Ver 2.0 for Peer-Review - Open and Inclusive - Reimagining Science in the Global South

51 Open Science and the Covid19 Pandemic

that such information is released as soon as adapt the information and exploit the
possible, as it can play a major role in information commercially and non-
scientific decision making. commercially, for example, by combining it
with other information or by including it in
To increase public trust in vaccinations and their own product or application.¹⁷¹ The only
to reduce vaccine hesitancy, it is also major condition on users is that the users
important to transparently share data on have to acknowledge the source of the
adverse reactions to the different vaccines information in the product or application by
approved for use in these countries.¹⁶⁶ including or linking to any attribution
Unfortunately, none of the four countries statement specified by the information
studied appear to have been providing such provider(s) and, where possible, provide a
data to the public through any open access link to the licence.¹⁷²
platform. Some other countries have already
taken initiatives and the four countries can As one could notice from the discussion in
do a lot more in this regard.¹⁶⁷ the next chapter, digital inclusion also
remains a challenge in all these four
Another common issue observed is lack of countries and extra efforts are required in all
clarity on the data licences. The vast the four countries to make the data more
majority of the databases in the four accessible for the general public. While one
countries we analysed as part of the study needs to appreciate that media such as
are seen not stating explicitly the data infographics are used by at least some of
licence conditions, which often leads to the organisations in these four countries, a
severe uncertainties for researchers and lot more can be done at the national and
other users on the kind of (re)uses permitted state levels to convey more data through
with the shared data. All the four countries more interactive infographics. Data
need to adopt open licences like Creative descriptions also need to be written in a
Commons Attribution Only licence¹⁶⁸ or the language accessible to the broader public.
Open Government Licence¹⁶⁹ to facilitate
maximum reuse of data, and convey the It is also important to ensure that the
same explicitly to potential users of data. For datasets as well as presentations of data are
example, the Open Government Licence v3.0 accessible for persons with disabilities.
allows worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, Unfortunately, not many databases in the
non-exclusive licence to use, subject to very region are currently providing data in
limited conditions.¹⁷⁰ The users are accessible formats, thereby considerably
specifically allowed to copy, publish, limiting the access and use of the data by
distribute and transmit the information, persons with disabilities.

166 Some literature surrounding concerns around vaccine trials can be accessed here :Varsha Poddar, ‘An old mistrust of
government keeps Jharkhand Adivasis away from COVID-19 vaccines’ The Caravan (30 May 2021) <https://
caravanmagazine.in/health/an-old-mistrust-of-government-keeps-jharkhands-adivasis-away-from-covid19-vaccines>
accessed 16 March 2022
167 For example, the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency publishes weekly reports on the adverse reactions to
the different vaccines in use in the UK. See <https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-
vaccine-adverse-reactions> accessed 16 March 2022
168 Creative Commons, About the Licences <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/> accessed 16 March 2022
169 Open Government Licence for Public Sector Information <https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-
government-licence/version/3/> accessed 16 March 2022
170 ibid.
171 ibid.
172 supra (n 169).

Open Science and the Covid19 Pandemic 52

Finally, a lot more can be done to ensure Are these suggestions difficult to
better access to Covid19-related scholarly implement in India, Nepal, Bangladesh and
materials in all the four countries. Though Sri Lanka? As one could notice from the
the number of Covid19-related publications earlier discussions in this chapter, all the
have increased substantially over the last four countries are already collecting and
couple of months, access to many of the holding massive amounts of Covid19-
relevant publications remains a challenge for related data. So the most fundamental
researchers and medical practitioners in all resource, data, is already existing. Lack of
the four countries. This poses considerable economic resources also cannot be an
challenges for research on Covid19. To excuse for optimising data sharing along
address this challenge through a major the lines discussed in this chapter. For
south-south collaboration, the Covid-19 example, providing clarity on data licence
Universal REsource (CURE) gateway of conditions does not involve any substantial
UNESCO Global Open Access Portal has been costs. The same is the case for providing
initiated, but a lot more can be done by India, data in multiple formats that can meet FAIR
Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka to ensure principles in data sharing. An equally
access to preprints as well as final published addressable issue is the regular updating of
versions of Covid19-related scholarly data. While taking these steps does not
literature. This includes motivating more involve substantial marginal costs, they can
researchers from these countries to produce substantial societal benefits by
contribute their scholarly resources to the enabling (re)uses of data by researchers
CURE gateway or other open repositories working in diverse disciplines. We truly
that facilitate open access. hope that the discussion in this chapter
would prompt all the four countries to take
steps for more proactive data sharing
within and among the countries in the spirit
of open science.

53 Open Science and the Covid19 Pandemic

03Chapter

Making
Open Science
The Norm:
Challenges in
South Asia

Making Open Science the Norm in Science: Challenges in South Asia 54

This chapter provides an overview of the CHALLENGES
current status of different components of
the open science framework advocated in Open Scientific
the UNESCO recommendation in the four Knowledge
countries analysed as part of this study and
the major challenges faced by them. Open Access

Open access as a movement has slowly been

gaining momentum across the world,

including in South Asia. However, it has also

been facing many challenges. As one may

recall from the discussions in Chapter 1, the

UNESCO Recommendation provides

sufficient flexibility to meet the open access

requirements, and it categorically mentions

that open access may be facilitated by

publishers through their open access

publishing platforms (for example, the Gold

Open Access model of facilitating access

through open access journals) or by making

the scholarly publications available through

an open access repository (Green Open

Access model). All the four countries have

been facing challenges with regard to both

models of open access.

INDIA

If one looks at the history of open access in
India, it can be seen that one of the earliest
open access related steps in India was the
setting up of the first repository,
EPrints@IISc3, in 2001. Though the access to
that repository was limited to registered
users, it was a landmark moment in the
history of open access in India as it was
initiated at a time when institutional
repositories were rare even globally. But
even after many years, the repository hasn’t
seen many voluntary, direct submissions

55 Making Open Science the Norm in Science: Challenges in South Asia

from researchers.¹⁷³ In 2006, representatives DBT/DST support.¹⁷⁷ The policy mandates
from three developing countries (India, that institutions receiving ‘core funding’
China, and Brazil) met in Bangalore and from DBT/DST have to create and run
advocated for open access self-archiving in institutional repositories for sharing
these countries and even came up with a materials.¹⁷⁸ In cases wherein institutional
declaration often referred to as the repository is not available, the policy
Bangalore Declaration.¹⁷⁴ But, as it didn’t envisages the sharing of material through
have any legally enforceable mandates for central repositories created by DBT/ DST.¹⁷⁹
researchers in India, it failed to make any Later, other major funding agencies in India
substantial impact on the practices of like CSIR (Council of Scientific & Industrial
researchers. Research)¹⁸⁰ and ICAR (Indian Council of
Agricultural Research)¹⁸¹ also came up with
The first major official open access mandate open access policies.¹⁸² One can also see the
from the side of the Indian government came emergence of other initiatives like the
in 2014, when the Department of Science National Digital Library of India (NDLI),
and Technology (DST) and the Department sponsored by the Ministry of Education,
of Biotechnology (DBT) joined hands to Government of India, whose specific
frame an open access policy.¹⁷⁵ As per the mandate is to “make available to the
DBT-DST open access mandate of 2014, the learners’ community learning resources
full text of final accepted manuscripts, through a single-window”.¹⁸³ Some of the
associated metadata and supplementary states in India have also taken specific open
material arising out of projects that are in access initiatives. For example, the state of
whole or in part funded by DBT/DST are to be Tamil Nadu has issued an instruction to the
made available in open access.¹⁷⁶ It also Tamil University and all other government
includes within its scope projects that are departments and institutions to release all
performed using infrastructure built with their publications, archives and collections

173 F Jayakanth and others, ‘ePrints@IISc: India’s first and fastest growing institutional repository’ (2008) 24(1) OCLC
Systems & Services: International digital library perspectives 59, 62
174 Barbara Kirsop, ‘Open Access and Developing Countries’ (2007) 92(3) Current Science 276
175 Department of Science and Technology, ‘DBT and DST Open Access Policy Policy on open access to DBT and DST
funded research’ <http://dst.gov.in/sites/default/files/APPROVED%20OPEN%20ACCESS%20POLICY-
DBT&DST(12.12.2014)_1.pdf> accessed 16 March 2022
176 ibid 2.
177 ibid 3.
178 ibid 4.
179 ibid 4.
180 The CSIR policy is applicable to all CSIR journals, published research data, full text of papers submitted from CSIR
laboratories and supported by CSIR grant, and associated metadata. The policy mandates institutional repositories to be
created by every CSIR lab, and urges labs to progressively make all their publications open access. See <https://
www.csir.res.in/knowledge-resource-center/open-access-repositories> accessed 16 March 2022
181 The ICAR Open Access Policy covers all publications, M.Sc. and Ph.D. theses and dissertations, summaries of
completed projects, and associated metadata. It pertains to outputs of research conducted at ICAR institutes and funded
wholly or in part by ICAR or other public funds at ICAR establishments. It also mandates the setting up of institutional
repositories by such establishments in which the relevant authors must deposit the final version of their manuscripts. See
<https://icar.org.in/node/5542> accessed 16 March 2022
182 CSIR Open Access Mandate (2018) <http://www.csircentral.net/mandate.pdf> accessed 16 March 2022; Indian
Council of Agricultural Research, ‘Open Access Policy of ICAR’(New Delhi 2013) <http://eprints.cmfri.org.in/9665/>
accessed 16 March 2022
183 National Digital Library of India, <https://ndl.iitkgp.ac.in/> accessed 16 March 2022

Making Open Science the Norm in Science: Challenges in South Asia 56

under Creative Commons Share-Alike under any open licences, thereby severely
licence.¹⁸⁴ limiting the scope of use of works in NDLI.

