Newly inked academic aspirations are wafting through the corridors of scholarly circles as India embarks on an ambitious journey with the ‘One Nation, One Subscription‘ or ONOS scheme that got approved by the Union Cabinet on November 25. This will ensure a path to every public institution in the country to access research treasures.

Thus, with a financial outlay of ₹6,000 crore in three years, ONOS reportedly aims to democratize access to scholarly journals. But as the ink settles, will this plan serve the evolving needs of the research ecosystem any better, or is this yet another expensive relic of the past?

The ONOS Vision: Bridging Gaps or Widening Them? 

Imagine a sprawling library where every Indian researcher, from the bustling metropolis to a remote village, has equal access to a universe of knowledge. This is the vision ONOS seeks to paint. By centralizing journal subscriptions, the government endeavours to eradicate inequities based on institutional prestige or financial strength.

But the timing feels almost like a paradox to me. The world over, most of the research fraternity is embracing OA-publishing-models, where scholarship is freely accessible to all, while ONOS is still investing considerable money in a subscription-based model. Is India swimming against the tide?

The Global Shift to Open Access: A New Dawn 

Scientific knowledge, much like sunlight, is supposed to light up every nook and cranny of the world. OA publishing aims to realize this ideal by breaking down paywalls. One important model in this respect is gold OA, in which journals charge an Article Processing Charge to authors in order to provide their work free to readers. A notable example could be Nature Communications, which asks a whopping $6,790 per paper.

The COVID-19 pandemic underlined the urgency of open access, with immediate unlimited access to research becoming critical in efforts to combat misinformation and shape informed policy. Today, over 53% of all scientific papers worldwide are OA-a far cry from when ONOS was conceptualized in 2018-2019. It begs the question, why should taxpayer money be used on subscription-based access when so much knowledge is already free?

Adding to the complexity are international mandates such as the U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy requirement that all research funded by the public be free available by 2026, and Europe’s Horizon program requires OA for its research funding. By 2026 a majority of the world’s research will be OA, making ONOS perhaps obsolete.

Peel back the glossy covers of prestigious journals, and a darker narrative appears. A few Western commercial publishers dominate scholarly publishing and charge exorbitant subscription fees. The profit margins, many times greater than 30%, are based on publicly financed research. Researchers, mostly unpaid, donate manuscripts and peer reviews in exchange for publishers gaining financial benefits from those same institutions which finance the research.

Even gold OA is not without criticism: high APCs block access for researchers in low- and middle-income countries. ONOS seeks to avoid subscription fees for institutions but does nothing about the APC, thus leaving Indian researchers who publish in OA journals to find the money themselves.

The Tangled Web of Copyright 

Picture this: a researcher spends years working on a groundbreaking paper and then, upon publication, signs the copyright over to the publisher. That has been the expectation in subscription-based models, giving publishers unhampered control over the use of research.

All of these, within the recent controversy with Taylor & Francis, are accentuated, where the publisher, giving access to journal content by Microsoft for training AI models without compensations to authors, is a case in the direction described above. Researchers have a leg to stand on, finally-though not holding their own copyrights, which is the rule with some researchers. Cases like these suggest all the more the requirement for the policy in place to empower authors themselves to retain rights over their work.

Harvard University, on many counts, has taken the lead-ahead step through the institutional policy of enabling its researchers to deposit text immediately upon publication into an independent Open Access repository. Indian policymaking on ONOS should just borrow those pages and thereby ensure that while the country joins the repositories in increasing numbers, this in no way would harm author/service provider rights.

The Fragility of Digital Archives 

In a digital-first world, the ability to access research for the long term is essential. This was echoed in a recent study, which found 28% of articles that had unique identifiers (DOIs) are not preserved, representing a gap in the current system. Events such as the discontinuation of journals, for example, Heterocycles, left thousands of articles not available to users-a clear lesson in retrospect. The self-archiving practice through green OA repositories has provided protection-a feature ignored by ONOS.

The potential of Atmanirbharta in Scholarly Publishing 

As things stand, this potential in India remains untapped. Much backend publishing work is presently outsourced to Indian talent; thus, the infrastructure and abilities exist that can create journals of international standards. Investment in indigenous platforms for publishing and embracing pre-prints-the publications before peer reviewing-can have India cut its dependencies on its Western publishers while setting global benchmarks. 

What Could ONOS Have Done Better? 

It’s laudable ambition from ONOS-but shortsighted in execution. Instead of focusing on subscription deals, the project could have started moving some structural issues of scholarly publishing:

Empower Authors: Apply rights-retention policy and enable researchers to immediately archive their work, upon publishing, in an OA repository. 

Championing Green OA: Establish full-fledged institutional repositories for the archiving of Indian research. 

Building Self-Reliance: Elevate Indian journals to world class to reduce dependence on Western publishers. 

Promoting Preprints: Encourage researchers to publish findings as preprints to enhance the speed of knowledge dissemination. 

Expensive Diversion or One Step Forward? 

The ripples of what ONOS might achieve keep pattering down the corridors of academia. Its vision of democratizing access rhymes with the ethos of equitable education. But unless the deeper fissures in scholarly publishing are addressed, ONOS runs a risk of an expensive detour rather than a transformative leap forward. In investing in knowledge, India must invest in innovation, independence, and inclusivity-researchers in India accessing global research, but also shaping its future.

Dr. Prahlada N.B
MBBS (JJMMC), MS (PGIMER, Chandigarh). 
MBA in Healthcare & Hospital Management (BITS, Pilani), 
Postgraduate Certificate in Technology Leadership and Innovation (MIT, USA)
Executive Programme in Strategic Management (IIM, Lucknow)
Senior Management Programme in Healthcare Management (IIM, Kozhikode)
Advanced Certificate in AI for Digital Health and Imaging Program (IISc, Bengaluru). 

Senior Professor and former Head, 
Department of ENT-Head & Neck Surgery, Skull Base Surgery, Cochlear Implant Surgery. 
Basaveshwara Medical College & Hospital, Chitradurga, Karnataka, India. 

My Vision: I don’t want to be a genius.  I want to be a person with a bundle of experience. 

My Mission: Help others achieve their life’s objectives in my presence or absence!

My Values:  Creating value for others. 

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