Indian Govt Looks to Provide Free Access to Publicly-Funded Research Works

Indian Govt Looks to Provide Free Access to Publicly-Funded Research Works is a MediaNama article published on 23 July 2014 by Riddhi Mukherjee. The report examines a draft Open Access Policy released by the Department of Biotechnology and Department of Science and Technology under the Ministry of Science and Technology, which proposes unrestricted public access to research funded through government grants. The article discusses repository mechanisms, copyright provisions, and features commentary from Sunil Abraham, then Executive Director of the Centre for Internet and Society, on the rationale for taxpayer access to publicly funded research.

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Article Details

📰 Published in:: MediaNama
📅 Date:: 23 July 2014
👤 Authors:: Riddhi Mukherjee
📄 Type:: News Report
📰 Article Link:: Read Online

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Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and Department of Science and Technology (DST), under the Ministry of Science and Technology recently released (pdf) the draft of what is termed as Open Access Policy and has invited comments from the public until July 25, reports The Times of India. Comments can be submitted to madhan@dbt.nic.in.

The objective of this policy is to provide unrestricted access to research work funded by the departments. The draft states that since all funds disbursed by DBT and DST are public funds, it is important that the information and knowledge generated through the use of these funds are made publicly available as soon as possible.

As per the draft, DBT/DST will be creating a central repository wherein grantees can either publish their papers in an open-access journal or post the final accepted manuscript to an online repository. This includes papers funded by the two departments in 2012-13 as well as review articles invited by DBT/DST or author initiated that received funding from these departments.

The draft suggests that the full text of the research paper and metadata of all research projects fully or partially funded by DBT/DST or the projects that utilised infrastructure built with the support of DBT/DST will have to be made publicly available, failing which they wouldn't be considered for future grants or fellowship opportunities among others.

The department believes that providing free access to these publications through a gratis open access repository will enable wider distribution of these publications and ensure that this research can be read and built upon.

Copyright of research papers: The draft also sheds light on copyright issues. It states that research work produced by a scientist as an employee of a government body or private institution the copyright would remain with the respective government body or private institution. However, following the final acceptance of the paper by any journal, it has to be deposited in an open access repository within a period of one week.

The author of the research paper will retain the right to reproduce, distribute, publicly perform, and publicly display the article in any medium for non-commercial purposes. They can also prepare derivative works from the article, and authorise others to make any non-commercial use of the article with credit.

Implications: This is a godsend for students, teachers and institutions that don't have the means to purchase expensive academic journals. Sunil Abraham, executive director of Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) told TOI that the idea is that taxpayers shouldn't pay twice to access research funded by taxpayers' money.

Earlier developments in Open Data

In August 2013 the Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Human Resource Development, the Central Institute of Educational Technology (CIET), and National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) had launched an initiative called National Repository of Open Educational Resources (NROER). The objective was to provide free educational resources to school students under the Creative Commons license.

The Union Cabinet had cleared the DST formulated National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy (NPDSA) back in February 2012. NPDSA was supposed to increase accessibility and ease sharing of non-sensitive data amongst the registered users and their availability for scientific, economic and social developmental purposes. However, very little has been reported on how NPDSA was utilised since then.

Context and Background

This policy draft emerged during a period of growing international momentum for open access to publicly funded research. The United States had implemented similar mandates through the Office of Science and Technology Policy in February 2013, requiring federal agencies with research budgets exceeding $100 million to develop public access plans. The European Union’s Horizon 2020 framework, launched in 2014, similarly emphasised open access requirements for grant recipients. India’s draft policy aligned with these global trends whilst addressing domestic concerns about research accessibility.

Academic journal subscription costs had become prohibitive for many Indian institutions, creating significant barriers to knowledge access. Major publishers maintained paywalls that often charged individual article fees exceeding ₹2,000, whilst annual institutional subscriptions to comprehensive journal packages could reach several crore rupees. This pricing structure particularly disadvantaged smaller universities, research institutes in tier-2 and tier-3 cities, and individual researchers lacking institutional affiliations.

Sunil Abraham’s comment about taxpayers not paying twice referenced a longstanding critique of academic publishing economics. Under traditional models, governments fund research through grants, universities employ scientists who conduct studies, taxpayer-supported peer reviewers evaluate manuscripts without compensation, and publishers then sell access to the resulting articles—often back to the institutions that produced the research. Open access mandates sought to interrupt this cycle by requiring publicly funded research outputs to remain in the public domain.

The draft policy’s enforcement mechanism—linking future grant eligibility to compliance with deposit requirements—drew from successful international precedents. However, questions remained about repository infrastructure capacity, publisher cooperation, and whether embargo periods would dilute the policy’s effectiveness. The one-week deposit timeline represented an aggressive stance compared to some international frameworks that permitted six- to twelve-month embargoes.

India’s earlier initiatives, including NROER and NPDSA, had demonstrated policy ambitions for open knowledge infrastructure, though implementation challenges persisted. The Open Access Policy represented a more targeted intervention with clear beneficiaries and measurable compliance mechanisms, potentially increasing its likelihood of substantive impact on research accessibility.