The Journal That Did Not Exist
It started with a WhatsApp message at 11:43 PM.
Dr. Hammad Ali fresh PGR, General Surgery Year 1, the most enthusiastic and the most reckless member of The Research Clinic, sent a screenshot to the group chat with three celebration emojis and the caption: “ACCEPTED! My first paper got accepted! They said it will be published in 2 weeks!”
Dr. Sumaira was the first to respond: “Congratulations! Which journal?”
Hammad typed the name proudly: “International Archives of Advanced Medical Research.”
Silence. The kind of silence that happens in a WhatsApp group when everyone is thinking the same thing, but nobody wants to be the first to say it.
Dr. Bushra Fatima broke it. She had been here before, three papers in predatory journals, before Dr. Junaid had gently shown her the truth. She recognized the pattern instantly: the generic name, the promise of rapid publication, the acceptance that came suspiciously fast.
“Hammad,” she typed carefully, “how long between your submission and the acceptance?”
“Four days! Amazing, right? They said my paper was excellent!”
Bushra sent a single emoji: the face-palm.
The next morning, Dr. Yaqoob called an unscheduled session. Hammad walked in beaming. He walked out educated.
“Hammad,” Dr. Yqoob began gently, “I need you to check something for me. Go to the HEC website. Search for your journal’s name in the recognized journals list. Tell me what you find.”
Hammad pulled out his phone, navigated to the HEC portal, typed the journal name, and hit search.
Zero results.
He tried again, thinking he had misspelled it. Zero results.
“Sir, maybe HEC hasn’t updated their list?” Hammad offered hopefully.
Dr. Hassan Raza, sitting in his usual spot near the door, raised his hand. “Sir, I have a basic question. What exactly is HEC recognition? Why does it matter? Can’t we just publish anywhere?”
Dr. Zunaira Malik, quiet as always from the back row, leaned forward slightly. She had been wondering the same thing, but would never have asked.
Dr. Yaqoob smiled. “That,” he said, picking up a marker and walking to the whiteboard, “is the most important question anyone has asked in this room so far. And to answer it, I need to draw you a picture.”
He drew two overlapping circles on the whiteboard and wrote the letters HEC and PMDC.
“Welcome,” he said, “to Pakistan’s research regulatory landscape. It looks complicated. But by the time we finish today, you will understand exactly how these two bodies connect, what each one demands, and why publishing in the wrong journal is worse than not publishing at all.”
The Two Pillars: HEC and PMDC
Every Pakistani doctor and dentist who wants to publish research, earn a postgraduate degree, or get promoted in academia must navigate three regulatory bodies. Each has different roles, different requirements, and different journal recognition criteria. But they are deeply interconnected, and understanding this interconnection is the key to building a research career that actually counts.
Let me introduce each one, just as I explained to the team that morning at UPMED Hospitals.
1. HEC: The Higher Education Commission
The Higher Education Commission is Pakistan’s apex body for higher education quality assurance. When it comes to research, HEC’s most important function is its journal recognition system, which classifies journals into W, X, and Y categories.
Think of HEC as the quality control department. It evaluates journals against rigorous criteria: indexing in international databases, editorial standards, peer-review processes, impact metrics, and publication ethics. Only journals that pass HEC’s evaluation earn recognition.
Here is what each category means:
- W Category (the Gold Standard): These are journals indexed in the Web of Science with a Journal Impact Factor or indexed in Scopus. W category journals meet the highest international standards. Publishing in a W-category journal is the strongest possible entry on your academic CV. Examples include journals indexed in the Science Citation Index (SCI), the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), and the Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI) through Web of Science, as well as Scopus-indexed journals.
- X Category (Strong National Journals): These are Pakistani journals or regional journals that meet HEC’s quality criteria but may not be indexed in Web of Science or Scopus. X category journals undergo HEC’s evaluation process and are considered credible for academic purposes. Many well-known Pakistani medical journals fall into this category.
- Y Category (Recognized but Lower Tier): Y category journals meet HEC’s minimum standards but rank below W and X in terms of indexing and impact. While Y category publications are recognized by HEC, many PMDC selection boards and university promotion committees may give them less weight.
The critical point: if a journal is not in any HEC category, it effectively does not exist for academic purposes in Pakistan. This is exactly where Hammad’s “International Archives of Advanced Medical Research” fell entirely outside the system.
