Open Access to Scientific Knowledge

The open access movement, well known in the domain of journal articles, came about because of several reasons. These include scholars' and researchers' willingness to share knowledge, and advances in technology which enabled opening up free access to information. Journal publishers who raised the subscription rates exorbitantly also forced researchers to look for alternative ways of sustaining knowledge sharing. The paper discusses two ways of achieving open access (OA) and argues that sharing knowledge and building partnerships have been recognised as the best and most optimal means of creating and benefiting from knowledge. It focuses on various fronts where OA is making good progress, and also deliberates on issues like OA endeavours in India, OA and sustainable development and what needs to be done in India to promote OA activities.