While most of these open access mandates Though India has many excellent
in India can make a substantial volume of researchers and many premier research
publicly-funded works openly accessible to institutions, if one looks at the number of
the public, many of these initiatives have good quality open access journals from
also faced several limitations. For example, in India, it is far from optimal. According to the
spite of a strong mandate, many researchers latest available data on the Directory of
who have received funding from DST and DBT Open Access Journals (DOAJ), a community-
haven’t made their works available under curated online directory of high quality,
open access.¹⁸⁵ One of the potential factors peer-reviewed, open access journals, there
in this regard could be the non-enforcement are only 324 journals from India. ¹⁸⁹
of the mandate from the side of the funding
agencies.¹⁸⁶ If researchers are of the opinion Data from Web of Science, as well as SCOPUS
that a mandate wouldn’t be enforced, there for the years 2016-2020, also confirms that a
are very high chances of non-compliance lot more can be done by researchers from
and one can see that in the case of failure of India. According to the 2016-20 data on Web
DST-DBT open access mandates. of Science, out of a total of 413,232 papers
from Indian researchers, only 108,838 papers
Restrictive licensing practices are another (26.33%) have been made available in open
factor that limit the scope of current open access mode (refer to Table 3.1).¹⁹⁰ Similarly
access mandates in India. For example, data from SCOPUS for the same time period
though ICAR has an open access policy, the (2016-20) indicates that out of a total of
scope of licence is limited to use, re-use, and 652,135 papers, only 200,281 (30.7%) are
sharing of the material for academic and available under open access (see Table 3.2).
research purposes.¹⁸⁷ It is specifically
mentioned that written permission from The data clearly indicates that a lot more can
ICAR, the copyright holder, is necessary for be done in India for open access. While there
any commercial or other uses.¹⁸⁸ However, is immense potential for increasing the
what use would be considered as number of quality open access journals from
commercial use or other use remains India, in view of the high number of journals
ambiguous and this can considerably affect published from India in different disciplines,
potential uses or reuses of information made it is equally important to focus on increasing
available under the mandate. Similarly, awareness about green open access
though the NDLI gives the impression of options. Data from empirical surveys show
being an open access repository, many of that a considerable section of researchers in
the contents in NDLI are not made available India cite unwillingness to pay Article

184 Tamil Nadu Development Department Order dated 1 July 2016 <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/
File:GoTN_Tamil_Development_Departments_order_on_creative_commons_cc_by_sa.pdf#filehistory> accessed 16
March 2022; Tamil Nadu MGR Medical University has also set up an open access repository, see <http://repository-
tnmgrmu.ac.in/> accessed 16 March 2022
185 Centre for Innovation, Intellectual Property and Competition, ‘Open Science India Report’ (2018) 93
186 ibid 157.
187 Indian Council of Agricultural Research, ‘Open Access Policy of ICAR’ (New Delhi 2013) <http://
eprints.cmfri.org.in/9665/> accessed 16 March 2022
188 ibid 2.
189 Data as on 23 January 2022.
190 Data collected by Madhan Muthu, Director (Library), Jindal Global University.

57 Making Open Science the Norm in Science: Challenges in South Asia

INDIA

Table 3.1 Web of Science (SCI, SSCI A&HCI); Year 2016-2020
Documents (Articles, Reviews and Letters)

No. of papers 413,232 Gold: Identified as having a Creative
Commons (CC) licence by Our Research
All open access 108,838 (26.33%) Unpaywall Database.
Gold Hybrid: Identified as having a Creative
Gold OA 52,490 Commons (CC) licence by Our Research but
Gold Hybrid 9,837 are not in journals listed as Gold.
62,327 Free to Read: These are free-to-read or
Total public access articles located on a
publisher’s site.
Free to read 18,763 Green Published: Final published versions of
articles hosted on an institutional or
Green published 11,972 subject-based repository.
Green Accepted: Accepted manuscripts
Green accepted 7,013 that are peer reviewed and final, but may
not have been through the publisher’s
Green submitted 18,836 copy-editing or typesetting.
Green Submitted: Original manuscripts
submitted for publication, but have not
been through a peer review process.

(The above data may have overlaps)

Table 3.1 Scopus; Year 2016-2020
Documents (Articles, Reviews and Letters)

No. of papers 652,135 Gold open: Documents that are in journals
which only publish open access.
All open access 200,281 (30.7%) Hybrid Gold: Documents that are in journals
which provide authors the choice of
Gold OA 89,779 publishing open access.
Gold Hybrid 14,052 Bronze: Published version of record or
103,831 manuscript accepted for publication. The
Total publisher has chosen to provide temporary
58,310 or permanent free access.
Bronze 38,140 Green: Published version or manuscript
Green accepted for publication, available at
repository.

Making Open Science the Norm in Science: Challenges in South Asia 58

Processing Charges (APCs) for publications BANGLADESH
(42.75%) or inability to fund APCs (28.26%) as
major factors that dissuade them from Similar challenges could also be seen in
publishing in open access.¹⁹¹ As discussed Bangladesh. The first Institutional
earlier, lack of enforcement of the existing Repository in Bangladesh was established in
open access mandates also remains a major 2005 by the International Centre for
challenge for the open access movement in Diarrhoeal Disease Research.¹⁹² According to
India. OpenDOAR, which is a carefully reviewed
global directory of open access repositories,
there are currently 15 open access
repositories in Bangladesh.¹⁹³ But the
number of works available through these
repositories is far from optimal and there has
been a general lack of awareness amongst
researchers and scientists about the
benefits of depositing and sharing their
works through open access repositories.
This remains a key challenge for the green
open access route in Bangladesh.¹⁹⁴

Bangladesh has made considerable progress
with regard to open access journals. DOAJ
currently lists 22 journals from
Bangladesh.¹⁹⁵ BanglaJOL is also a prominent
database initiated in June 2007 to make
Bangladeshi journals publicly available
through OA. The objective of BanglaJOL was
to give greater visibility to the participating
journals and the research they are
undertaking. This has certainly helped in the
evolution of more open access journals from
Bangladesh. There are currently 157 journals
on BanglaJOL and 21,628 articles are
available with full text.¹⁹⁶

Data from Web of Science for the years
2016-20 indicate that out of the 15,609
papers, 7,840 (50.2%) are currently available
in open access (Table 3.3).¹⁹⁷ A similar picture
can also be seen from the analysis of

191 Centre for Innovation, Intellectual Property and Competition ‘Open Science India Report’ (2018) 140 <http://
anyflip.com/srkpg/wxpv/> accessed 16 March 2022
192 Md. Nazim Uddin, T.L.P. Koehlmoos and S.A.S. Hossain,‘Bangladesh: An Overview of Open Access (OA) Initiatives’
(2014) Library Philosophy and Practice 8 <https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libphilprac/1101/> accessed 16 March
2022
193 <https://v2.sherpa.ac.uk/view/repository_by_country/Bangladesh.html> accessed 16 March 2022
194 supra (n 192).
195 Data as on 23 January 2022.
196 Data as on 23 January 2022. See <https://www.banglajol.info/> accessed 16 March 2022
197 Data collected by Madhan Muthu, Director (Library), Jindal Global University.

59 Making Open Science the Norm in Science: Challenges in South Asia

BANGLADESH

Table 3.3 Web of Science (SCI, SSCI A&HCI); Year 2016-2020
Documents (Articles, Reviews and Letters)

No. of papers 15,609 Gold: Identified as having a Creative
Commons (CC) licence by Our Research
All open access 7,840 (50.2%) Unpaywall Database.
Gold Hybrid: Identified as having a Creative
Gold OA 4,764 Commons (CC) licence by Our Research but
Gold Hybrid 939 are not in journals listed as Gold.
5,703 Free to Read: These are free-to-read or
Total public access articles located on a
publisher’s site.
Free to read 852 Green Published: Final published versions of
articles hosted on an institutional or
Green published 4,590 subject-based repository.
Green Accepted: Accepted manuscripts
Green accepted 1,246 that are peer reviewed and final, but may
not have been through the publisher’s
Green submitted 1,981 copy-editing or typesetting.
Green Submitted: Original manuscripts
submitted for publication, but have not
been through a peer review process.

(The above data may have overlaps)

Table 3.4 Scopus; Year 2016-2020
Documents (Articles, Reviews and Letters)

No. of papers 21,635 Gold open: Documents that are in journals
which only publish open access.
All open access 11,126 (51.4%) Hybrid Gold: Documents that are in journals
which provide authors the choice of
Gold OA 6,761 publishing open access.
Gold Hybrid 1,026 Bronze: Published version of record or
7,787 manuscript accepted for publication. The
Total publisher has chosen to provide temporary
1,881 or permanent free access.
Bronze 1,498 Green: Published version or manuscript
Green accepted for publication, available at
repository.

Making Open Science the Norm in Science: Challenges in South Asia 60

SCOPUS data for the same time period (2016- NEPAL
20). Out of the 21,635 papers, 11,126 (51.4%)
are available in open access (Table 3.4). Data The open access movement is slowly gaining
from both the sources indicate that a momentum in Nepal as well. The OpenDOAR
relatively higher percentage of articles are currently lists only one OA repository from
available in open access from researchers Nepal.²⁰¹ While it is arguable that one
from Bangladesh as compared to repository fulfils the purpose of
researchers from India. But a lot more can be comparatively smaller countries like Nepal,
done in Bangladesh as well. the green open access route still has scope
for progress in the country. It is also
When we analyse the specific challenges important to note that there are many open
with respect to open access in Bangladesh, access journals from Nepal and DOAJ
the foremost challenge seen is the lack of currently lists 25 open access journals from
awareness amongst the scientific Nepal.²⁰² Nepal Journals OnLine (NepJOL), a
community regarding diverse open access service established by the International
options currently available. For example, in a Network for the Availability of Scientific
survey conducted among researchers as Publications (INASP) in 2007 and currently
part of this study, it was observed that the managed by the Tribhuvan University Central
most important reasons cited for not sharing Library, currently lists 240 journals and
a work in open access mode is the lack of provides access to Nepalese published
ability to pay APCs (68.3%), and the lack of research.²⁰³ NepJOL is now providing access
willingness to pay APCs (36.6%).¹⁹⁸ This to the full text of 26,637 articles.²⁰⁴
clearly indicates a general lack of awareness
about the possibilities of using the green An analysis of data on Web of Science for
open access route to make their works the years 2016-20 indicate that out of 5,709
available in open access. More information papers, 3,818 (66.9%) are available in open
campaigns are required to address this access, indicating a relatively higher
challenge. Lack of sufficient IT infrastructure percentage of open access publications
and funding also remains a challenge for the from Nepal (refer to Table 3.5).²⁰⁵ A similar
open access movement in Bangladesh.¹⁹⁹ picture can also be seen from the analysis of
There is also a hesitation from the side of the the data from Scopus for the same time
publishers to adopt open access due to period (2016-20). According to the Scopus
fears around whether they will be able to data, out of the 8,366 articles published
recover the costs or generate sufficient during that period, 5,538 (66.2%) are
surplus.²⁰⁰ Institutional or policy support available in open access (Table 3.6). ²⁰⁶
mechanisms to create and manage open
access journals also remain very limited in However, our analysis of the Registry of
Bangladesh. Open Access Repositories Mandatory
Archiving Policies (ROARMAP), as well as

198 N=42.
199 <https://www.goap.info/oa/access-by-region/country/bangladesh> accessed 16 March 2022
200 The only open access repository from Nepal listed in OpenDOAR is Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya: <https://
v2.sherpa.ac.uk/view/repository_by_country/Nepal.html> accessed 16 March 2022
201 Data as on 24 January 2022. See <https://v2.sherpa.ac.uk/view/repository_by_country/Nepal.html>.
202 Data as on 24 January 2022.
203 Data as on 24 January 2022. <https://www.nepjol.info/>
204 Data as on 24 January 2022.
205 Data collected by Madhan Muthu, Director (Library), Jindal Global University.
206 ibid.

