Two departments within the Indian Government’s Ministry of Science and Technology have proposed a policy on open access to articles arising from the research they fund.  The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST) have proposed that the final accepted manuscript (also known as the Accepted Manuscript, AM) should be deposited in an institutional or a yet to be developed central repository.  The policy states that embargo periods should be respected but suggest a guideline of not greater than one year.  Of greater question is the Addendum to the Copyright Agreement, which suggests the author should retain greater rights in the Version of Record to permit others to exploit it for non-commercial purposes.  The publisher is required to provide the final Version of Record PDF to the author to do this, within 14 days of publication.  ALPSP questions the effect this will have on publishers recouping their costs through sales of the Version of Record (VoR) and the subsequent effect of the large publishing-industry support industry that has grown in India.

Audrey McCulloch
Chief Executive

DBT/BST proposed policy on OA 
ALPSP Response DBT-DST OA Policy (pdf )

Categories: articles, indian government, ministry, oa, open access, science, technology