DOCSLIB.ORG

Report from National Case Study: India

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Report from National Case Study: India REPORT FROM NATIONAL CASE STUDY India Deliverable 11.1 Work Package 11 Project title: Responsible Research and Innovation in Practice (RRI-Practice) Grant Agreement no: 709637 Funding Programme: Horizon 2020 Project Coordinator: Oslo Metropolitan University – Norway Project website: www.rri-practice.eu Organisation responsible RIS for the deliverable: Author(s): Krishna Ravi Srinivas, Amit Kumar and Nimita Pandey Date of delivery: 29.08.18 Dissemination level: PUBLIC Abstract This report contains a study on Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) and the RRI Keys in India. It includes two case studies, one of a funding and policy making agency, Department of Science and Technology (DST), and one on a research university, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). The study includes an analysis of the national Science, Technology and Innovation policy context. It shows that some of the RRI keys are part of the policy discourse and programs. 1 Contents 1. Executive Summary .............................................................................................................................. 5 2. Introduction: About the report ............................................................................................................ 6 3. Methodology ........................................................................................................................................ 7 3.1 Analytic approach ............................................................................................................................... 7 3.2 National mapping ................................................................................................................................ 8 3.2.1 Document analysis ........................................................................................................................... 8 3.2.2 Interviews ......................................................................................................................................... 8 3.2.3 National workshop ........................................................................................................................... 8 3.3 The organizational studies .................................................................................................................. 9 3.3.1 Document studies .......................................................................................................................... 10 3.3.2 Interviews for Reviews (including justification of sampling strategy) ........................................... 10 3.3.3 Focus group .................................................................................................................................... 11 3.3.4 Outlook process ...................................................................................................................... 11 4. The National Science Policy System .................................................................................................. 11 4.1 Legal and other binding normative frameworks .............................................................................. 17 4.2 Political and cultural values and discussions related to STI .............................................................. 19 5. Aspects of responsibility in national science policy .......................................................................... 20 5.1 The conceptualisations of responsibility in national science policy ................................................. 23 5.2 The notion of ‘RRI’ in national science policy discussions ................................................................ 23 5.3 Ethics in the national science system ............................................................................................... 23 5.4 Societal engagement strategies in research ..................................................................................... 26 5.5 Gender equality and diversity strategies in the science system ....................................................... 29 5.6 Open access and open science strategies in the national science system ....................................... 34 5.8 Incorporation of AIRR dimensions into science policy discussions................................................... 39 5.8.1. Diversity and inclusion .................................................................................................................. 39 5.8.2. Anticipation and reflexivity ........................................................................................................... 39 5.8.3 Openness and transparency .......................................................................................................... 40 5.8.4 Responsiveness and adaptation .................................................................................................... 40 5.9 The integrated or fragmented nature of different responsibility related aspects ........................... 40 6. Organizational review and Outlook: Research Conducting Organization: JNU (India) ................... 41 6.1 Mapping of the organisation: JNU .................................................................................................... 41 6.2 Aspects of responsibility in organisational policy and practice ........................................................ 43 2 6.2.1 The conceptualisations of responsibility in the organisation ........................................................ 43 6.2.2 Ethics in the organisation ............................................................................................................... 45 6.2.3 Societal engagement strategies in organisation ............................................................................ 47 6.2.4 Gender equality and diversity strategies in the organisation ........................................................ 49 6.2.5 Open access strategies in the organisation ................................................................................... 51 6.2.6 Science education as integrated in research ................................................................................. 53 6.2.7 Incorporation of AIRR dimensions into policies ............................................................................. 55 6.2.8 Other concepts used to characterise responsibility in the organisation ....................................... 