Open access publishing in India: trends and policy perspectives
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/GKMC-09-2021-0158 |
| Published date | 04 February 2022 |
| Date | 04 February 2022 |
| Pages | 437-451 |
| Author | Mohammad Nazim,Raj Kumar Bhardwaj,Anil Agrawal,Afroz Bano |
Open access publishing in India:
trends and policy perspectives
Mohammad Nazim
Department of Library and Information Science,
Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India
Raj Kumar Bhardwaj
St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi, New Delhi, India
Anil Agrawal
Central Library, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India, and
Afroz Bano
Department of Education, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India
Abstract
Purpose –This study aimsto analyze Open Access (OA) publishing trends and policy perspectivesin India.
Different aspects,such as the growth of OA journals, digital repositories, the proportionof OA availability to
researchliterature and the status of OA mandates and policies are studied.
Design/methodology/approach –Data for analyzing OA trends were gathered from multiple data
sources, including Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), OpenDOAR, SCImago and Web of Science
(WoS) databases. DOAJ and OpenDOAR were used for extracting OA journals and digital repository data.
SCImago Journal andCountry ranking portal and WoS database wereused to obtain Indian publication data
for assessing the proportion of OA to researchliterature. ROARMAP was used to study OA mandates and
policies adopted by universities, research institutions and research funders in India. OA mandates and
policies of major regulatory bodies and funding agencies were also reviewed using secondary sources of
informationand related websites.
Findings –India ranks number 15 and 17 globallyfor OA journals and OA repositories, with 317 journals
and 98 repositories. Although India’sproportion to OA publications is 23% (7% below the world averageof
30%), the annual growth rate of OA publications is around 18%. Although the governing bodies and
institutions have made efforts to mandate researchers to adopt OApublishing and self-archiving,its
implementation is quite low among Indian researchers, as only three institutions (out of 18 listed in the
ROARMAP) are definedthe embargo period. Funding agencies in India do not provide financialassistance to
authors for the payment of Article Processing Charges despite mandates that research is deposited in OA
repositories.India lacks a national OA policy but plans to implement a “one nation one subscription”formula
to provide OA to scientificliterature to all its citizens.
Research limitations/implications –The study has certain limitations. Because much of India’s
research output is publishedin local journals that are not indexed in WoS, the study recommends conducting
further analysesof publications using Scopus and other databasesto understand the country’s OA publishing
proportion better. A furtherstudy based on feedback from different stakeholders througha survey may be
conductedfor formulating a national OA policy.
Originality/value –The study is the first that used multiple datasources for investigating different facets
of OA publishing in India, includingOA journals, digital repositories, OA research outputand OA mandates
and policies for publicly funded research. The findings will be helpful for researchers andpolicymakers
interestedin promoting OA adoption among researchers worldwide.
Keywords India, Policy, Open access, Scholarly publishing, Mandates
Paper type Research paper
Trends and
policy
perspectives
437
Received22 September 2021
Revised26 November 2021
Accepted7 January 2022
GlobalKnowledge, Memory and
Communication
Vol.72 No. 4/5, 2023
pp. 437-451
© Emerald Publishing Limited
2514-9342
DOI 10.1108/GKMC-09-2021-0158
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/2514-9342.htm
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