On the Madurai-Rameshwaram Road in Tamil Nadu. Image – Getty: Kamionsky
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
One of 30 Main Publishers in the ONOS Framework
The Viksibharat@2047 framework in India forms the context for research publisher Wiley’s move to sign a licensing agreement for three years under Delhi’s One Nation One Subscription program.
Approved by Narenda Modi’s cabinet in late November of last year, “ONOS,” as it’s called is positioned by the government as part of becoming “a self-reliant and developed nation by 2047.”
While frequently called a “landmark” development, the approach is hardly without controversy. At the end of December, Muthu Madhan was writing at University World News in an article called The One Nation One Subscription Scheme Is No Game-Changer, “The negotiation committee formed by the government engaged with 70 publishers of journals, standards and databases. The committee aimed to complete the negotiations by April 2023, but the process dragged on with little progress because of a lack of convergence on the framework.
“Yet, after three years, the union cabinet of the government of India has approved an ONOS scheme involving only 30 journal publishers, signaling a failure of vision and conceding to a ‘One Nation, Many Subscriptions’ reality.”
Part of India’s New Education Policy, the ONOS program is reportedly costing an estimated US$750 million to negotiate with the main 30 publishers of research and academic work, from an initially identified 70 such publishers. And there are other concerns that if 200,000 researchers can get their work into the journals made available, some 2.7 million other research writers will have little chance, with article rejection rates normally running very high in the Indian market.
Nevertheless, Wiley, on announcing its sign-on to the plan with a three-year agreement, tells members of the press that it’s “enabling access to nearly 2,000 journals, supporting approximately 18 million students, researchers, and faculty across more than 6,300 government higher-education institutes and research centers nationwide.”
‘Accelerate Research Output’
Ritesh Kumar
Ritesh Kumar, the country lead for Wiley in India, is quoted, saying, “ONOS is not just about accessing journals—it’s about creating a unified national research ecosystem that will empower Indian researchers to lead global scientific conversations, break traditional knowledge barriers, and accelerate our country’s research output.
Ajay Sood
Ajay Sood, the principal scientific adviser to the Modi government, says, “The One Nation One Subscription initiative embodies the prime minister’s call for Jai Anusandhan—celebrating research and innovation.
“By empowering researchers from metropolitan centers to the most remote institutions, we’re cultivating a nationwide innovation network that will fuel our national aspirations.
“This initiative is truly aimed at positioning India as a global leader in scientific discovery during our Amrit Kaal.”
Vineet Joshi
And Vineet Joshi, secretary of India’s department of higher education, says, “The One Nation One Subscription (ONOS) initiative of the government of India is a transformative initiative.
“ONOS ensures that higher education institutions of central government and all state governments and research and development institutions of central government, irrespective of their sizes and budgets, can participate fully in India’s research revolution.
“By democratizing access to world-class research resources, we’re empowering all the students and researchers of these institutions across India to contribute to our nation’s knowledge economy.”
The support that Wiley’s deal provides is meant, the publisher says, to go to provide “digital access to scholarly publications, supporting researchers in Tier 2 and 3 cities, and enhancing open-access publishing opportunities.”
Wiley is scheduled to be exhibiting at London Book Fair (March 11 to 13) at stand 7C15 in the London Olympia complex. More from Publishing Perspectives on academic and scholarly publishing is here, and more on journal publication is here.