61 Making Open Science the Norm in Science: Challenges in South Asia

NEPAL

Table 3.5 Web of Science (SCI, SSCI A&HCI); Year 2016-2020
Documents (Articles, Reviews and Letters)

No. of papers 5,709 Gold: Identified as having a Creative
Commons (CC) licence by Our Research
All open access 3,818 (66.9%) Unpaywall Database.
Gold Hybrid: Identified as having a Creative
Gold OA 2,584 Commons (CC) licence by Our Research but
Gold Hybrid 526 are not in journals listed as Gold.
3,110 Free to Read: These are free-to-read or
Total public access articles located on a
publisher’s site.
Free to read 368 Green Published: Final published versions of
articles hosted on an institutional or
Green published 2,479 subject-based repository.
Green Accepted: Accepted manuscripts
Green accepted 499 that are peer reviewed and final, but may
not have been through the publisher’s
Green submitted 899 copy-editing or typesetting.
Green Submitted: Original manuscripts
submitted for publication, but have not
been through a peer review process.

(The above data may have overlaps)

Table 3.6 Scopus; Year 2016-2020
Documents (Articles, Reviews and Letters)

No. of papers 8,366 Gold open: Documents that are in journals
which only publish open access.
All open access 5,538 (66.2%) Hybrid Gold: Documents that are in journals
which provide authors the choice of
Gold OA 3,944 publishing open access.
Gold Hybrid 546 Bronze: Published version of record or
4,490 manuscript accepted for publication. The
Total publisher has chosen to provide temporary
613 or permanent free access.
Bronze 435 Green: Published version or manuscript
Green accepted for publication, available at
repository.

Making Open Science the Norm in Science: Challenges in South Asia 62

interviews with researchers, indicates that SRI LANKA
currently there are no national or
institutional open access policies. For Sri Lanka is also making considerable
instance, in 2019, Nepal had adopted two progress on open access, though many
policies: (a) National Science, Technology challenges remain. During the last two
and Innovation Policy (STIP) and (b) Digital decades, numerous educational institutions
Nepal Framework. However, open access did and libraries have taken steps for digitisation
not receive due attention in both of them. of works and have attempted to establish
digital collections in their libraries.
Lack of awareness about the diverse paths Institutional repositories were introduced in
of open access remains a challenge in Nepal Sri Lanka as early as 2005.²⁰⁹ The ‘National e-
also. For example, in a survey conducted as Repository’ was also established by the
part of this study, 58.5% of the respondents National Science Foundation with a search
cited the inability to fund APCs, and 56.6% interface for multi-disciplinary material.²¹⁰ In
cited lack of willingness to pay for APCs as 2011, Sri Lanka also implemented the National
factors that discouraged them from Digitisation project, which aims to digitise
publishing under open access.²⁰⁷ More local science and literature, and provide
information campaigns on the green open technical training for database management
access routes, and open access in general, and hosting facilities.²¹¹ OpenDOAR currently
are desirable in Nepal as well. Digital lists 16 open access repositories from Sri
inclusion-related challenges, particularly Lanka.²¹²
lack of access to good IT infrastructure and
uninterrupted electricity, also remain major Sri Lanka has also made progress with regard
challenges for the open access movement in to open access journals. Currently, 18
Nepal. ²⁰⁸ journals from Sri Lanka are indexed in
DOAJ.²¹³ The Sri Lanka Journals Online
(SLJOL), which was initiated in 2008 with the
support from INASP, and is currently
managed by the National Science
Foundation, is now hosting 111 journals.²¹⁴ It
currently lists 15,764 articles, though the
number of articles for which the full-text
option is available is not specified on the
portal. Data from Web of Science as well as
Scopus indicates a high percentage of open
access papers from Sri Lanka. The data from

207 N=53.
208 Global Open Access Portal: Nepal <https://www.goap.info/oa/access-by-region/country/nepal> accessed 16
March 2022
209 ibid.
210 ibid.
211 J. J. G. Arachchige, ‘Role of Open Access e-repositories of Sri Lanka in the commercial e-repository environment’
(2018) 3 National Library Review 01/02 <http://eprints.rclis.org/33896/1/Role%20of%20Open%20Access%20e-
repositories%20in%20commercial%20modified.pdf> accessed 16 March 2022
212 Data as on 24 January 2022.
213 Data as on 24 January 2022.
214 Mohamed Mashroofa, ‘Open access initiatives and institutional repositories: Sri Lankan scenario’ (2016) 63 Annals
of Library and Information Studies 182-193 <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/
309159435_Open_access_initiatives_and_institutional_repositories_Sri_Lankan_scenario> accessed 16 March 2022

63 Making Open Science the Norm in Science: Challenges in South Asia

SRI LANKA

Table 3.7 Web of Science (SCI, SSCI A&HCI); Year 2016-2020
Documents (Articles, Reviews and Letters)

No. of papers 6,262 Gold: Identified as having a Creative
Commons (CC) licence by Our Research
All open access 3,606 (57.6%) Unpaywall Database.
Gold Hybrid: Identified as having a Creative
Gold OA 2,281 Commons (CC) licence by Our Research but
Gold Hybrid 457 are not in journals listed as Gold.
2,738 Free to Read: These are free-to-read or
Total public access articles located on a
publisher’s site.
Free to read 380 Green Published: Final published versions of
articles hosted on an institutional or
Green published 2,370 subject-based repository.
Green Accepted: Accepted manuscripts
Green accepted 927 that are peer reviewed and final, but may
not have been through the publisher’s
Green submitted 1,336 copy-editing or typesetting.
Green Submitted: Original manuscripts
submitted for publication, but have not
been through a peer review process.

(The above data may have overlaps)

Table 3.8 Scopus; Year 2016-2020
Documents (Articles, Reviews and Letters)

No. of papers 8,339 Gold open: Documents that are in journals
which only publish open access.
All open access 4,914 (59%) Hybrid Gold: Documents that are in journals
which provide authors the choice of
Gold OA 3,262 publishing open access.
Gold Hybrid 478 Bronze: Published version of record or
3,740 manuscript accepted for publication. The
Total publisher has chosen to provide temporary
632 or permanent free access.
Bronze 542 Green: Published version or manuscript
Green accepted for publication, available at
repository.

Making Open Science the Norm in Science: Challenges in South Asia 64

Web of Science for the years 2016 to 2020
indicate that out of 6,262 papers, 3,606
(57.6%) are available in open access (see
Table 3.7).²¹⁵ Analysis of Scopus data for the
same time period shows that out of 8,339
papers, 4,914 (59%) are available in open
access (Table 3.8).²¹⁶ This certainly indicates
that a substantial part of scholarly literature
from Sri Lanka is now open access.

While Sri Lanka has made major strides in

adopting open access in its domestic

educational and research framework, it still

faces some major challenges like lack of

sufficient technology diffusion.²¹⁷ There is

also considerable lack of awareness among

scholarly communities regarding available

open access options, including

repositories.²¹⁸ Our limited empirical inquiries

indicate that a substantial section of

researchers may be considering the APCs as

a major factor preventing them from

publishing their works in open access. This

certainly underlines the need for more

awareness campaigns, particularly those

focusing on green open access options.²¹⁹

The presence of predatory journals and

predatory publishers pose further

challenges for the open access movement in

Sri Lanka.²²⁰ It is also important to note that

the ROARMAP indicates that currently, there

are no institutional OA policies in Sri Lanka.²²¹

The lack of institutional/national open

access policies is a major hurdle for the open

access movement in Sri Lanka.

215 Data collected by Madhan Muthu, Director (Library), Jindal Global University.
216 Data collected by Madhan Muthu, Director (Library), Jindal Global University.
217 Global Open Access Portal - Sri Lanka <https://www.goap.info/oa/access-by-region/country/sri-lanka>
218 J.J.G. Arachchige, ‘Role of Open Access e-repositories of Sri Lanka in the commercial e-repository environment’
(2018) 3 National Library Review 10 <http://eprints.rclis.org/33896/1/Role%20of%20Open%20Access%20e-
repositories%20in%20commercial%20modified.pdf> accessed 16 March 2022
219 <https://www.goap.info/oa/access-by-region/country/sri-lanka> accessed 16 March 2022
220 Prof. Aarti Saini, ‘How can we open the knowledge: Challenges for Open Access Research?’ Sunday Times (24
October 2021) <https://www.pressreader.com/sri-lanka/sunday-times-sri-lanka/20211024/283386245098726>
accessed 16 March 2022
221 Data as on 24 January 2022. See <http://roarmap.eprints.org/view/country/> accessed 16 March 2022

65 Making Open Science the Norm in Science: Challenges in South Asia

Open Data for state departments and ministries in India
to formulate open data plans. While the
Chapter 2 has discussed in detail the extent Department of Science and Technology
of data sharing happening in and between (DST) is the nodal agency for overall
the four countries in the context of the implementation and monitoring of the
Covid19 pandemic. This subsection provides NDSAP, different ministries and government
a brief overview of the general data sharing departments follow varied approaches to
frameworks in these four countries and the data sharing.
major challenges observed with regard to
data sharing. As some studies have pointed States and cities also play a major role in
out, while different country rankings exist on data sharing. Some states like Sikkim²²⁴ and
open data, due to the diverse Telangana²²⁵, and some cities like Surat²²⁶
methodological issues involved in the and Pune²²⁷ have their own open government
calculation of these ranks, it may not be data portals. The country’s OGD platform
worth giving much attention.²²² Therefore, (data.gov.in) is used by various government
this discussion will not compare the rankings departments to publish certain datasets.
of these four countries on different metrics, While the platform was intended to increase
and will instead try to flag some of the core transparency and keep government data in
challenges observed with regard to data the public domain, it can be seen that the
sharing in these four countries. platform hosts multiple datasets that are
incomplete and barely updated. Most of the
INDIA datasets are also not in machine-readable or
reusable formats.²²⁸ The lack of clarity on the
India has a national policy on open data from licences also further limit the potential
the year 2012 titled the National Data (re)uses of the shared data.²²⁹ Empirical
Sharing and Accessibility Policy, 2012 studies among researchers in India indicate
(NDSAP).²²³ It covers all data and information that a considerable section of researchers
created, generated, collected, and archived (44.19%) are willing to share data openly only
using public funds and the policy aims to after ensuring that all potential research and
make such data publicly available in human- publications are made from their datasets.²³⁰
readable and machine-readable formats.
Although the NDSAP aims to enable better BANGLADESH
evidence-based decision making, it is not
legally binding and only provides guidelines Bangladesh also approved an open data

