Elsevier response to DBT/DST Draft Open Access policy

"We are grateful for the opportunity to respond to the draft open access policy published jointly by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST). As you will be aware, Elsevier already enjoys a positive relationship in support of the Indian scientific and academic research community, and has active consortium agreements with both the Department of Biotechnology and the Department of Science and Technology. Elsevier also publishes 25 Indian journals through our Production and Hosting model, ensuring these journals and the Indian-sourced content within them have global visibility though our Science Direct platform.

Both I and my colleagues have visited some of your colleagues and enjoyed positive, productive discussions. We look forward to continuing to work with you, in particular to help shape a sustainable policy to achieve your stated goal of making publically funded research available “as soon as possible.” To this end, we offer the following observations of your draft policy and in so doing, draw on our considerable experience in countries such as Mexico, China, the UK and US where we have been able to work closely with so many members of the academic community - universities, funders, libraries, scholarly societies, and publishers - to collaborate constructively."