Open Access to Scholarly Literature in India - Centre for Internet and ...

Prof. Shalini Urs
Executive Director
International School of Information Management
University of Mysore
Mysore 570 006
Email: shalini (at) isim.ac.in, shalini (at) vidyanidhi.org.in
efforts at NCSI and DRTC, where they had regular advanced training programs with special
emphasis on computer applications in libraries, addressed understanding
construction of repositories and training people in building and maintaining institutional
repositories. Efforts at MSSRF led by an editor-turned information scientist focused on
policy related issues, advocacy and training.
The Evolution of Open Access in India
Indian Academy of Sciences, founded by Sir C V Raman in 1934, is a remarkable
organization in many ways. It takes up issues relevant to India at the right time and
selects a balanced mix of people to discuss them. In 1999, the Academy hosted a meeting
on geographical information and virtually every one of the speakers focused on public
access to geographical information. The proceedings of the meeting were published in
Current Science in its issue dated 25 August 2000. A seasoned science writer wrote a detailed
report. 65 This meeting is probably the earliest in India in the area of openly
accessible data. 66
The evolution of an open access policy in India began at a two-day conference on
Advances in Information Access and Science Communication held at M S Swaminathan
Research Foundation, Chennai, (MSSRF) on 16 – 17 September 2000, as a tribute to Dr.
Eugene Garfield on his 75th birthday. At this conference Prof. Stevan Harnad, open access
archivangelist, spoke about ‘scholarly skywriting’ and the need for every researchperforming
institution to adopt open access self-archiving of preprints. 67 To many in the
audience Harnard's ideas were an eye opener.
The Indian Academy of Sciences convened a meeting in April 2001, a few weeks after
the Second ICSU-UNESCO International Conference on Electronic Publishing in Sci-
65 Ramachandran R (2000), Public Access to Indian Geographical Data, Current Science, 79: 450-467;
http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/aug252000/ramachandra.pdf.
66 Valdia KS (2000), Free access to topographical maps: Coping with natural hazards, assessing development
potential and monitoring environmental changes, Current Science, 79: 479-480;
http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/aug252000/dprao.pdf; Matthan R (2000), Geographical data – do we have a
fundamental right to access it?, Current Science, 79, 499-503;
http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/aug252000/rahul.pdf. Also see Supra note 65.
67
Arunachalam S (2001), Advances in Information Access and Science Communication, Current Science,
80: 493 – 494; http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/feb252001/493.pdf.
Page | 27