222 For example, see Anneke Zuiderwijk, Ali Pirannejad and Iryna Susha, ‘Comparing Open Data Benchmarks: Which
Metrics and Methodologies Determine Countries’ Positions in the Ranking Lists?’(2021) 62 [101634] Telematics and
Informatics
223 Department of Science & Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India, ‘National Data
Sharing and Accessibility Policy’ (2012) <https://geoportal.mp.gov.in/geoportal/Content/Policies/NDSAP_2012.pdf>
accessed 16 March 2022
224 <https://sikkim.data.gov.in/> accessed 16 March 2022
225 Government of Telangana, Open Data Telangana <https://data.telangana.gov.in/> accessed 16 March 2022
226 <https://surat.data.gov.in/> accessed 16 March 2022
227 Pune Municipal Corporation, Pune Datastore <http://opendata.punecorporation.org/Citizen/User> accessed 16
March 2022
228 <https://opendatabarometer.org/data-explorer/?_year=2015&indicator=ODB&open=IND> accessed 16 March
2022
229 ibid.
230 Centre for Innovation, Intellectual property and Competition ‘Open Science India Report’ (2018) 141 <http://
anyflip.com/srkpg/wxpv/> accessed 16 March 2022

Making Open Science the Norm in Science: Challenges in South Asia 66

strategy in 2016 for the release and the vast majority of such data is not
publication of data at the national level, but available online.²³⁶ Most of the datasets
the implementation of the mandates under made available are not in machine-readable
the strategy has been slow.²³¹ While sources or reusable formats.²³⁷ Like in India and
indicate that the government holds Bangladesh, the lack of clarity on licensing
extensive shareable data from diverse areas terms poses considerable challenges for
like health and education, not all of them are data reuse in Nepal.²³⁸ Similarly, a substantial
made available online.²³² Most of the portion (55.6%) of researchers from Nepal in
available datasets are also not made the empirical survey conducted as part of
available in machine-readable and reusable this study indicated that they can share
formats.²³³ The difficulties in locating open data openly only when all potential
data, and the lack of clarity on licensing publications from their datasets are
terms also remain a challenge for the open completed.²³⁹ This shows that access to
data movement in Bangladesh.²³⁴ Our survey research data may not happen in a
among researchers in Bangladesh indicates substantial way in Nepal, unless there are
that one of the most important factors that strong data sharing mandates from
dissuades them from sharing their data institutions or funding agencies.
openly is the desire to exclusively make use
of data for all potential publications before SRI LANKA
sharing it.²³⁵ This challenge can only be
addressed through mandatory data sharing Sri Lanka has also taken some initiatives in
policies from funding agencies or the area of open data. The Sri Lankan
institutions in Bangladesh. Government’s open data initiative, which
commenced in 2013, has made many official
NEPAL datasets available through an online
portal.²⁴⁰ The initiative was hosted by the
Analysis of open data in Nepal also portrays Information and Communication Technology
a similarly challenging scenario. Nepal is yet Agency (ICTA) in collaboration with other
to promulgate any national open data law or agencies and concerned itself primarily with
policy. Though the government holds government data.²⁴¹ Its primary purpose was
massive amounts of data on vital sectors, to ensure dissemination of core government,

231 <https://www.thedailystar.net/views/opinion/news/how-can-we-start-the-open-data-revolution-2909206> accessed
16 March 2022
232 <https://opendatabarometer.org/4thedition/detail-country/?_year=2016&indicator=ODB&detail=BGD> accessed
16 March 2022
233 ibid.
234 ibid.
235 43.6% of the respondents highlighted this as a factor that dissuades them from sharing data openly. N=42.
236 <https://opendatabarometer.org/data-explorer/?_year=2015&indicator=ODB&open=NPL> accessed 16 March
2022
237 ibid
238 ibid.See also Open Knowledge Nepal, “Open Data Manual’ 12 <http://odap.oknp.org/files/
Open%20Data%20Book%20Manual.pdf> accessed 16 March 2022
239 N=54.
240 Government of Sri Lanka, OpenData Portal of Sri Lanka <https://www.data.gov.lk> accessed 16 March 2022
241 However, as on 17 December 2021, the portal is not functional.

67 Making Open Science the Norm in Science: Challenges in South Asia

demographic and statistical data in a useful Open data initiatives in Sri Lanka face
digital format for relevant stakeholders.²⁴² challenges very similar to the ones observed
The Sri Lankan Government has enacted two in the other three countries. The number of
two-year national plans in recent years to datasets made available openly are limited
promote Open Government Partnership.²⁴³ and most of them are not updated regularly.
The ICTA published the National Data Sharing The extent of participation and civic
Policy with the main purpose of encouraging engagement with the portals also appears
a culture of open data by updating high- to be low. Many datasets are not available in
quality datasets, and promotion of machine-readable formats. Relevant
transparency, protection, privacy and metadata is also often not available on the
intellectual property in machine-readable website. The use of restrictive formats like
formats.²⁴⁴ PDF makes reuse more difficult. Further, in
some instances, personal information of
individuals has been made available. Lack of
sufficient measures to facilitate user
feedback is another major limitation
observed.²⁴⁵ Lastly, the desire to complete
all potential publications and research
before openly releasing the datasets, and
the fear of scooping by others act as
dissuading factors for open sharing of data
by researchers in Sri Lanka. As in the case of
other countries, this challenge can be
addressed only through strong and
enforceable data sharing mandates from the
side of institutions and funding agencies in
Sri Lanka.

242 Nalaka Gunawardene, ‘Beyond RTI: Moving to Open Data and Open Govt’ Daily Mirror (13 September 2015)
<https://www.dailymirror.lk/87099/beyond-rti-moving-to-open-data-and-open-govt> accessed 16 March 2022
243 Open Data-Sri Lanka, Open Government Partnership (2021) <https://www.opengovpartnership.org/members/sri-
lanka/> accessed 16 March 2022
244 Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka, ’National Data Sharing Policy: Report on Data
Sharing Policy for Government of Sri Lanka’<https://www.nsdi.gov.lk/sites/default/files/National%20Data-Sharing-
Policy%202013-Draft.pdf> accessed 16 March 2022
245 ibid. supra (n 242)

Making Open Science the Norm in Science: Challenges in South Asia 68

Open Educational Learning (NPTEL), an initiative of seven
Resources institutions providing free online courses.²⁴⁷
The government also created various open-
Advances in technology have opened up access repositories like the National
enormous possibilities for sharing Repository of Open Educational Resources
educational resources with potential (NROER)²⁴⁸ and the e-PG Pathshala Project.²⁴⁹
learners across the world. The Covid19- Various national education agencies and
induced crisis in education illustrates that institutions also offer interactive Massive
countries, institutions and academicians Open Online Courses (MOOCs) on the
need to take proactive steps to ensure government-owned SWAYAM Platform.²⁵⁰
availability of quality educational resources Additionally, virtual learning resource
to students in open and accessible formats. repositories like the National Digital Library
The four countries analysed as part of this (NDL) also attempt to make learning
study have been taking measures in this resources in multiple Indian languages
regard by making available more Open available through a single-window.²⁵¹ The
Educational Resources (OER) in their National Institute of Open Schooling²⁵² was
countries. But as in the case of other open also initiated to promote open schooling in
movements which are part of open scientific India.
knowledge, OER movements also face
challenges in all the four countries. Use of OERs have seen a substantial increase
in India in the last two years due to the
INDIA Covid19-induced lockdowns. However, many
challenges with regard to OER have also
In the Indian context, the National become more apparent now. An important
Knowledge Network was established in 2010 issue is that of equity in access, as not
to connect more than 1500 research and everyone in India has equal internet access.
knowledge institutions across the country As per the NSSO 2017-18 data, fewer than
through a high bandwidth network with the 15% of the rural India households had
aim of creating a ‘knowledge society’.²⁴⁶ The internet access and just around 8.5%
government established the National females in rural areas had access to internet,
Programme on Technology Enhanced thereby showing a considerable rural-urban
and gender divide in internet access in

246 National Knowledge Network Brochure <https://nkn.gov.in/documents/NKN_Brochure.pdf> accessed 16 March
2022
247 NPTEL,‘About NPTEL’ <https://nptel.ac.in/about_nptel.html> accessed 16 March 2022
248 NROER is a comprehensive digital repository of educational materials covering all subjects and grades for school
students. The repository includes content in various formats including audio, video, worksheets etc. in various Indian
languages. See Jane Park, ‘India launches National Repository of Open Educational Resources’ (Creative Commons,
2013) <https://creativecommons.org/2013/08/14/india-launches-national-repository-of-open-educational-
resources/> accessed 16 March 2022
249 The e-PG Pathshala Project was launched by the government under the National Mission on Education through ICT
(NME-ICT). The portal provides free high quality, curriculum based content on a wide range of disciplines including
social sciences, arts, fine arts and humanities, mathematics etc. See <https://epgp.inflibnet.ac.in/Home/About>
accessed 16 March 2022
250 SWAYAM <https://swayam.gov.in/about> accessed 16 March 2022
251 National Digital Library of India <https://ndl.iitkgp.ac.in/> accessed 16 March 2022.
252 National Institute of Open Schooling, ‘Functions and Duties’ <https://www.nios.ac.in/about-us/objectives-
functions.aspx> accessed 16 March 2022

69 Making Open Science the Norm in Science: Challenges in South Asia

India.²⁵³ It is also important to add that only context of India. There is considerable need
47% of Indian households receive more than for improving the technical infrastructure
12 hours of electricity, as per 2017-18 and facilities in schools. It is also important
survey.²⁵⁴ As one would notice from the to encourage teachers to engage in
detailed analysis in the last section of this innovative teaching practices using OER.
chapter, the challenges faced with regard to Furthermore, legal impediments to the
digital inclusion need to form an important creation of OER, such as the copyright-
part of discussions on open science and related limitations placed upon reproduction
OERs. Lack of clarity on licensing conditions and publication of materials further act as
and the lack of use of open licenses on OER impediments to a sustainable OER
also remain a major challenge with regard to ecosystem in Sri Lanka as well as the other
(re)use of many OERs in India. It is also countries analysed as part of this research.
important to add that overarching support
from stakeholders at all levels is required to NEPAL
sustain the OER movement.²⁵⁵ Lack of
awareness about OER²⁵⁶ and lack of quality in In Nepal, currently there are various
contents also considerably hinder effective governmental and non-governmental
adoption of OER in India. initiatives such as Open Learning Exchange
Nepal.²⁵⁷ Some of them are supported by
SRI LANKA donor agencies. Open Learning Exchange
(OLE) hosts E-Paath and E-Pustakalaya.²⁵⁸
Similar challenges can also be seen in Sri They were of substantial use when the
Lanka. The Sri Lankan Open Educational government announced the Covid19-related
Resources (OER) Policy was revised in the lockdown in March 2020. Nepal has also
year 2020. The goal of this policy is to utilised a vast network of community radio
facilitate the use of OER to increase access and cable televisions during the Covid19
to quality teaching and learning in the lockdown, as access to the internet remains
school education system in Sri Lanka. While a challenge for many students. The
one cannot underestimate the significance Government of Nepal has also been providing
of an OER policy, it is also important to flag financial resources for ICT in community
the continued existence of some schools and has been implementing an ICT
fundamental challenges highlighted in the Masterplan in Education (2013-2017) to

