But what happens when a researcher publishes in a journal that is accredited at the time of publication, only for that journal to be removed from the DHET list years later? More importantly, who should be held accountable, and who should bear the consequences? The answer should be straightforward: researchers who acted in good faith should not be punished.

Academics make publication decisions based on the information available at the time of submission and publication. If a journal appears on the official DHET list, scholars have every reason to believe that it satisfies the required quality and accreditation standards. Researchers do not have the authority to accredit journals, nor do they have access to the detailed evaluations used by DHET and other indexing agencies. Their responsibility is to conduct ethical research and submit it to journals that are officially recognised.

Keep up with the latest headlines on WhatsApp | LinkedIn

The responsibility for maintaining...