One Nation One Subscription: 18 mn Indian researchers now get free access to scholarly articles

The Centre has launched the ‘One Nation One Subscription’ (ONOS), opening a treasure trove of research articles and academic journals that will benefit over 18 million students across India.

Students from all government-funded higher education institutions including IITs will be able to access scholarly research articles and journal publications. The ONOS programme was tabled and passed by the Union Cabinet in November 2024.

A total of Rs  6,000 crore has been allocated for ONOS for three academic calendars – 2025, 2026 and 2027.

What is ONOS?

The One Nation One Subscription initiative seeks to break down barriers to knowledge by providing all students, faculty, researchers, and scientists across the nation’s government higher education institutions (HEIs) and central government R&D centres with access to international scholarly journals and articles.

The goal is to ensure that India’s academic and research communities are equipped with the best global resources, fostering innovation and enhancing the quality of research across disciplines.

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How will it work?

The Department of Higher Education will introduce a unified portal to provide institutions with access to journals. The Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) will periodically assess the usage of the One Nation One Subscription initiative and review publications by Indian authors affiliated with these institutions.

The centralised subscription programme will be managed and coordinated by a central agency, namely the Information and Library Network (INFLIBNET) which is under the aegis of the University Grants Commission (UGC).

According to a press release, the scheme will provide access to more than 13,000 scholarly journals from 30 major international publishers to students and benefit about 1.8 crore students, faculty, and researchers across disciplines such as STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics), Medicine, Social Sciences, Finance & Accounts, etc.

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The subscription charges for journals from 30 publishers under ONOS Phase I, which began on January 1, will be centrally paid by INFLIBNET, covering payments from library consortia, HEIs, and R&D institutions under central ministries.