253 Praveen Sudevan, ‘Why e-learning isn’t a sustainable solution to the COVID-19 education crisis in India’ The Hindu
(11 May 2020) <https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/technology/why-elearning-is-not-a-sustainable-solution-to-the-
covid19-education-crisis-in-india/article31560007.ece> accessed 16 March 2022; Government of India, ‘Key
Indicators of Household Social Consumption on Education in India : July 2017-June 2018’ (November 2019) <https://
www.thehinducentre.com/resources/article30980071.ece/binary/KI_Education_75th_Final_compressed.pdf> accessed
16 March 2022
254 Sushma Modi and Ronika Postaria, ‘How Covid-19 deepens the digital education divide in India’ (2020) <https://
gdc.unicef.org/resource/how-covid-19-deepens-digital-education-divide-india> accessed 16 March 2022
255 Archana Thakran and Ramesh Sharma, ‘Meeting the challenges of higher education in India through Open
Educational Resources: Policies, practises, and implications’ (2018) 24 Education Policy Analysis Archives 37 <https://
ssrn.com/abstract=3149241> accessed 16 March 2022
256 Amit Kumar, Diganta Baishya and Manashjyoti Deka, ‘Open Educational Resources (OER) Issues and Problems
Experienced by Social Scientists of Select Higher Educational Institutions in India’ (2021) Library Philosophy and Practice
257 <https://www.olenepal.org/> accessed 16 March 2022
258 <https://www.olenepal.org/e-paath/> accessed 16 March 2022; <https://www.olenepal.org/e-pustakalaya/>
accessed 16 March 2022

Making Open Science the Norm in Science: Challenges in South Asia 70

achieve the "Digital Nepal" mission. ²⁵⁹ As we could notice during the study, most of
the challenges in the context of OER are
In Nepal, the Centre for Education and similar in all these four countries. The
Human Resource Development (CEHRD) challenges, particularly the lack of digital
under the Ministry of Education, Science and inclusion, can lead to the absence of an
Technology (MOEST), has undertaken various optimal online learning environment. As the
OER initiatives during the Covid19-induced later part of this chapter illustrates, digital
lockdowns to facilitate better learning for inclusion remains a major challenge in all
students. However, schools with fewer these four countries and it has a direct
resources generally find it difficult to access impact on optimal uses of OER in all the four
OER or to modify the contents as per their countries. Hence this challenge needs to be
unique requirements. Children in government addressed on priority by all the four
and community-run schools countries. It also needs to be added that the
disproportionately face challenges to adapt education systems in most of these
to rapidly evolving technologies, as many of countries are predominantly teacher-centric
them are from underprivileged backgrounds. and more non-monetary incentives
(particularly, recognition for contributions)
BANGLADESH might be required for incentivising the
development and curation of dynamic and
The situation in Bangladesh is also not that student-centric OERs.
different from the other three countries
analysed as part of this research. In July
2018, the Ministry of Education's Secondary
and Higher Education Division prepared a
draft OER policy and sought public feedback
before finalising it. But as in the case of all
other countries studied as part of this
report, the creation and integration of OER
through stringent quality assurance
mechanisms to safeguard the quality and
accuracy of the contents remains a
challenge for Bangladesh.

259 ‘Community schools adopting information technology growing’ Edusanjal (Kathmandu, 3 December 2019) <https:/
/edusanjal.com/news/community-schools-adopting-information-technology-growing/> accessed 16 March 2022 ;
Ministry of Education, Government of Nepal , ‘Information and Communication Technology in Education : Master Plan
2013-2017’ (March 2013) < https://www.moe.gov.np/assets/uploads/files/ICT_MP_2013_(Final)_.pdf> accessed 16
March 2022

71 Making Open Science the Norm in Science: Challenges in South Asia

Open Source Software culture.²⁶¹ A large number of the OSS
developers are self-motivated students and
Over the last couple of years, the open early career professionals. There is a
source software (OSS) movement has been pressing need to educate enterprises about
able to show its immense potential to all the benefits of contributing to open source
stakeholders, including the government, projects. Further, companies must play a
educational and research institutions, proactive role in guiding and encouraging
industry, and end-users. For example, today, Indian developers to participate in the
the use of OSS is being encouraged by many creation of open source software.
large enterprises for reducing costs as well Collaborative efforts in this regard amongst
as acquiring the latest technology at a all stakeholders, including developers,
faster pace. There has been substantial industry, academia, and government, can
growth in the number of open source help in creating awareness about latest
projects and collaborations across the developments and enhance capacity-
globe. As one may recall from the building on diverse skills. This will not only
discussions in Chapter 1, the UNESCO lead to an increase in the adoption of OSS,
Recommendation also recognises the but also enhance its adaptability by
important role it can play in the open organisations.
science movement, particularly by
promoting a culture of transparency and The Government of India has released three
collaborations. One can see the increasing major policies relating to OSS since 2014.
adoption of OSS in all the countries studied They are a) Policy on Adoption of Open
as part of this research, though many Source Software for Government of India; b)
challenges remain. Policy on Collaborative Application
Development by Opening the Source Code of
INDIA Government Applications; and c) Policy on
Open Application Programming Interfaces
For example, India has the second-largest (APIs).²⁶² Some state governments have also
number of developers in the world and many come up with specific OSS policies. For
of them use or collaborate on open source example, as early as in 2008, Kerala had
projects. Sadly, very few open source instructed all institutions under the
projects originate in India.²⁶⁰ While India is Education Department to use only FOSS for
the fastest-growing country in terms of new all teaching and training activities.²⁶³ It had
developers contributing to open source also issued a Government Order in this
projects according to GitHub, the Indian IT regard. The Information Technology
services companies are yet to embrace OSS Department of the state government also
released another circular in 2016, wherein all

260 Sujit John, ‘Indian tech biz must fund FOSS developers’ The Times of India (15 September 2021) <https://
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/indian-tech-biz-must-fund-foss-developers/articleshow/
86220557.cms> accessed 16 March 2022
261 ibid. ‘The power of Open Source Technology and how India can benefit from it’ Hindustan Times (30 September
2021) <https://tech.hindustantimes.com/tech/news/the-power-of-open-source-technology-and-how-india-can-benefit-
from-it-71633005318343.html> accessed 16 March 2022
262 Ministry of Communication & Information Technology, ‘Policy on Adoption of Open Source Software for Government
of India’ <https://www.meity.gov.in/writereaddata/files/policy_on_adoption_of_oss.pdf> accessed 16 March 2022;
‘Policy On Collaborative Application Development by Opening the Source Code of Government Applications’ <https://
www.meity.gov.in/sites/upload_files/dit/files/policy_government_application.pdf> accessed 16 March 2022; ‘Policy on
Open Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) for Government of India’ <https://www.meity.gov.in/writereaddata/
files/Open_APIs_19May2015.pdf> accessed 16 March 2022
263 <https://kite.kerala.gov.in/KITE/index.php/welcome/wedo/1> accessed 16 March 2022

Making Open Science the Norm in Science: Challenges in South Asia 72

departments were instructed to stop the (2006), and the earthquake in Yogyakarta,
usage of proprietary software and use only Indonesia (2006).²⁶⁸ Some of the projects
FOSS.²⁶⁴ Such policies have aimed to give a undertaken by the initiative are building an
much-needed push for the adoption of free effective and efficient election management
and open source software in states in India. system, including incident management,
However, there are many challenges in the result tabulation and result distribution, for
implementation of such policies, including the Election Commission of Sri Lanka²⁶⁹, and
resistance of end-users to shift to OSS. development of a student information
management system in collaboration with
SRI LANKA the Education Ministry’s Data Management
Branch.²⁷⁰
Sri Lanka has also taken different initiatives
in the area of OSS. Sri Lankan Information and However, one of the key challenges one can
Communication Technology Agency’s e- see with regard to OSS movements in Sri
government policy encourages the use of Lanka is the lack of funding. For example,
OSS where applicable.²⁶⁵ Sri Lanka’s draft despite many successes to its credit, the
National Digital Policy 2020-2025 also LSF remains largely unfunded by the
mentions that the Government will make use government, international funding agencies
of OSS to the extent possible/as required.²⁶⁶ and donor agencies.²⁷¹ Like India, Sri Lanka
One of the earliest and most prominent open also lacks comprehensive educational and
source initiatives in Sri Lanka was started by training programs for creating awareness on
the Lanka Software Foundation (LSF), a non- the benefits and potential of OSS.²⁷² The lack
profit organisation actively engaged in of strong governmental initiatives
mobilising Sri Lankan software engineers to supporting OSS has also led to poor
create OSS.²⁶⁷ LSF developed Sahana, an adoption of OSS in the banking sector.²⁷³
open source disaster management system. These issues are in addition to various
Sahana is considered as one of its most common challenges faced by the other
successful OSS initiatives, and has been South Asian countries, including high cost of
deployed to manage the earthquake internet services (as is also evident from our
disaster in Northern Pakistan (2005), the data on digital inclusion) and inadequate
Guinsaugon landslide in the Philippines educational infrastructure.²⁷⁴

264 ibid.
265 Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka, ‘Detailed Study of the Lanka eGovernment
Strategy Project’ (December 2013) <https://www.gov.lk/elaws/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/GOSL-
Integrated-eGovernment-Strategy-Final-Submitted-17-Aug-2014-vcio-1.pdf> accessed 16 March 2022
266 Ministry of Digital Infrastructure and Information Technology & Information and Communication Technology Agency
of Sri Lanka, ‘Draft 2.0 National Digital Policy for Sri Lanka 2020-2025’ (October 2019) <https://www.kdu.ac.lk/ekdu/
images/acts/Draft_National_Digital_PolicyFINAL07102019.pdf > accessed 16 March 2022
267 Lanka Software Foundation,‘About LSF’ <https://opensource.lk/about/> accessed 16 March 2022
268 <https://www.icta.lk/policies/> accessed 16 March 2022
269 Sanjiva Weerawarana, ‘Building software to run elections in Sri Lanka (and beyond)’ (Medium, 21 November 2019)
<https://medium.com/@sanjiva.weerawarana/building-software-to-run-elections-in-sri-lanka-and-
beyond-188237a962bc> accessed 16 March 2022
270 Lanka Software Foundation, ‘Projects’ <https://opensource.lk/projects/codeforsl/> accessed 16 March 2022
271 Sanjiva Weerawarana and Jivaka Weeratunga 'Open Source in Developing Countries' (January 2004) SIDA <https:/
/cdn.sida.se/publications/files/sida3460en-open-source-in-developing-countries.pdf> accessed 16 March 2022
272 ibid.
273 K. Aruna Chandralal Perera and Shahani Weerawarne, ‘Free and Open Source Software Technology Adoption in the
Sri Lankan Banking Industry’ (2013) 1(1) Journal of Computer Science 20
274 supra (n 4).

