Why do we need open access to science? A developing country perspective

1. Why do we need open access to science?A developing country perspective Subbiah Arunachalam Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, India

2. Let me begin by congratulating NAL for fifty years of service to science and technology. Golden Jubilee is a great occasion to celebrate. I have spent two years in this laboratory informally when I was a doctoral student at IISc in the early 1970s. I recall with gratitude the help I had received from my teachers Prof. Sivaraj Ramaseshan, Dr S R Rajagopalan and Prof. S K Rangarajan. I would also like to thank our friend Naganna Goudar for inviting me to be here and speak not once but twice.

3. I have great pleasure in dedicating this talk to Prof. Ramaseshan, who cajoled me into leaving the laboratory to work with him at the Indian Academy of Sciences, which, after the passing away of Prof. C V Raman, was going through some difficult times. He was looking for someone who could edit the Proceedings of the Academy and bring them back to the glory they once enjoyed. We had many discussions – at the Academy, at NAL, at his home, at restaurants, and while traveling by car. For him work was everything. It was difficult to keep pace with his demanding schedule, but I managed reasonably well. Looking back, I feel that the two years I worked for the Academy widened my horizons and led to the many recognitions that came my way in later life.

4. Science as Knowledge Commons • Created by researchers • A communal activity • Science is about sharing • Internet has opened new opportunities Primary goal of science is the creation of new knowledge for the benefit of humanity

5. Emergence of open access • seeks to restore knowledge commons to creators • movement, like everything else, is uneven • physicists vs. chemists • UK, Netherlands and USA • Brazil

6. Developments in India • 3.1% papers in Chemical Abstracts • 30,000 papers a year indexed in SCI • Problems of Access and Visibility • New developments • Consortia • open course ware • arXiv

7. The policy front • Individual efforts • National Knowledge Commission has recommended OA • Many institutional repositories • Need advocacy and training programmes • Action missing from key players

8. Access to information and developing countries • No nation can afford to be without access to S&T research capacity • Neglected diseases not priority for pharmaceutical companies • Research aimed at poverty alleviation and research specific to local problems • Open access can make a big difference

9. Thank You