55 6.3. Reflection on Review findings, Outlooks developed and ways forward ......................................... 56 6.3.1 The integrated or fragmented nature of different responsibility related dimensions .................. 56 6.3.2 Common barriers or drivers ........................................................................................................... 56 6.3.3 Final reflections and plan for follow-up ......................................................................................... 56 7. Organizational review and Outlook: Research Funding Organization: DST (India) ......................... 57 7.1 Mapping of the organisation: DST .................................................................................................... 57 7.2 Aspects of responsibility in organisational policy and practice ........................................................ 58 7.2.1 The conceptualisations of responsibility in the organisation ........................................................ 58 7.2.2 Ethics in the organisation ............................................................................................................... 59 7.2.3 Societal engagement strategies in organisation ............................................................................ 61 7.2.4 Gender equality and diversity strategies in the organisation ........................................................ 64 7.2.5 Open access strategies in the organisation ................................................................................... 66 7.2.6 Science education and communication as integrated in research ................................................ 68 7.2.7 Incorporation of AIRR dimensions into policies ............................................................................. 71 7.2.8 Other concepts used to characterise responsibility in the organisation ....................................... 71 7.3. Reflection on Review findings, Outlooks developed and ways forward ......................................... 72 7.3.1 The integrated or fragmented nature of different responsibility related dimensions .................. 72 7.3.2 Common barriers or drivers ........................................................................................................... 72 7.3.3 Final reflections and plan for follow-up ......................................................................................... 72 8. Summary of findings on each responsibility dimension ................................................................... 72 8.1 The concept of responsibility ............................................................................................................ 72 8.2 The notion of ‘RRI’ ............................................................................................................................ 72 8.3 Ethics ................................................................................................................................................. 73 8.4 Societal engagement ........................................................................................................................
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Open Access Publishing
    Open Access The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Suber, Peter. 2012. Open access. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press. [Updates and Supplements: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/hoap/ Open_Access_(the_book)] Published Version http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/open-access Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:10752204 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA OPEN ACCESS The MIT Press Essential Knowledge Series Information and the Modern Corporation, James Cortada Intellectual Property Strategy, John Palfrey Open Access, Peter Suber OPEN ACCESS PETER SUBER TheMIT Press | Cambridge, Massachusetts | London, England © 2012 Massachusetts Institute of Technology This work is licensed under the Creative Commons licenses noted below. To view a copy of these licenses, visit creativecommons.org. Other than as provided by these licenses, no part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, or displayed by any electronic or mechanical means without permission from the publisher or as permitted by law. This book incorporates certain materials previously published under a CC-BY license and copyright in those underlying materials is owned by SPARC. Those materials remain under the CC-BY license. Effective June 15, 2013, this book will be subject to a CC-BY-NC license. MIT Press books may be purchased at special quantity discounts for business or sales promotional use.
    [Show full text]
  • Open Access in India and Way Forward for South Asia
    International Day for Universal Access to Information 2018 (IDUAI) September 28-29, 2018 | Colombo, Sri Lanka “The Asian Digital Revolution: Transforming the Digital Divide into a Dividend through Universal Access” Open Access in India and Way Forward for South Asia Access to information is the first step for the advancement and progress of the society. And the Open Access, which is immediate availability of the scientific literature and other research outputs upon publication required for the advancement and progress of the science. The Open Access movement in the South Asian region comprising Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka is skewed with more awareness and participation in India and with no or nil in Afghanistan and Maldives. When we look at the level of access to information to scientific information in South Asian region through the Open Access Repositories, it’s only about 140 repositories registered with the ROAR while in the world, 4661 repositories are registered. The registry of Open Access mandates shows that only 17 (with one mandate from Pakistan) mandates are registered with the database from the South Asian region while a total of 941 mandates were registered from around the world. The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) had registered 12026 journals published from 121 countries. The INASP’s JOL project is facilitating hosting of some of the journals from Asia viz., Bangladesh Journals Online (15670 Records), Nepal Journals Online (14372 Records) and Sri Lanka Journals Online (10082 Records) and is providing access to all of them via harvester, Asian Journals Online. A year after the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) was released in 2002, the seeds of the Open Access movement were sown in India.