73 Making Open Science the Norm in Science: Challenges in South Asia

NEPAL Nepali Community page on GitHub is not
updated regularly.²⁷⁹ Our interviews with IT
A similar picture can also be seen with regard researchers suggest that participation in
to OSS movements in Nepal. One of the the FOSS movement is sporadic in character
landmarks in the OSS movement in Nepal is for most software developers in Nepal. Once
the Pan Localization Project (2004 – 2010), the immediate purposes of participation are
which was initiated with the aim of achieved (for example, developing code or
developing content in local languages in fixing bugs), most developers fail to show
South East and South Asian countries.²⁷⁵ In any interest in taking it further. Our
this project, Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya interviews also suggest that there is a lack
(MPP) represented the Nepal country project of government initiatives promoting FOSS in
component and Kathmandu University (KU), Nepal. Further, there are no clear OSS-related
Department of Computer Science and mandates in important existing policies such
Engineering and E-Networking Research and as Nepal's ICT Policy (2015) and Science,
Development acted as local partner Technology, and Innovation Policy (2019).
organisations.²⁷⁶ As part of this project
funded by the International Development
Research Centre (IDRC), MPP developed
NepaLinux (a localised version of Linux).²⁷⁷
During the period of 2005-2007, there were
also various other initiatives such as Bhasha
Sanchar, Sambad, and Dobhase.²⁷⁸ These
projects revolutionised Nepali Romanised
Unicode, which has considerably improved
since then due to the evolving OSS
ecosystem.

The movement led by MPP and KU slowly
dissipated over time. However, other OSS
initiatives emerged and they have generated
debates and discussions that could
motivate activists and researchers to
contribute immensely via platforms such as
Mozilla Nepal. The FOSS Nepal community,
consisting primarily of young volunteers
from various colleges, universities, and
organisations leading various initiatives, was
once a very proactive community in research
and training on Linux, but now it has also
become mostly nonfunctional. The FOSS

275 Language Technology Kendra, Projects <http://ltk.org.np/projects.php> accessed 16 March 2022
276 ibid.
277 ibid. NepaLinux <https://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=nepalinux> accessed 16 March 2022
278 supra (n 275).
279 <https://foss-np.github.io/> accessed 16 March 2022

Making Open Science the Norm in Science: Challenges in South Asia 74

Open Hardware hardware and OSS has led to the

As one may recall from the discussions in development of a cheap rain-gauge
Chapter 1, the UNESCO Recommendation
specifically includes open hardware as part design.²⁸⁵ The three major components of
of open scientific knowledge. The open
hardware movement vouches for making the the system are Weather “Shield” + GPS,
hardware’s design publicly available in order
to enable other creators to study, modify, Lakduino Micro Controller and OpenLog Data
distribute, make, or sell the design or
hardware based on that design.²⁸⁰ Unlike the Logger.²⁸⁶ Such models are extremely useful
other open moves discussed above, the
open hardware movement is still at a nascent towards developing cost-efficient
stage in all the four countries analysed as
part of this research. monitoring systems for rainwater harvesting

Arduino, which is an open-source electronics and such examples might also help the open
prototyping platform, has paved the way for
the open hardware movement in India by hardware movement gain momentum.
bringing under its umbrella not just
students, but also DIY makers and No major open hardware initiatives were
professionals.²⁸¹ IIT Bombay’s FOSSEE has noticed in Bangladesh and Nepal. The
adopted the Arduino platform and has common challenge seen for the open
utilised it for teaching electronics.²⁸² hardware movements in all the four
Recently, an MoU was signed between countries is lack of awareness among
Thales and IIIT-Delhi for collaborative researchers and students about the
research and development in the field of movement. Unlike OSS, it is yet to receive due
open hardware and other allied subjects. As attention among the policymakers and the
part of the project, the partners will be co- public. With the specific reference to open
developing complex microprocessor hardware movement in the UNESCO
architectures and multi-core processing Recommendation, one can expect more
systems using configurations available with awareness creation on open hardware in the
the RISC-V open ISA specification.²⁸³ coming days in all the four countries.

Open hardware has been used in Sri Lanka for
the purposes of rainwater harvesting, using
Lakduino, often referred to as the local
version of Arduino.²⁸⁴ A combination of open

280 C Redwine and M Weinberg, ‘Open Source Hardware Weather Report 2020’ (October 2020) NYUSL <https://
www.law.nyu.edu/sites/default/files/2020_OSHW_Weather_Report.pdf> accessed 16 March 2022
281 FOSSEE IIT Bombay, ‘Open Source Hardware Project’ <https://os-hardware.in/> accessed 16 March 2022
282 ibid.
283 <https://www.thalesgroup.com/en/india/press_release/thales-and-iiit-delhi-sign-memorandum-understanding-
open-hardware-research-and> accessed 16 March 2022
284 Yann Chemin, Niroshan Sanjaya, and P. Liyanage, ‘An Open Source Hardware & Software Online Rain Gauge for
Real-Time Monitoring of Rainwater Harvesting in Sri Lanka’ <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/
264417882_An_Open_Source_Hardware_Software_online_raingauge_for_real-
time_monitoring_of_rainwater_harvesting_in_Sri_Lanka> accessed 16 March 2022
285 ibid.
286 ibid.

75 Making Open Science the Norm in Science: Challenges in South Asia

CHALLENGES However, there have also been some
promising initiatives in the region. For
Open Science example, one of the initiatives recently taken
Infrastructures by the Indian government has been the
Indian Science, Technology and Engineering
In order to meet the objectives of open facilities Map (I-STEM). This was launched in
January 2020 as a publicly-funded national
science, adequate open science portal to provide support to researchers and
strengthen the R&D ecosystem of the
infrastructure that supports its adoption country.²⁸⁸ It aims to link Indian funding
agencies with academic institutions and
and implementation is essential. The UNESCO national labs for the purposes of
establishing R&D infrastructure,
Recommendation has elaborated that open procurement of research equipment,
monitoring of usage statistics, and so on.
infrastructure includes virtual or physical Under the project, all academic institutions,
national labs and strategic sector
resources such as major scientific organisations will list their R&D
infrastructure onto the I-STEM portal.²⁸⁹ This
equipment, knowledge-based resources would in turn help them share the equipment
with internal and external users in a
such as journals and open access transparent manner through the portal. This
can result in far more optimal use of
publication platforms, repositories, current publicly-funded science infrastructure and
is in tune with the vision of UNESCO
research information systems, open Recommendation. But only an empirical
assessment over a substantial period of time
bibliometrics and scientometrics systems would give us a better picture of the
challenges involved and the actual impact
for assessing and analysing scientific the platform is making on science in India. It
also needs to be added that though this
domains, and open computational and data project is considered one of the most
promising national-level open initiatives the
manipulation service infrastructures. ²⁸⁷ country has seen in a while, ironically a
patent application titled ‘A method and
As mentioned in the UNESCO process for efficient use of geographically
Recommendation, there are certain dispersed resources’, appears to have been
challenges that warrant attention in the filed in different patent offices to protect
context of open science infrastructure. the idea of such a platform!²⁹⁰ While the
These challenges can be seen across the chances of success for such a patent
four countries that are part of this study, application are slim in most jurisdictions,
and include lack of sufficient investments in particularly in view of the novelty and
STI ecosystems, internet connectivity and inventive step requirements under the
bandwidth issues, lack of infrastructure for patent laws, it portrays the constant internal
non-digital materials, and lack of knowledge
co-creation and exchange platforms. The
fact that most of the publicly-funded
libraries in educational institutions remain
largely inaccessible for the general public is
another illustration of a common challenge.
The lack of comprehensive, open and
interoperable repositories in most publicly-
funded educational and research
institutions is yet another example.

287 UNESCO Recommendation (n 24) 12.
288 Office of the Principal Scientific Advisor to the GoI, Indian Science Technology and Engineering facilities Map
<https://www.istem.gov.in/support/about-istem> accessed 16 March 2022
289 ibid.

Making Open Science the Norm in Science: Challenges in South Asia 76

conflicts between the desire for openness researchers can use any available data-
and the desire for control and ownership sharing platforms.²⁹⁵ Similarly, Nepal Health
among policymakers and research Research Strategy (2020 [2076v.s.]) has also
institutions. made a similar commitment to produce an
archive of health research in the country and
Similarly in Nepal, while the idea of open to formulate operative guidelines for health
science infrastructures is still at a nascent research data sharing.²⁹⁶ Initiatives like this
stage, one can see some efforts being show a strong desire for building open
initiated at the institutional levels. For science infrastructure, though the same
instance, Nepal Health Research Council examples also illustrate that a lot more
(NHRC), an autonomous regulatory body, has needs to be done to convert those noble
a web portal, which was initiated with the goals to practices among researchers and
support of the Health for Life (H4L) project, research institutions.
for sharing raw data.²⁹¹ The H4L project
aimed to promote reuse of raw data and to As mentioned in the UNESCO
encourage researchers to investigate
questions beyond those in the studies for Recommendation, for the long-term
which data was initially collected. However,
so far, the NHRC web portal has shared only sustainability of open science
one survey dataset.²⁹² Various research
initiatives were undertaken by NHRC during infrastructures, community-building efforts
the Covid19 pandemic, however, data relating
to them are yet to be made accessible are also crucial. Hence, there should also be
through the web portal.²⁹³
more focus in all the four countries towards
The National Guidelines for Strengthening
Evidence Generation on COVID-19, an environment where transparent and not-
announced in June 2020 by NHRC, also
explicitly mentions that “data and trial for-profit systems are built to provide
documents should be transferred to a
suitable and secure data repository to help permanent and unrestricted access to the
ensure that the data are properly prepared,
are available in the longer term, are stored largest extent possible.
securely, and are subject to rigorous
governance”.²⁹⁴ The guidelines mention that

290 For example, see US Patent Application number 20200334587 <https://patents.google.com/patent/
US20200334587A1> accessed 16 March 2022 Also see Indian Patent application number 201841000140
291 <http://rawdata.nhrc.gov.np/publicHomePage> accessed 16 March 2022. This project was funded by the United
States Agency for International Development (USAID).
292 ibid. The only shared dataset on the portal is ‘Noncommunicable Diseases Risk Factors” STEPS Survey Nepal 2013.’
293 Data as on 7 February 2022.
294 See National Guideline for Strengthening Evidence Generation on COVID-19, Nepal Health Research Council,
Kathmandu: Nepal, 7 <http://nhrc.gov.np/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/NATIONAL-GUIDELINE-FOR-
STRENGTHENING-EVIDENCE-GENERATION-ON-COVID-19.pdf> accessed 16 March 2022
295 ibid 20.
296 See point 1.16 of the National Health Research Strategy <http://nhrc.gov.np/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/
Research-stategy.pdf> accessed 16 March 2022 (in Nepali). Translation by Sohan Prasad Sah.

