Open access (OA) has historically been a story written by Europe and North America. Mandates, Transformational Agreements (TAs – also known as ‘Read & Publish’), Plan S — the architecture of the global OA transition, was largely designed in, and for, the Global North. In practice, this has meant that many researchers outside that framework — unable to negotiate national agreements or access APC funding at scale — have remained on the margins of a movement intended to include them. With the One Nation One Subscription (ONOS) scheme, India is writing its own chapter in the story of OA, and challenging the legacy narrative in the most productive way. While not the first Global South country to address the challenges of access to content and OA, India stands out in terms of the scale of its ambition.

What makes India's OA trajectory genuinely distinctive?

In 2025, India’s access challenges were solved from the top down: through the ONOS scheme, approximately 18 million users across more than 6,300 institutions now have access to over 13,000 scholarly journals. This is not a piecemeal institutional- or consortia-level approach but rather a comprehensive, national-level, decisive intervention. And the ONOS ambitions don’t stop there: Phase II will see eligibility extended to private institutions, with the ultimate goal being universal access.

In addition to solving the access or ‘Read’ challenge, the ONOS scheme takes a significant step towards solving the ‘Publish’ challenge faced by authors in India by providing a sizable fund of Rs. 150 crore annually (roughly $16M USD) to cover Article Publication Charges (APCs) to support authors seeking to publish in selected, good-quality OA journals. Currently, around 430 gold OA journals meet the eligibility criteria laid out by ONOS, which focuses on journal rankings derived from the Scopus database.

For most Indian researchers, APCs have long acted as a barrier to Gold OA publishing. Access to leading OA journals has largely been limited to those at well-funded institutions, or to individuals able to secure waivers or cover costs personally. The ONOS scheme dramatically increases India-wide funding for Gold OA publishing. Researchers at top-ranked institutions are best positioned to benefit, given the focus on top-tier journals — but eligibility extends to any researcher whose work is accepted in a qualifying journal. This represents an admirable first step towards eliminating a long-standing obstacle to India’s OA journey, and importantly, ensures a greater proportion of India’s research articles will benefit from the virtuous cycle inherent in OA publication: barrier-free access drives usage and visibility, which in turn drives citations and impact.

The ONOS scheme is truly unique in the global landscape of scholarly publishing. While other countries like the UK and Germany have sought to implement large-scale, national TAs, these by definition have approached the ‘Read’ and ‘Publish’ components on relatively equal footing. India’s approach acknowledges the nuanced nature of the market, mature in its research leadership and content scale, but emerging in its OA policies and funding.

Why should journals and publishers pay attention?

India is now the third-largest producer of research articles in the world, a position it has held for the past few years after surpassing the UK and Germany to rank third behind China and the US. Over the past five years, India’s growth rate has rivaled China’s, with a 5-year CAGR of around 9% (compared with China at 11%) and absolute growth between 2020 and 2025 of 52% (compared with China at 69%). Compare that to global growth rates of 6.5% CAGR and 37% absolute growth, and you get a sense of what the future might hold as European and North American countries experience flat or low single-digit growth at best. Publishers and journals that want to maintain their relevance as global venues for research output must embrace India, just as they have embraced China, as an emergent global leader in research.

It isn’t just about scale; it is also about citations. Here, the data clouds the truth. There are countless published articles that quantify and clarify the impact of OA on usage and citation and, while the size of impact might vary by field, type of OA, and other factors, it is widely accepted that OA articles are on average more highly accessed and cited versus paywalled or closed content. It follows then, that countries where OA is widely adopted — like Germany or the UK — thanks to extensive, near-nationwide TAs, have growth rates in citations that far exceed those of published output, especially when compared with markets like India where the transition to OA has been slower due to funding challenges. Given the tendency for the academic community to equate citations with impact and quality, whether through journal metrics like CiteScore or the Journal Impact Factor, or researcher-centric metrics like the h-index, the slower growth of OA in India has arguably hampered the growth in perceived impact and ‘quality’ of the content and researchers because a greater proportion of their content is paywalled. With that in mind, this ONOS gold OA funding should serve to elevate the global visibility, reach, and impact both of the articles and their authors.

What is or might be next for India?

The model shift is underway, and the ONOS scheme will inevitably accelerate that transformation. The direction India takes is likely to be determined by the impact of the initial phase of ONOS.

If, as hoped, the dramatic increase in access for the tier-two and -three institutions results in increased research activity and elevated scholarship for faculty and students alike, we might expect to see greater research activity and output from these institutions. More broadly, this might result in increased competition for funding, and more opportunities for graduate and postgraduate research fellowships, and other consequences, both intended and otherwise.

If the proportion of OA articles increases due to the availability of APC funding, and usage and citations follow, driving up the impact and visibility of those articles, the institutions making best use of the funding may well find their ranking improves, leading to greater demand for student placements, increasing attractiveness for highly rated faculty, greater investment through funding and partnerships, and other benefits. This OA halo effect may well stimulate further investment in APC funding through the ONOS scheme or elsewhere.

Time will tell if these longer-term predictions play out as described or whether the trajectory of India’s OA journey takes unexpected turns; either way, the ambitions and momentum of India in their commitment to becoming a global R&D powerhouse will surely bring rewards as they focus and drive forward progress.

The call to action for journals and publishers is clear: meet the market where it is, serve researchers well, and adapt over time to stay aligned with the evolving needs and maturity of India as it claims its position among global R&D powerhouses. Personally, it is exciting to have a front seat to watch as the future unfolds, and to have a strong hand in how Wiley and our partners embrace the opportunities that future holds.