    [Show full text]
  • Tokgjyky Usg# Fo'ofo|Ky; Okf”Kzd Izfrosnu
    2013-14 tokgjyky usg# fo’ofo|ky; Jawaharlal Nehru University okf”kZd izfrosnu 44 Annual Report Contents THE LEGEND 1 ACADEMIC PROGRAMMES AND ADMISSIONS 5 UNIVERSITY BODIES 10 SCHOOLS AND CENTRES 19-302 School of Arts and Aesthetics (SA&A) 19 School of Biotechnology (SBT) 35 School of Computational and Integrative Sciences (SCIS) 40 School of Computer & Systems Sciences (SC&SS) 45 School of Environmental Sciences (SES) 51 School of International Studies (SIS) 60 School of Language, Literature & Culture Studies (SLL&CS) 101 School of Life Sciences (SLS) 136 School of Physical Sciences (SPS) 154 School of Social Sciences (SSS) 162 Centre for the Study of Law & Governance (CSLG) 281 Special Centre for Molecular Medicine (SCMM) 292 Special Centre for Sanskrit Studies (SCSS) 297 ACADEMIC STAFF COLLEGE 303 STUDENT’S ACTIVITIES 312 ENSURING EQUALITY 320 LINGUISTIC EMPOWERMENT CELL 324 UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATION 327 CAMPUS DEVELOPMENT 331 UNIVERSITY FINANCE 332 OTHER ACTIVITIES 334-341 Gender Sensitisation Committee Against Sexual Harassment 334 Alumni Affairs 336 Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Advanced Studies 336 International Collaborations 340 CENTRAL FACILITIES 342-370 University Library 342 University Science Instrumentation Centre 358 Advanced Instrumentation Research Facility 360 University Employment Information & Guidance Bureau 370 JNU Annual Report 2012-13 iii FACULTY PUBLICATIONS 371-463 FACULTY RESEARCH PROJECTS 464-482 ANNEXURES 483-574 MEMBERSHIP OF UNIVERSITY BODIES 483 University Court 483 Executive Council 489 Academic Council 490 Finance Committee 495 TEACHERS 496 Faculty Members 496 Emeritus/Honorary Professors 509 Faculty Members Appointed 510 Faculty Members Confirmed 512 Faculty Members Resigned 512 Faculty Members Retired Compulsorily 513 Faculty Members Retired Superannuation 513 Faculty members Re-employed 513 RESEARCH SCHOLARS 514-574 Ph.D.
    [Show full text]
  • Open Access in India: Hopes and Frustrations
    Open Access in India: Hopes and Frustrations Subbiah Arunachalam <[email protected]> Subbiah Arunachalam 19 September 2007 Berlin 5, Padua, Italy India has a large S&T research community and Indian researchers perform research in a wide variety of areas. India trains a very large number of scientists and engineers and a large percent of the best graduates migrate to the West. One would think that everything is fine with science and technology in India. Far from it. In terms of the number of papers published in refereed journals, in terms of the number of citations to these papers, in terms of citations per paper, and in terms of international awards and recognitions won, India’s record is not all that encouraging. Subbiah Arunachalam 19 September 2007 Berlin 5, Padua, Italy Data from WoS for India Year No. of papers 2004 24659 2005 27340 2006 30641 India, after near stagnation, is now on the growth path. Subbiah Arunachalam 19 September 2007 Berlin 5, Padua, Italy Scientists do research and communicate results to other scientists. They build on what is already known, on what others have done – the ‘shoulders of giants’ as Newton said. Indian scientists face two problems common to scientists everywhere, but acutely felt by scientists in poorer countries : Access and Visibility 1. They are unable to access what other scientists have done, because of the high costs of access. With an annual per capita GDP well below US $1,000, most Indian libraries cannot afford to subscribe to key journals needed by their users. Most scientists in India are forced to work in a situation of information poverty.
