Policy on open and unrestricted access to DBT/DST funded research
abernard102@gmail.com 2014-07-06
Summary:
"The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST) are constituent Departments within the Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India. An important function of DBT/DST is to support basic, translational and applied scientific research through the creation of suitable infrastructure, by providing funding to individual scientists, institutions and start-ups, and through any other means deemed necessary. Since all funds disbursed by DBT/DST are public funds, it is important that the information and knowledge generated through the use of these funds are made publicly available as soon as possible.1 Research funded by DBT/DST results in new ideas and knowledge. The DBT/DST expects that the recipients of its funding will publish their research in high quality, peer-reviewed journals. However, DBT/DST will not underwrite article processing charges levied by some journals. The DBT/DST affirms the principle that the intrinsic merit of the work, and not the title of the journal in which an author’s work is published, should be considered in making future funding decisions. DBT/DST does not recommend the use of journal impact factors, as a surrogate measure of the quality of individual research articles, to assess an individual scientist’s contributions, or in hiring, promotion, or funding decisions. The DBT/DST believe/s that maximizing the distribution of these publications by providing free online access by depositing them in a gratis open access repository is the most effective way of ensuring that the research it funds can be accessed, read and built upon. This, in turn, will foster a richer research culture. Grantees can make their papers open-access by publishing in an open-access journal or, if they choose to publish in a subscription journal, by posting the final accepted manuscript to an online repository ..."