Open Access Publishing in India: Coverage, Relevance, and Future Perspectives

• Published in: Journal of Korean medical science Vol. 34; no. 27; p. e180
• Main Authors: Misra, Durga Prasanna, Agarwal, Vikas
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Korea (South) The Korean Academy of Medical Sciences 15.07.2019; 대한의학회
• Subjects: Databases, Factual; India; Open Access Publishing - statistics & numerical data; Opinion; Peer Review, Research; Social Media; 의학일반; India; PubMed Central; Directory of Open Access Journals; Publication Models; Open Access Publishing; Bibliography as Topic; Predatory Journals; Plan S
• ISSN: 1011-8934; 1598-6357
• DOI: 10.3346/jkms.2019.34.e180

Open access (OA) publishing is a recent phenomenon in scientific publishing, enabling free access to knowledge worldwide. In the Indian context, OA to science has been facilitated by government-funded repositories of student and doctoral theses, and many Indian society journals are published with platinum OA. The proportion of OA publications from India is significant in a global context, and Indian journals are increasingly available on OA repositories such as Pubmed Central, and Directory of Open Access Journals. However, OA in India faces numerous challenges, including low-quality or predatory OA journals, and the paucity of funds to afford gold OA publication charges. There is a need to increase awareness amongst Indian academics regarding publication practices, including OA, and its potential benefits, and utilize this modality of publication whenever feasible, as in publicly-funded research, or when platinum OA is available, while avoiding falling prey to poor quality OA journals.