77 Making Open Science the Norm in Science: Challenges in South Asia

CHALLENGES important place in science in most of the
countries studied as part of this research. By
Engagement With facilitating the participation of varied
Societal Actors stakeholders like scientists, policymakers,
practitioners and community members in
To achieve the underlying objectives of open the scientific process, these new
collaborative tools are helping to develop a
science, it is imperative to make the collective intelligence compatible with
multiple needs, concerns and aspirations.
knowledge creation process more
Two promising examples from different
accessible and democratic. The UNESCO domains may be shared in this regard. The
first one is the Biodiversity Atlas, a species-
Recommendation has specifically advocated based bioinformatics platform.²⁹⁹ The
mission of the platform is to document
for extended collaboration between biodiversity of India, for the broader purpose
of facilitating ecological and conservative
scientists and people beyond the formal research.³⁰⁰ The data collected is also used
for diverse educational and outreach
scientific community by adopting open and programmes. This platform relies on user-
submitted data, and many of the
inclusive approaches with regard to research contributors are amateur citizen scientists
and photographers. The submitted data is
practices and research tools.²⁹⁷ Some of the peer reviewed and curated with the help of

specific examples of collaboration, cited in

this regard in the UNESCO Recommendation,

are crowdfunding, crowdsourcing, and

scientific volunteering.²⁹⁸ Such

collaborations are already starting to find an

Figure 3.2

297 UNESCO Recommendation (n 24) 13.
298 ibid.
299 <https://www.bioatlasindia.org/> accessed 16 March 2022
300 <https://www.bioatlasindia.org/mission> accessed 16 March 2022

Making Open Science the Norm in Science: Challenges in South Asia 78

advanced amateurs and professional open science discussed in this report. As Dr
biologists.³⁰¹ The platform involves multiple Akhilesh Gupta, the head of STIP 2020
stakeholders, and allows open use of its Secretariat and a leading weather and
datasets for further research. Platforms like climate scientist, rightly remarked during an
this not just facilitate citizen science in a interview conducted as part of this research,
country like India, but also show the younger “STIP has laid out policy directives to create
generation the endless potential of open an STI system of interconnectedness”. ³⁰⁴
science.
While many such examples of proactive
Yet another example from a completely engagement with people from outside the
different domain, wherein one could notice formal science ecosystem can be seen in all
pooling in ideas from the public in a the four countries, it also needs to be
scientific manner for policy making, is the mentioned that certain challenges remain.
draft Science, Technology and Innovation As indicated in the UNESCO
Policy 2020 (STIP 2020) of India.³⁰³ Recommendation, for the effective reuse of
Discarding the traditional top-down the outputs of citizen and participatory
approach in policy drafting, the Office of the science by other actors, including scientists,
Principal Scientific Adviser and the it is important to ensure that the outputs of
Department of Science and Technology such collaboration are subject to curation,
(DST) took a bottom-up, decentralised, and standardisation and preservation methods
inclusive approach in the drafting of this necessary to ensure the maximum benefit to
policy. Attempts were made to ensure that all.³⁰⁵ While the countries studied as part of
all stakeholders, particularly the general this research may have been taking at least
public, could participate in the policy- some steps for curation, it is yet to be seen
making through multiple channels. The whether sufficient efforts are being taken
diverse steps taken for extended public for standardisation and preservation. This
participation include organising moderated poses considerable challenges not just to
panel discussions, wherein the public could the reuse of such outputs, but also to the
pose questions and suggestions on the long-term sustainability of such promising
policy choices. Organising an ideathon collaborations.
wherein any member of the public could
submit, in any Indian language, any issues
relating to the STI ecosystem and the
potential measures the policy can take for
addressing the identified issues was also a
significant step. An excellent team of young
researchers in the STIP Secretariat
coordinated the whole drafting and
consultation process, giving more energy to
the decentralised policy-making process.
The net result was a draft policy that gave
high importance to many dimensions of

301 <https://www.bioatlasindia.org/> accessed 16 March 2022
302 ibid.
303 <https://www.psa.gov.in/stip> accessed 16 March 2022
304 Interview with Dr Akhilesh Gupta (11 November 2021)
305 UNESCO Recommendation (n 24) 14.

79 Making Open Science the Norm in Science: Challenges in South Asia

CHALLENGES interlinks between different systems of
knowledge, if we are to unlock the true
Open Dialogue With potential of the diverse knowledge systems
Other Knowledge existing in these countries. While many
Systems challenges exist, two challenges that need
to be specifically highlighted in the context
As one may recall from the discussions in of the present discussion are - (1) building
Chapter 1, the UNESCO Recommendation has mutual respect for the knowledge systems;
highlighted the need for fostering and (2) ensuring fair and equitable sharing
interactions between diverse knowledge of benefits.
holders by giving due recognition to the
richness of diverse knowledge systems as Building mutual respect for the
well as the diversity of knowledge holders.³⁰⁶ knowledge systems
It has advocated, in particular, for inclusion
of knowledge from traditionally marginalised Though there is increasing realisation of the
voices.³⁰⁷ It has also reaffirmed the rights of value of indigenous knowledge,
knowledge holders to receive “a fair and politicisation of the issue of protection of
equitable share of benefits that may arise indigenous knowledge has often led to
from the utilisation of their knowledge”.³⁰⁸ pseudo-scientific claims on the value of
The need for conforming to CARE (Collective indigenous knowledge by stakeholders who
Benefit, Authority to Control, Responsibility are motivated by different reasons other
and Ethics) data principles while fostering than upliftment of science and its openness.
links with indigenous knowledge systems For example, during the Covid19 pandemic,
has also been highlighted.³⁰⁹ some pharmaceutical companies have tried
to market certain products as Ayurvedic
All the four countries analysed as part of this cures for Covid19, without any supporting
scientific evidence.³¹¹ Concerns regarding
study are home to rich and diverse the efficacy and safety of any medicine
need to be subjected to rigorous scientific
indigenous knowledge systems. The scrutiny. But when distribution and
marketing of dubious products based on
enormous potential of such knowledge little or no scientific evidence is allowed on
unscientific considerations, it also leads to
systems for sustainable development is substantial distrust in the broader
knowledge system, and an increase in the
beyond doubt. For example, much valuable disconnect between knowledge systems. As
Prof. Kishor Patwardhan has recently pointed
indigenous knowledge, particularly out in the context of Ayurveda, a better

knowledge about diverse medicinal plants,

can play a major role in the drug discovery

process.³¹⁰ But a lot more needs to be done

in all the four countries for fostering the

306 UNESCO Recommendation (n 24) 15.
307 ibid.
308 ibid.
309 ibid.
310 Graham Dutfield, ‘Why traditional knowledge is important in drug discovery’ (2010) 2(9) Future Med. Chem.
<https://www.future-science.com/doi/pdf/10.4155/fmc.10.210> accessed 16 March 2022; WIPO, Documenting
Traditional Medical Knowledge (March 2014) <https://www.wipo.int/export/sites/www/tk/en/resources/pdf/
medical_tk.pdf> accessed 16 March 2022
311 Vidya, ‘Pune court orders preliminary probe against Baba Ramdev for claims about Coronil as Covid cure’ India
Today (6 January 2022) <https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/preliminary-probe-against-baba-ramdev-patanjali-
coronil-1896925-2022-01-06> accessed 16 March 2022

Making Open Science the Norm in Science: Challenges in South Asia 80

approach would be to increase the trust in To summarise, more efforts are required in all
the knowledge system with the help of the four countries to address these
scientific evidence, uniform protocols and challenges in order to achieve our broader
longitudinal observational studies.³¹² goal of open dialogue with different
knowledge systems. Open dialogue cannot
Ensuring fair and equitable sharing of happen in an atmosphere of lack of respect,
benefits distrust, and exploitation.

In the context of fair and equitable sharing
of benefits, a lot more can be done in all the
four countries analysed as part of this
research. While it is undisputed that many
firms are now using indigenous knowledge
for innovations in the formal science
ecosystem, ensuring fair and equitable
benefit-sharing remains a challenge. For
example, as per the latest available annual
report (FY 2017-18) on the National
Biodiversity Authority (NBA) website, the
total benefit sharing during 2017-18 was
Rs.18.38 crores.³¹³ This is a negligible
amount, if one looks at the extent to which
invaluable indigenous knowledge is currently
used by different Indian Ayurvedic
pharmaceutical companies. It is also
important to note that in many cases, none
of the benefit sharing may reach the actual
indigenous knowledge holders, as many
people/firms often collect and utilise
indigenous knowledge without taking any
prior informed consent from knowledge
holders. This in turn re-emphasises the need
for rigorous application of CARE principles in
the region.

312 Kishor Patwardhan, ‘Making Ayurveda a real science’ The Hindu (22 November 2021) <https://
www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/making-ayurveda-a-real-science/article37614617.ece> accessed 16 March 2022
313 National Biodiversity Authority, Annual Report 2017-18, 24 <http://nbaindia.org/uploaded/
Annual_report_2017-18_english.pdf> accessed 16 March 2022

81 Digital Inclusion in South Asia

Digital Inclusion in
South Asia

As discussed in the introduction chapter, an To analyse the question of digital inclusion in
important aspect that is often overlooked in a rigorous manner in the four countries
the context of discussions on open science focused in this report, we have used the
is digital inclusion. The noble objectives of comprehensive methodological framework
the open science movement cannot be provided in the 2019 report titled Measuring
achieved in the absence of digital inclusion. the margins: A global framework for digital
inclusion, by UNU-EGOV researchers. ³¹⁴

UNU Digital Inclusion Framework

The UNU framework, provided in the 2019 report titled Measuring the
margins: A global framework for digital inclusion, contains four major
dimensions:

01 Access:
Access to electricity, internet, devices, and quality of access.

02 Skills: skills including critical thinking, literacy and

Traditional and digital
entrepreneurship.

03 Usage:

Use of technology, public and private digital services, digital products and
content, various types of work, social and civic engagement activities, as well as
places of access to measure actual value creation and digital inclusion of
marginalised communities.

04 Supportive environment:

A supportive environment, particularly in terms of affordability, legally valid
identification, financial inclusion, trust and security.³¹⁵

314 United Nations University, ‘Measuring the margins: A global framework for digital inclusion’ <https://
collections.unu.edu/view/UNU:7584> accessed 16 March 2022
315 ibid.