    [Show full text]
  • The Changing Landscape and Future of Open Access in India
    ICDL(International Conference on Digital Libraries) 2016: Smart Future: Knowledge Trends that will Change the World. 13-16 Dec. 2016. IHC, New Delhi The Changing Landscape and Future of Open Access in India Leena Shah1, Vrushali Dandawate2 and Sridhar Gutam3 1Formerly, Nanyang Technological University; DOAJ Ambassador (South India) <[email protected]> 2AISSMS College of Engineering College Pune; DOAJ Ambassador (West India) <[email protected]> 3ICAR RCER Research Centre Ranchi; DOAJ Ambassador (East India) <[email protected]> Abstract The past few years has seen a tremendous change in information production and growth with new knowledge disciplines added into academics. With journal subscription costs increasing at 8-10% annually(Miller 2015), libraries worldwide are finding it difficult to sustain subscription costs to scholarly material. On the other hand making information and data available in interoperable electronic formats freely is a concept that is gaining momentum and OA (Open Access) holds promise to remove both price and permission barriers to scientific communication with the help of the internet. Scientists, policy makers, NGOs, government agencies and librarians are also collaborating together for OA implementation and making knowledge affordable to all. OA journals play a key role in making scholarly material immediately available on the internet. Keywords: open access, open access movement India, scholarly publishing, predatory publishers Introduction The OA movement in India started by advocates like Subbiah Arunachalam is more than a decade old. It is now gaining momentum with various organizations and departments under Government of India such as the DBT (Department of Biotechnology) and DST (Department of Science and Technology) adopting OA policies in 2014.
    [Show full text]
  • OPEN ACCESS RESOURCES on the INTERNET (Book of Papers)
    OPEN ACCESS RESOURCES ON THE INTERNET (Book of Papers) Editor Rhoda Bharucha Hon. Director ADINET Seminar organised jointly by Ahmedabad Library Network (ADINET) Information and Library Network Centre (INFLIBNET) Ahmedabad Management Association (AMA) On 26th August, 2006 At Ahmedabad Management Association, Ahmedabad AHMEDABAD LIBRARY NETWORK C/O INFLIBNET Centre, Opp.Gujarat University Guest House, Navrangpura, Ahmedabad-380009 2006 1 © AHMEDABAD LIBRARY NETWORK, AHMEDABAD September, 2006 Ahmedabad Library Network Open access resources on the Internet / Seminar organised jointly by Ahmedabad Library Network (ADINET), Information and Library Network Centre (INFLIBNET) and Ahmedabad Management Association(AMA) on 26rd August 2006. Edited by Rhoda Bharucha - Ahmedabad Library Network, 2006 80p; 24cm.- (Librarians’Day. 2006) “ADINET celebrates the birth anniversary of Dr. S. R. Ranganathan as Librarians’ Day” ISBN : 81-88174-08-04 1 Internet - Resourcess - Access - conference proceedings I Title CC : 24:65(D65)p2,N05 DDC : 028.744 306054 ISBN : 81-88174-08-04 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, without written permission of ADINET. This publication has been sponsored by Director of Libraries, Gujarat State Published by ADINET, Ahmedabad Tele : 079-26305630/26300368/26305971 Fax : 079-26305630/26300990 e-mail : [email protected] Url : www.alibnet.org Cover Design : Divyang Sutaria Printed at Siddhi Offset, Ahmedabad Phone: 25453960 2 CONTENTS Page No. ❖ Preface 4 ❖ About Ahmedabad Library Network (ADINET) 6 ❖ About Information and Library Network Centre (INFLIBNET) 9 1. Key Note Address 11 Shri Manojkumar K. …rhËkðtŒfeÞ rð»tÞðM‚w WŒTƒtuÄ™ 2. Basic Concepts of Open Access and Some Initiatives 16 Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • NKC) Is Pleased and Aspirations of Domain Experts and Other Concerned to Submit Its final Report to the Nation
    National Knowledge Commission Report to the Nation 2006 - 2009 Government of India © National Knowledge Commission, March 2009 Published by: National Knowledge Commission Government of India Dharma Marg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi-110 021 www.knowledgecommission.gov.in Copy editing, design and printing: New Concept Information Systems Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi-110 076 www.newconceptinfo.com Foreword The National Knowledge Commission (NKC) is pleased and aspirations of domain experts and other concerned to submit its final Report to the Nation. It is essentially stakeholders. a compilation of our various reports from 2006 to 2009. The Commission was set up by the Prime Minister In the last three years NKC has submitted around Dr. Manmohan Singh to prepare a blueprint to tap 300 recommendations on 27 subjects in the form of into the enormous reservoir of our knowledge base so letters to the Prime Minister. These have been widely that our people can confidently face the challenges of disseminated in our Reports to the Nation, seminars, the 21st century. We were conscious that this was a conferences, discussions and covered by national and daunting task, which required not only resources and regional media. These recommendations are also time, but also a bold vision and a long-term focus on accessible through the NKC website in 10 languages. speedy implementation. As part of our outreach program we have organised various conferences and workshops in collaboration At the heart of NKC’s mandate are five key areas with universities, colleges, schools, CII, FICCI, AIMA, related to ACCESS, CONCEPTS, CREATION, and others. We have also been reaching out to various APPLICATIONS and SERVICES.
