The year 2025 promises to be an exciting start for researchers and students across India. The One Nation One Subscription (ONOS) scheme, approved by the Union Cabinet, will benefit about 18 million students and researchers by giving them access to international research articles and journals. Before we dive into what ONOS offers, it's important to understand the challenges that scholars currently face.
Challenges Faced by Indian Scholars
Many Indian scholars and students struggle with the high costs of publishing their research in well-known journals. Publishing fees can range from $100 to $5,000, depending on the journal's reputation. Some top journals charge even more. While funded research projects or Universities might cover these costs, most scholars have to pay out of their own pockets. This financial burden often pushes researchers towards low-cost, less reputable journals and in some cases even in predatory journals.
There are two main types of journals:
Open-Access Journals: These make articles freely available to everyone but often charge authors a fee to publish.
Subscription-Based Journals: These charge readers or institutions for access, making it cheaper for authors but limiting who can read the work.
Access to important databases like EMBASE and Web of Science requires expensive subscriptions and many Indian scholars and their institutions can't afford these costs. Sometimes, up to a quarter of the entire project’s budget need to be spend just on subscription or as publication charge.
ONOS Scheme
The ONOS scheme aims to tackle these issues by negotiating bulk subscription rates with major publishers. This could reduce research costs by about 18%. The government plans to pass these savings on to institutions, making high-quality academic resources more affordable.
Starting January 1, 2025, the ONOS platform will provide access to journals through a national subscription managed by INFLIBNET, a center under the University Grants Commission (UGC). The platform will be entirely digital. State governments are encouraged to promote its use in their institutions.
This scheme is expected to directly benefit 18 million people, including students, faculty, researchers, and scientists from all fields, especially those in smaller cities. By providing access to top international journals, ONOS will encourage research in both specialized and interdisciplinary areas.
The scheme includes access to nearly 13,000 journals from 30 leading international publishers like Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley-Blackwell, Taylor & Francis, and Oxford University Press. Over 6,300 government-run higher education and research institutions will benefit from these resources. The Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) will monitor the use of ONOS and assess the research output from Indian authors in these journals.
Indian Research Ecosysem and ONOS
ONOS has the potential to transform the research landscape in India because research in India is often hampered by inadequate funding and public expenditure on research and development (R&D) still remains below 1% of GDP, lagging behind countries like China and the United States. There were international efforts like Research4Life initiative , which provided access to non-open access papers, but the free access was limited to low-income countries. As we are a middle-income and developing country, we are not eligible for the free access.
Our govement now recognised this gaps and introduced ONOS, that addresses a critical need for change in our research ecosystem. This scheme can be seen as a positive development that can significantly improve the quality of Indian research.
However, it is not a panacea for the deep-rooted challenges within the research ecosystem. While access to journals is improved, the high costs associated with publishing in reputable open-access journals are still a significant obstacle for many researchers.Too often, the valuable years of young researchers are spent on studies that don't benefit society or advance their careers. Access to journals does not address the lack of modern laboratories, equipment, and other essential research infrastructure moreover there is a scarcity of experienced mentors to guide young researchers and there are no schemes that directly address capacity building in this area.
In conclusion, this initiative by the government is a significant step toward empowering the Indian research ecosystem and it's important that the scheme should not be limited to a few institutions but provides equal opportunity and access to knowledge for everyone.