In an excellent piece of news for research scholars in India, the Ministry of Education (MoE) has announced a One Nation One Subscription (ONOS) initiative through which people of India can have open access to national and international journal publications and research papers from April 1, 2023.
Not just schools, colleges, universities and research institutes, the ONOS initiative will benefit everyone in the nation. This initiative is by the Office of Scientific Adviser to the Government of India.
A statement of the MoE reads:” The ONOS intends to sign national licenses with most of the prominent STEM publishers and database producers of the world whose contents are already being subscribed by various institutions of higher education and research organizations either directly or through Government-funded consortia”.
The ONOS is implemented for the government, government-funded academic and research and development institutions, research labs from the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Department of Science and Technology (DST), Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Ministry of Electronics and Information Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEiTY), Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) and other ministry or department funded institutions.
Other beneficiaries would be research labs from ministry departments such as the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEiTY), and others.
letter to directors of Centrally Funded Technical Institutes (CFTIs) and Vice-Chancellors of central universities, higher education secretary K Sanjay Murthy stated, “ Your support is solicited towards this initiative by ensuring that the renewals of e-resources from the list of 70 publishers are synchronized with the ONOS activities.
Hence, it is requested that the renewal of e-resources from these 70 publishers for the calendar year 2023 may be put on hold till such time that the negotiations are underway. Specific updates on the ONOS activities including negotiations with these 70 publishers would be provided on or before 15th December 2022.”
The ONOS is an initiative by the Office of Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, that aims to provide countrywide access to national and international scientific and academic content.