    [Show full text]
  • Scientific Potential of European Fully Open Access Journals
    Scientific potential of European fully open access journals Jokic, Maja; Mervar, Andrea; Mateljan, Stjepan Source / Izvornik: Scientometrics, 2018, 1 - 26 Journal article, Submitted version Rad u časopisu, Rukopis poslan na recenzijski postupak (preprint) Permanent link / Trajna poveznica: https://urn.nsk.hr/urn:nbn:hr:213:218453 Rights / Prava: In copyright Download date / Datum preuzimanja: 2021-09-24 Repository / Repozitorij: The Institute of Economics, Zagreb THIS IS A PRE-PRINT VERSION OF THE ARTICLE PUBLISHED IN SCIENTOMETRICS ; Joki ć, M., Mervar, A. & Mateljan, S. Scientometrics (2018) 114: 1373. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-017-2629-y Scientific potential of European fully open access journals Maja Joki ć1 Institute for Social Research in Zagreb Amruševa 8, 10 000 Zagreb Croatia [email protected] ORCHID 0000-0002-0344-0904 Andrea Mervar The Institute of Economics, Zagreb Trg J.F. Kennedyja 7, 10 000 Zagreb Croatia [email protected] ORCHID 0000-0003-4288-9533 Stjepan Mateljan Institute for Social Research in Zagreb Amruševa 8, 10 000 Zagreb Croatia [email protected] Acknowledgment This work has been supported in part from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 645884 and by the Croatian Science Foundation under the project IP-09-2014-9351. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of REA (European Commission) or Croatian Science Foundation. 1 Corresponding author: Maja Joki ć, Institute for Social Research in Zagreb, Amruševa 8, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia, Tel. +385 1 4922 925 1 Scientific potential of European fully open access journals Abstract The scientific potential of European countries measured by their participation in publication of all peer-review journals as well as open access journals (OAJs) is significant.
    [Show full text]
  • The Case of Significant Variations in Gold-Green and Black Open Access: Evidence from Indian Research Output
    This is a pre-print of an article published in [Scientometrics]. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-020-03472-y The Case of Significant Variations in Gold-Green and Black Open Access: Evidence from Indian Research Output Vivek Kumar Singha, Rajesh Piryanib & Satya Swarup Srichandana a Department of Computer Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi-221005 (India) Email: [email protected] , [email protected] b Department of Computer Science, South Asian University, New Delhi-110021 (India) Email: [email protected] Abstract Open Access has emerged as an important movement worldwide during the last decade. There are several initiatives now that persuade researchers to publish in open access journals and to archive their pre- or post-print versions of papers in repositories. Institutions and funding agencies are also promoting ways to make research outputs available as open access. This paper looks at open access levels and patterns in research output from India by computationally analyzing research publication data obtained from Web of Science for India for the last five years (2014-2018). The corresponding data from other connected platforms- Unpaywall and Sci-Hub- are also obtained and analyzed. The results obtained show that about 24% of research output from India, during last five years, is available in legal forms of open access as compared to world average of about 30%. More articles are available in gold open access as compared to green and bronze. On the contrary, more than 90% of the research output from India is available for free download in Sci-Hub.
