Director's Blog
Breaking Barriers to Knowledge: India's Open Research Ecosystem
and Support for Open Access Publishing
Dear Friends,
Greetings from INFLIBNET Centre!
International Open Access Week provides an important opportunity for the global academic and research community to reflect on how knowledge is created, disseminated, accessed, and preserved. The theme of International Open Access Week 2026, “The Cost of Knowledge” highlights the importance of addressing financial barriers to scholarly communication and ensuring equitable opportunities to access and disseminate research.
The One Nation One Subscription (ONOS) initiative marks a significant step towards strengthening India’s research ecosystem by providing access to scholarly journals from 32 global publishers. An important component of ONOS is its Article Processing Charge (APC) support, which facilitates open-access publishing for researchers affiliated with member institutions, subject to applicable provisions. Since April 2026, approximately ₹9 crore (₹ 90 millions) has been disbursed as an APC Support of over 240+ research articles in high-quality open-access journals. By helping address the financial barriers associated with open-access publishing, this initiative aims to enhance the global visibility of high quality Indian research, expand opportunities for scholarly dissemination, and strengthen India's contribution to the global research community.
Beyond ONOS, the INFLIBNET Centre supports open knowledge through several major initiatives without any financial barrier. IndCat serves as a union catalogue of Indian academic libraries with free and open access to 1.67 crores (16.7 million) bibliographic records available for copy cataloguing. Shodhganga provides open access to more than 7 Lakh (0.7 million) fulltext PhD theses, preserving valuable research outputs and making them discoverable worldwide. VIDWAN and IRINS strengthen researcher profiles, research visibility, and academic networking by facilitating the discovery of 3.5 Lakh+ (350K+) experts and 30 lakhs+ (3 million+) publication metadata. Shodh-Chakra provides digital support for research scholars, supervisors, and institutions in managing research-related activities. More than 450+ universities are onboarded on the Shodh-Chakra platform.
Together, these initiatives contribute to a connected scholarly ecosystem that supports access to research literature, discovery of research outputs, researcher visibility, and the advancement of knowledge.
On the occasion of International Open Access Week, INFLIBNET Centre reaffirms its commitment to strengthening India's research infrastructure and promoting equitable, inclusive, and sustainable scholarly communication.
Open access is not only about accessing knowledge; it is also about enabling research to reach the world.
Thank you!
Prof. Devika P. Madalli
Director
INFLIBNET Centre, Gandhinagar