Open Access: India is Moving Towards Third World Superpower

Abstract

The past few years have seen tremendous developments in information production, acquisition, and dissemination. Budgetary restrictions in research libraries have led to a period known as the serial cutting era. The new millennium has also ushered in the concept of the virtual library with seamless access to an integrated collection of print, electronic, and multimedia resources regardless of their physical location or ownership. Research scientists, policy makers, and reference librarians the world over are coming together to introduce reforms to make scientific knowledge affordable. Providing access to information free of charge in electronic formats is a concept that is gaining momentum. Open Access is one step ahead of Free Access. Open Access holds promise to remove both price and permission barriers to the scientific communication by using Internet. The present paper outlines the features of open access and the two vehicles viz. open access journals and open access archives. A few current open access initiatives in India are described in detail. In India, there is a large opportunity for open access publishing but still the number of registered archives is very less. Indian scientific communities and organizations like Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Indian National Science Academy, NISCAIR, INFLIBNET, etc are now actively taking initiatives towards creation of institutional repositories and providing open access to their publications.