Open Access Journal and Open Access Initiatives In India

Abstract

Open Access (OA) initiative emerged as a revolutionary movement that promotes free access to scholarly publications over the Internet, removes the price and permission barriers and ensures the widest possible dissemination of research. OA exists where there is free, immediate and unrestricted availability of digital content. In India poor access to international journals and the low visibility of research papers are the major problems facing Indian researchers. OA is viewed as a solution to remedy this problem.A number of workshops and training events were organized in India during this period, where a few thousand library and computer professionals received training in open source software for building open access repositories. The present paper aims to give the concept of Open Access and highlights some of the Open Access Journal initiatives in India.Open Access to information and knowledge not only enables digital inclusion of common citizens, particularly under privileged communities, but also bridges social divides.