2. PMDC: The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council
We covered PMDC’s promotion requirements in detail in the previous section, but let me connect it to the bigger picture here.
PMDC regulates the medical and dental professions in Pakistan. For research purposes, PMDC’s role is primarily about setting publication requirements for academic positions. When PMDC says you need “publications in recognized journals,” they mean journals recognized by HEC. The two systems are linked directly.
PMDC maintains its own list of recognized journals while also referencing HEC’s classification system to evaluate publication quality and credibility. Publications in journals listed as Y on PMDC’s list, as well as those classified under HEC’s X and W categories, are accepted. Therefore, when planning your publication strategy, you should prioritize journals based on HEC’s categories, since these are the ones PMDC promotion boards will ultimately consider during evaluation.
As I explained to the team, “PMDC sets the destination for how many publications you need. HEC provides the map which journals actually count.”
Dr. Hassan, the eternal shortcut-seeker, perked up. “So if I do my thesis properly and publish it in the right journal, it counts for everything?”
“Now you’re thinking, Hassan,” I said.
Dr. Junaid, sitting quietly with his notebook open, still processing his own promotion rejection, asked the question that was on everyone’s mind: “Sir, what about doctors like me who did not plan this way? Who are now senior but have few publications?”
“You start now,” I said. “You have clinical experience that juniors do not have. You have observed patterns in disease, treatment outcomes, and patient responses over fifteen years. Every one of those observations is a potential research question.
The knowledge is already in your head; we just need to put it on paper, in the right way, in the right journal.”
Something shifted in Dr. Junaid’s expression. Not hope exactly, but the beginning of something that could become hope.
The Predatory Journal Trap: Why “Published” Is Not Always Published
Before we left the whiteboard, I turned back to Hammad. He had been quiet since discovering his journal was not HEC-recognized.
“Hammad, I am not going to embarrass you. What happened to you happens to thousands of Pakistani doctors every year. Predatory journals deliberately target researchers in developing countries. Their emails are designed to look legitimate. Their journal names sound impressive. They promise fast publication because they have no real peer review.”
I shared the warning signs that every Pakistani doctor must memorize:
The journal sends you an unsolicited email inviting you to submit. Legitimate journals do not cold-email researchers asking for papers. The acceptance comes within days, with no meaningful review comments. Real peer review takes weeks to months. The journal charges a publication fee but is not indexed in PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, or HEC’s recognized list. The journal’s editorial board members cannot be verified, and their names do not appear on dozens of similar journals. The journal name is deliberately similar to a reputable journal — “International Journal of Medical Sciences” versus the legitimate “International Journal of Medical Science.”
I looked at Dr. Bushra, who had published three papers in such journals before learning the truth. “Bushra, would you share what happened when you listed those publications on your CV?”
She nodded, arms still crossed, but her voice steady. “I listed them on my CV for a teaching position. The selection committee checked the HEC list. None of my three journals was recognized. They didn’t just ignore those papers; they questioned my judgment. I went from having three publications to having a credibility problem.”
The room was silent.
“This is why understanding the regulatory landscape matters,” I said. “Publishing in the wrong journal is not neutral. It is negative. It marks you as someone who either does not know the system or has tried to game it. Neither impression helps your career.”
Practical Steps: Navigating the System
Navigating the publication system becomes much easier if you follow a few practical steps.
First, bookmark the HEC-accepted journal list on their official website and make it a habit to check it before submitting your paper. If a journal is not listed there, it will not be counted, simple as that.
Second, be clear about your target category: for strong promotion cases, aim for W and X category journals, while Y category journals can be a reasonable starting point if you are early in your career and building experience.
Third, don’t rely on HEC alone; also, verify whether the journal appears on the PMDC accepted list to ensure it meets promotion requirements.
Finally, to save time, you can also refer to the compiled PMDC- and HEC-accepted journal lists available through UPMED, which provide a quick reference when shortlisting journals. Link: https://upmed.net/pmdc-hec-approved-journals-archives/
You can also connect with the writer of this blog post series to share or receive suggestions: Dr. Junaid Rashid (Founder of UPMED) at 03042397393 (WhatsApp).
List of all the posts in this journey.