Why Indian students should spend crores for the publication of research papers? (1)

Why Indian students should spend crores for the publication of research papers? (1)

That Indian researchers pay for their publication was pointed out in 2016: Business Standard reported in 2016[1], “Indians spend close to $2.4 million [Rs.2 crores] annually to get their scientific research output published in different open access (OA) journals, authors of a new study say, raising concerns that scientists often have to cough up two months equivalent of salary to get their work into those journals.” But, why do they spend such huge amounts, if it does not have any returns. “We estimate that India is potentially spending about $2.4 million [Rs.2 crores] annually on Article Processing Charges (APCs) levied by those journals. To publish a paper in OA (Open Access), some journals levy a charge that is equivalent to two months’ salary of an assistant professor in India,” Muthu Madhan of DST Centre for Policy Research, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, told IANS[2]. Criticising the practice, Madhan says it is not right, given the major part (about 70 per cent) of research funding is sourced from taxpayers[3].” If this amount is spent for scientific and technological research journals, then, definitely $ 1 million [Rs 80 lakhs] must have been spent for the journals of social sciences and humanities.

How much published during 2010-2014?: And there is a shortage of funds for research[4]. “It is not right for researchers to give part of it to rich publishers — who overcharge anyway for the meagre services they provide and take home profits in the range 30 to 40 per cent year after year even when the economy was not doing well,” he said[5]. The authors arrived at the figure based on the data mined from the Science Citation Index Expanded that revealed 37,078 papers were published by Indian researchers in 881 OA journals during the five-year period from 2010-2014[6]. An abstract of the analysis is available in the Current Science journal, ahead of publication. “This accounts for about 14.4 per cent of India’s overall publication output, considerably higher than the 11.6 per cent from the world,” the study notes. It is co-authored by Siva Shankar Kimidi of the Library Department, Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad; Subbiah Gunasekaran of the Knowledge Resource Centre, Central Electrochemical Research Institute, Karaikudi; and Subbiah Arunachalam of the DST Centre for Policy Research. Though, Indian experts have been involved in such quantification, they have not revealed why the Indian researchers go for such American and European publishers paying money.

The position of 2020 is declared in 2023: The authors suggest that it would be prudent for Indian researchers to make their work freely available through inter-operable repositories, a trend that is growing significantly around the world. The study does not include the expenditure on OA papers published by Indian researchers in subscription journals which make papers available on OA on payment of a fee. Now, after seven years, in 2023, the very same or similar news appears in the newspapers as follows. The names of the researchers and institutions change, but, the subject matter remains the same. Evidently, the trend does not change and Indians have been ready to shell out dollars for their papers to get published.

Why do Indians spend more?: Indian researchers shelled out US $17 million in 2020 to publish their work and keep it as open access[7]. Of which over 80 per cent of it goes to commercial publishers including MDPI, Springer Nature and Elsevier, a new study has revealed[8]. Cumulatively, around $30 million was spent by researchers globally, reflecting that India’s spend was more than half in that year[9]. Termed as Article Processing Charges (APCs), this fee ensures the financial viability of open access (OA) scholarly journals[10]. Why Indians spend for their paper publication? India has 140 crores opulation and produces nearly 3.8 crores , 38 million graduates.

Degree [2001 census figures]	Holders
Post-graduate degree other than technical degree	6,949,707
Graduate degree other than technical degree	25,666,044
Engineering and technology	2,588,405
Teaching	1,547,671
Medicine	768,964
Agriculture and dairying	100,126
Veterinary	99,999
Other	22,588
Total	37,670,147

And they to go for jobs or different categories, but, there have been millions opting for teaching profession. Hence they appear for qualifying exams and try to get “Assistant Professor Job,” so that they could get settled in the State or Central Government Colleges, Universities or educational institutions.

