Relevance:
The OA movement is prominent today because of the high cost of accessing scientific papers.
About Open Access Movement:
- Open access – a broad international movement that seeks to grant free and open online access to academic information, such as publications and data.
- Typically, scientists publish papers in a journal, and the reader – an individual or an institute – pays a fee to the publisher to access a paper.
- A publication is defined ‘open access’ when there are no financial, legal or technical barriers to accessing it.
- Open access increases the visibility and reuse of academic research results.
- The principles of open access are set out in the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities (2003).
- 3 most popular types of OA are:
- Gold OA – The research output is available immediately to the reader on the website of the journal, and the researcher (or their funder) pays to have the paper published.
- Green OA – Institutional repositories save copies of papers published by their researchers, making them accessible for all free of cost after a specified embargo period set by the journal (typically six months to one year).
- Diamond OA – Journals publish papers at no cost either to institutes or to journals’ readers.
One Nation One Subscription (ONOS) scheme:
- The proposal emerged in India’s fifth draft Science Technology and Innovation Policy (STIP) 2020.
- ONOS essentially proposes a centrally negotiated payment by the Government of India with journal publishers, whereby all individuals of the country can access those journals at no additional cost.
- If it is implemented, people in India will have access to scientific publications at a fixed and centrally negotiated cost that the government will pay publishers directly.
- Related Facts:
- During 2018, India (various research institutes) spent an estimated ₹1,500 crore for subscriptions to [e-journals] and/or print journals – 2020 report prepared by fellows of India’s science academies.
- ONOS-like policies have been successfully implemented in Egypt and Uruguay
Plan S:
- An initiative for Open Access publishing that was launched in 2018.
- The plan is supported by cOAlition S, an international consortium of research funding and performing organisations.
- Plan S requires that, from 2021, scientific publications that result from research funded by public grants must be published in compliant Open Access journals or platforms.
Reference: The Hindu
