Govt. reveals extra data about ‘One Nation, One Subscription’ | Defined

For consultant functions.
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The story up to now: On November 25, the Indian authorities introduced the launch of its ‘One Nation, One Subscription’ (ONOS) plan to enhance entry to costly analysis journals to the nation’s public training and analysis institutes. The announcement was accompanied with scant particulars and broached widespread criticism from the analysis group, particularly over what was perceived to be its disproportionate expense and lack of assist for open-access publishing. On December 11, authorities officers performed a press convention in New Delhi that addressed many of those issues.

What’s ONOS’s goal?

When, say, scientists have concluded an experiment, they write up their strategies and findings and publish it as a paper in a journal. The journal collects, critiques, edits, publishes, and archives these papers as a service to different students and the folks at giant.

In change, journals levy a price. Subscription-based journals cost readers a price to learn papers. Some types of open-access (OA) journals, known as ‘gold’ OA, cost researchers to publish their paper. So institutes had subscribed to subscription journals by 10 or so consortia throughout the nation.

What’s the ‘One Nation One Subscription’ initiative? | Defined 

ONOS will exchange these consortia as a single window by which all government-funded institutes within the nation will have the ability to entry greater than 13,000 revealed by 30 main worldwide publishers.

Why did ONOS provoke criticism?

On the time of announcement, a Ministry of Schooling press launch didn’t specify which journals could be a part of ONOS, how ONOS could be applied, how its allocation of Rs 6,000 crore (for 3 calendar years) could be spent, and the way ONOS would assist efforts to make analysis OA. Consultants on the subject additionally requested whether or not the allocation for international journals might have been used to assist home publishing efforts as a substitute.

Additionally it wasn’t clear whether or not ONOS would assist scientists pay to publish in gold OA journals or whether or not these funds — known as article processing fees (APCs) — could possibly be discounted.

What was revealed on December 11?

The press convention was attended by officers from the workplace of the Principal Scientific Advisor (PSA), the Division of Science & Expertise, and the Division of Greater Schooling.

The package deal: At the moment college students and workers in any respect public institutes will have the ability to entry all papers within the journals collaborating in ONOS no matter their self-discipline. These embrace titles owned by main publishers like Springer-Nature, Wiley, and Taylor & Francis. The officers stated centres of science, social science, humanities, and medical training will all be eligible and received’t must pay another charges. Negotiations are underway to carry extra journals into the fold. These journals that aren’t a part of ONOS can nonetheless promote entry individually throughout the nation.

Phases: In her presentation Remya Haridasan, a scientist on the PSA’s workplace, stated the federal government would implement ONOS in three phases. In part I, it could merge all of the consortia and work to facilitate journal entry in all public institutes. The scheme will broaden to incorporate personal establishments in part II, and in part III the federal government would create “common entry” to all residents “by designated entry factors at public libraries”.

Open entry: In a pilot, ONOS would put aside Rs 150 crore a 12 months, out of its Rs 2,000 crore per 12 months finances, to pay for APCs. The federal government has additionally negotiated APC reductions for researchers to publish in sure OA journals. The officers stated they’re conscious of transformative OA fashions world wide and that ONOS would embody them because it progressed. As of now, they stated, 60-70% of journals in ONOS are subscription-based. They added that round half a decade in the past, 75% of papers revealed by Indian scientists have been in subscription-based journals, and that this determine has dropped to 65% in the present day.

Dr. Haridasan stated ONOS “shouldn’t be a price judgment of the subscription-based mannequin of information dissemination however an adoption of probably the most sensible India-specific resolution till a sustainable OA mannequin is achieved globally.”

Home efforts: Officers on the press convention acknowledged the necessity to assist home publishers and journals. They stated there have been 5 repositories within the nation — servers the place researchers might deposit digital copies of their papers and the place others might freely entry them — however that scientists have been utilizing them to a less-than-ideal diploma. They stated different efforts must happen, similar to “enhancement, promotion, and assist of Indian journals” and modifications in how institutes consider the work of researchers, particularly to cut back dependence on journal titles and improve the deal with advantage of every particular person’s work.

A brand new analysis analysis framework could be wanted that additionally accounts for entrepreneurial pursuits and innovation, they added. “In a democracy, you may’t have a dictum that each one analysis finished in India needs to be revealed in Indian journals,” PSA Ajay Sood stated. “Science is international.”