2023 research data also proves the same 2016 trend: A research paper by Raj Kishor Kampa from the department of Library and Information Science, Berhampur University; Manoj Kumar Sa from the Indian Maritime University, Kolkata and Mallikarjun Dora from the Vikram Sarabhai Library, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, found that Indian researchers published 26,127 gold OA articles across all subjects in WoS (Web of Science)-indexed journals in 2020. Researchers in the field of health and medical sciences paid the highest APC, amounting to $7 million, followed by life and earth sciences ($6.9 million), multidisciplinary ($4.9 million), and chemistry and materials science ($4.8 million). In all, 81% of APCs went to commercial publishers such as MDPI, Springer–Nature, Elsevier and Frontier Media. MDPI was the top publisher where Indian researchers published their articles. It published around 2,360 articles in its 143 flagship journals. The total APC of these 2,360 articles was about half-a-million US dollars.

Science and engineering excel than Social sciences: According to an analysis of APCs across fields, it was found that science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) journals had a higher APC than those in social science and humanities. Particularly, high APC is found in subjects like biology, chemistry and medicine. “The primary issue for Indian researchers is that there is no dedicated system for funding OA publications and no nationwide OA mandate like in many other countries,” the authors said in their study published in the recent issue of Current Science. They suggested the formulation of national-level OA policies since OA is “inevitable for equity and access to scholarly communications”. That is why most of the science and engineering students go aboard, do MS and get settled in US or EC countries. In due course, perhaps, they forget their Indian roots also. The Indian degree holders continue to work for India and produce the science and engineering student to get exported.

Foreign companies brow-beating India: Private publishers charge a subscription fee or place articles behind a paywall, which makes research work inaccessible to many[11]. However, OA literature is largely freely accessible online, for anyone to read, download, copy, distribute, print and search for articles, among other things[12]. Researchers also pointed out that the idea behind open access journals was to ensure equitable access and check “rampant commercialisation” of scholarly publications, but “established publishers have now positioned themselves” in the open access landscape. According to the research team, the primary issue faced by Indian researchers is the lack of a dedicated system to facilitate funding for open access publications and that of a nationwide mandate, like the one that exists in many other countries. Though funding agencies like the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Department of Biotechnology, and Department of Science & Technology have mandates to make research open access, their policies are “old and discuss mostly adding a copy of the published article into the repository and not publishing” in open access journals, the researchers wrote in their study.

© K. V. Ramakrishna Rao

10-04-2024

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[1] Business Standard, ‘Indians spend nearly $2.4 mn to publish research in open access journals’ , Last Updated : Nov 14 2016 | 1:42 PM IST.

[2] https://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/indians-spend-nearly-2-4-mn-to-publish-research-in-open-access-journals-116111400357_1.html

[3] Swarajya, Indians Spend Nearly $2.4 Million To Publish Research In Open Access Journals, Says Study, SWARAJYA STAFF, Tuesday, November 15, 2016 11:33 am IST.

[4] https://swarajyamag.com/insta/indians-spend-nearly-dollar24-million-to-publish-research-in-open-access-journals-says-study

[5] Eastern Mirror, Indians Spend Nearly $2.4 Million To Publish Research In Open Access Journals, Says Study,, November 15, 2016 11:33 am IST.

[6] https://easternmirrornagaland.com/indians-spend-nearly-2-4-million-to-publish-research-in-open-access-journals/

[7] Times of India, Indian researchers invest $17 million in 2020 for open access: Need to sustain scholarly communication, Hemali Chhapia / TNN / Nov 29, 2023, 00:36 IST.

[8] https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/education/indian-researchers-invest-17-million-in-2020-for-open-access-need-to-sustain-scholarly-communication/articleshow/105572211.cms

[9] I.Love.PhD, Indian Researchers Spent $17 Million in 2020 for OA Journals, By Dr. Somasundaram, November 29, 2023.

[10] https://www.ilovephd.com/indian-researchers-spent-17-million-in-2020-for-oa-journals/

[11] The Print, Indian researchers paid $17mn to publish in open access journals in 2020 — 57% of global total, MOHANA BASU, 28 November, 2023 07:30 am IST.

[12] https://theprint.in/science/indian-researchers-paid-17mn-to-publish-in-open-access-journals-in-2020-57-of-global-total/1861273/