    [Show full text]
  • Concepts of Openness and Open Access
    2 Concepts of Openness and Open Access WW W Open Access for Researchers Concepts of Openness and Open Access Module 2 Concepts of Openness and Open Access UNIT 1 Introduction to Open Access 5 UNIT 2 Routes to Open Access 16 UNIT 3 Networks and Organizations Promoting Open Access 25 UNIT 4 Open Access Mandates and Policies 45 UNIT 5 Open Access Issues and Challenges 59 Pub lished in 2015 by the United Nations Educational, Scie ntific and Cultural Organization, 7, place de Fontenoy, 75352 Paris 07 SP, France © UNESCO 2015 ISBN 978-92-3-100079-9 This publication is available in Open Access under the Attr ibution-ShareAlike 3.0 IGO (CC-BY-SA 3.0 IGO) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/igo/ ) . By using the content of this publication, the users acce pt to be bound by the terms of use of the UNESCO Op en Access Repository (http://www.unesco.org/open- access/terms-use-ccbysa-en ). The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNESCO concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its fron tiers or boundaries. The ideas and opinions expressed in this publication are thos e of the authors; they are not necessarily those of UNES CO and do not commit the Organization. Cov er design by The Commonwealth Educational Media Cen tre for Asia (CEMCA) P rinted in PDF Concepts of CURRICULUM DESIGN COMMITTEE Openness and OA Anirban Sarma Parthasarathi
    [Show full text]
  • The Global Open Joachim Schöpfel Global South and Open Access
    The Global Open Joachim Schöpfel Global South and Open Access ISSN conference 2018 2 This Global Science Map Is Not Destiny By Laura Czerniewicz | Published: July 9, 2015 ISSN conference 2018 3 https://www.socialsciencespace.com/2015/07/this-global-science-map-is-not-destiny/ Is it? • “(...) to redraw the map of global knowledge production, the inequitable global power dynamics of global knowledge production and exchange must be confronted head on (...) • (...) And finally, the open access movement needs to broaden its focus from access to knowledge to full participation in knowledge creation and in scholarly communication” (Laura Czerniewicz loc.cit.) • So, what is the actual contribution of the Global South to the open access movement? Do open repositories and academic journals in open access change the situation of unequal scientific production? ISSN conference 2018 4 The question is quite simple but... • Monitoring open access is (still) a problem • Biased OA representation in favor of Western countries • What exactly is the Global South? Study from March 2017 101 countries with available et reliable information Sources : World Trade Organization, World Bank Group Elsevier (Scopus) OpenDOAR, DOAJ, BASE, re3data Acknowledgement to Hélène Prost, CNRS ISSN conference 2018 5 Global South academic output in BASE (open access, cumulative) and Scopus (2016) • Only 6% of OA items from the Global South • Brazil, India and Indonesia represent 60% of the Global South OA • 55 countries are not indexed in BASE • Their OA output remains invisible ISSN conference 2018 6 Open repositories (OpenDOAR) • 24% repositories from the Global South • Brazil, India, Turkey and Indonesia represent 9% • 45 countries represent 15% • 52 countries remain invisible ISSN conference 2018 7 Open repositories, South and North Similar Different • Institutional repositories • Greenstone (Unesco, Human (universities) Info), SciELO • DSpace, EPrints • Other languages than English • English is prevailing • Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Turkish, Arabic, French..
    [Show full text]
  • Open Access Initiatives in India - an Evaluation
    Partnership : the Canadian Journal of Library and Information Practice and Research, vol. 1, no. 1 (2006) Open Access Initiatives in India - an Evaluation Leila Fernandez Head, Steacie Science and Engineering Library York University Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3 Abstract Developing countries have embraced open access with a view to promoting visibility of research done in these regions. Open access initiatives described in this paper are based on interviews with information professionals responsible for creation and maintenance of online research repositories in India. Open access journals, e-print archives and e-theses repositories are covered with an emphasis on the sciences including the physical sciences, mathematics and the biomedical sciences. Existing repositories were identified from the Registry of Open Access Repositories located at http://archives.eprints.org. Key contacts were facilitated by well-known local open access advocates. Participants were contacted by e-mail and sites visited wherever possible. Many universities in India are at present lacking in infrastructure for establishing institutional repositories, so most of the institutions visited were research institutes and informatics centres. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to ascertain the background of participants, institutional culture, software selection, nature of funding, submission policies and future plans of these repositories. Also covered were promotion methods, user feedback and institutional support. Barriers to setting up institutional repositories are identified in this paper. Special features are described. Based on participant feedback a list of best practices is presented. The study has definite implications for the role of Canadian librarians in the promotion of Canadian research. Keywords: Institutional repositories, open access, evaluation, best practices, Indian institutions.
    [Show full text]