82

While many people tend to make the mistake researchers for 2017 show that south and
of looking at internet penetration data as a west asia are behind the global average
proxy for digital inclusion, the UNU (23.1% and 30%, respectively). ³¹⁸
framework relies on a combination of
multiple indices for a more comprehensive To ensure ease of reading, this subsection
measurement of digital inclusion. would be highlighting only some of the key
Systematic collection and analysis of data empirical findings under each of the
along these indices can certainly help in dimensions. All the data collected as part of
better identifying the required policy the digital inclusion analysis can be
interventions for the (digitally) marginalised accessed from this link and readers are
groups. encouraged to (re)use the data.

We also faced several challenges in using the
framework in the current context. For
example, once we started collecting data for
Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka for
the indicators (primary and secondary) in
the UNU framework, we realised that, in many
cases, data was unavailable for these four
countries. In some cases, the available data
was outdated. It was also observed that
some of the original indices that the
framework relied on focused exclusively on
the Global North and never covered South
Asia.³¹⁶ Additionally, we faced certain
situations wherein though data was
available in the concerned index, they were
inconsistent with other indices or surveys
from the region.³¹⁷ We have referred to
critical literature in such cases, while
including the data. Due to these reasons, we
could not include all the indicators in the
UNU framework, but we have ensured that at
least a couple of them are available for each
of the four important dimensions mentioned
in the framework. We have also tried to use
the most updated data, wherever possible.
Data related to gendered access to the
internet, similarly, was difficult to find for the
four countries specifically. However, the
regional averages for the share of female

316 For example, see eParticipation, under the ‘Use’ indice, or presence of personal computer or tablet computer in
household, under ‘Access to Device’ under the ‘Access’ indice.
317 For example, see access to electricity as % of general/rural/urban population, under ‘Access to Electricity, under the
‘Access’ index.
318 UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), Women in Science (June 2020) <http://uis.unesco.org/sites/default/files/
documents/fs60-women-in-science-2020-en.pdf> accessed 16 March 2022

83 Access to electricity

DIMENSION 1 Fig 3.2 Access to electricity as % of general/
rural/urban population
Access
97.8 100 100
With regard to the first dimension of access, S. Asia
some of the important parameters analysed 92.2 (94.4)
are access to electricity, access to the 89.9 World
internet, access to devices and the quality
of access. (90.1)

80

Access to Electricity 70

Access to electricity is an important enabler 60
for the other parameters, as it is one of the 50
basic infrastructural requirements that 40
determine what the population can access. 30
As one may notice from Figure 3.2, though 20
there are some variations, the majority of the
population is reported to be having access
to electricity in all the four countries
analysed. But whether this also means
uninterrupted access to electricity is not
clear from the data available.³¹⁹

10

0

India
Sri Lanka

Nepal*
Bangladesh

Source: Global System for Mobile Communications
Mobile Internet Connectivity: World Bank

319 It is important to add that claims of 100% electricity need to be viewed critically, as problems have been identified
with regard to definitions used. Our analysis also suggests that there are discrepancies in data from different sources.
Also see Dipti Jain, ‘The confusion over Rural Electrification in India’, Livemint <https://www.livemint.com/Politics/
XzTW8Z50QsUCAj8Dd7daWJ/The-confusion-over-rural-electrification-in-India.html> accessed 16 March 2022

Internet Access 84

If one looks at internet access, which is the (see Figure 3.3). There is a significant drop in
second sub-component of the access fixed broadband subscriptions in these
dimension, it can be noticed that substantial countries too. Fixed broadband
parts of the population in all the four subscriptions are just 5.78 per 100 people,
countries rely on mobile phones to access 2.82 per 100 people and 9.3 per 100 people,
the internet. The access to fixed broadband respectively in Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri
connection is low in all the four countries. Lanka (see Figure 3.4). As one can imagine,
For example, while the active mobile the quality access to the internet in the case
broadband subscriptions in India is 53 per of fixed broadband and mobile devices are
100 people, fixed broadband subscriptions is often very different and the relatively low
just 1.62 per 100 people. Data from Nepal, Sri percentage of population having access to
Lanka and Bangladesh also follow a similar fixed broadband subscriptions has
trend. The active mobile broadband important implications on the opportunities
subscriptions in Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri for people to access, share, and produce
Lanka are 53 per 100 people, 48 per 100 scientific information.
people and 72 per 100 people, respectively
Fixed broadband subscriptions (per 100
people) [dataset]

Access to the Internet Fig 3.4 Fixed broadband supscriptions per
100 people (2020)
Fig 3.3 Active mobile-broadband
subscriptions per 100 inhabitants (2020)

India 53 Sri Lanka 72 India 1.62 Sri Lanka 9.3

Nepal* 48 Bangladesh 53 Nepal* 2.82 Bangladesh 5.78

*The data for Nepal is from the year 2018 *The data for Nepal is from the year 2018
Source: International Telecommunications Union ICT Source: International Telecommunications Union ICT
Development Index (ITU-IDI) Development Index (ITU-IDI)

85

Even with regard to the coverage of mobile can observe considerable progress with
networks, one can see considerable regard to 3G and 4G penetration in
differences in the reach of different types of Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka, Nepal is not
networks in these four countries. While one yet there with respect to 3G and 4G.³²⁰

Access to Telephony

Fig 3.5 2G Coverage - Population covered by a cellular network (%) (2020)

India 99%
Sri Lanka 99%
Nepal* 92%
Bangladesh 100%

Fig 3.6 3G Coverage - Population covered by at least a 3G mobile network (%) (2020)

India 98%
Sri Lanka 95%
Nepal** 54%
Bangladesh 97%

Fig 3.7 4G Coverage - Population covered by atleast an LTE/WiMAX mobile network (%) (2020)

India 98%
Sri Lanka 95%
Nepal** 15%
Bangladesh 97%

*The data for Nepal is from the year 2018
**The data for Nepal is from the year 2017
Source: Global System for Mobile Communications Mobile Internet Connectivity: International Telecommunication
Union

320 But the differences seen in data could also be partly due to the fact that the latest available data for Nepal in this
regard is from the year 2017, while the data from the other countries are from 2020.

Quality of Access 86

Quality of access is an important factor to Quality of Internet Access
be considered under digital inclusion. While
there is a general push across the countries Fig 3.8 Average mobile download speeds
to ensure broader access to the internet, the (2019)
quality of internet access hasn’t received
due attention. As one can notice from South Asia (23.51)
Figures 3.8 and 3.9, the average mobile
download and upload speeds in all the four 18.42
countries surveyed are on the lower side,
compared to global averages. 14.39 13.00

10.42

India Sri Lanka Nepal Bangladesh

Fig 3.9 Average mobile download speeds
(2019)
South Asia (31.16)

10.77
7.85

5.04
3.71

India Sri Lanka Nepal Bangladesh

Source: Global System for Mobile Communications
Mobile Internet Connectivity: Ookla Speedtest
Intelligence Data

87

DIMENSION 2

Skills

Our data collection on the skills dimension in As one can notice from the data we
the UNU framework was considerably collected in this regard (see Figure 3.10),
hampered by the lack of availability of there is considerable difference in the adult
recent data across all four countries on the literacy levels in these four countries and it
subject. While there are multiple indices that ranges from 61.55% in Bangladesh to 92.63%
track the ICT skills of the population as well in Sri Lanka. A lot more needs to be done in
as data on tertiary education, these are this regard by all the four countries,
centered on the Global North. For this particularly Bangladesh, India and Nepal.
reason, we've focused on adult literacy as
the primary indicator under the skills
dimension.

Adult Literacy

Fig 3.10 Adult literacy (%) (2019)

Bangladesh 61.55 Nepal 64.66 India 72.13 Sri Lanka 92.63

Source: WEF:UNESCO

88

DIMENSION 3 Internet use:
Individuals using the Internet
Usage
Fig 3.11 Individuals using the Internet once in
the last 3 months (%) (2016-2020)

Internet Usage India* 41

With regard to the third dimension of usage Sri Lanka** 35
in the UNU framework, we've looked at
internet usage as a percentage of the
population that used the internet at least
once in the past three months. The most
recently available data on this dimension
varies across countries, and the relevant
year has been specifically mentioned in
Figure 3.11 to avoid confusions. There is a
marked difference on this count among the
four countries considered, ranging from 41%
in India to 12% in Bangladesh.³²¹ This
information is important, as it provides a
clear view of internet penetration at the
grassroots level, as compared to often-cited
general data on internet access in countries.

Nepal*** 21

Bangladesh**** 12

*This data from India is from the year 2019
**This data from Srilanka is from the year 2020
***This data from Bangladesh is from the year 2016
****This data from Nepal is from the year 2017
Source: International Telecommunication Union : ICT
Development Index

321 2019 data for both countries.

89

To get a more comprehensive picture on But, interestingly, the latest available data
internet use, we have also looked at the data from the four countries on the frequency of
on the percentage of the population (above goods purchased over the internet in the
the age of 15) who have used the internet to last few years show a sharp uptick,
shop or pay bills in the past year. As one can indicating that among the population that
notice from the data for all the four are familiar with online shopping, the
countries, the highest percentage was seen frequency of shopping might be increasing.
in Sri Lanka and even there, it is as low as 6% This aspect may be partially explained by
of the relevant population. The data clearly the numerous lockdowns and safety
illustrates that a vast majority of the precautions that were in place over the last
population in these four countries is not two years in light of the Covid19 pandemic.
using the internet to shop or pay bills, However, these nuanced aspects of digital
thereby posing further questions on digital inclusion deserve more attention in future
inclusivity in these countries. studies.

Internet use: Internet use:
Used the internet to pay bills or Frequency of purchase of goods
buy online
Fig 3.13 Frequency of purchase of goods
Fig 3.12 Used the internet to pay bills or buy (2021)
online in the past year (% age 15+) (2017)

India 4% India 74%

Sri Lanka 6% Sri Lanka 54%

Nepal 2% Nepal 67%

Bangladesh 4% Bangladesh 48%

Source: World Bank Source: International Telecommunication Union : ICT
Development Index

DIMENSION 4 90

Supportive Affordability of Devices
environment
If one looks at the data on the cost of the
With regard to the fourth dimension in the cheapest internet-enabled mobile device
UNU framework, i.e., supportive environment, available in these countries, it can be
we would like to highlight the affordability of noticed that among the four countries,
data as well as affordability of devices. Nepal provides the cheapest internet
enabled mobile device at 16.84, whereas the
Affordability of Data cheapest available internet-enabled mobile
device in India costs almost three and a half
The cost of accessing 100 MB of data times that of Nepal (61.77).³²² This indicates
appears to be lowest in Nepal (47.14) and substantial differences in the affordability of
highest in Sri Lanka (83.64). The average cost an internet-enabled mobile device in the
in South Asia for 100MB is 54.78, and it may four countries analysed in the study. Similar
be noted that this is lower than India, Sri to the findings on affordability of data, when
Lanka and Bangladesh. it comes to the cheapest internet-enabled
mobile device prices, the average cost at the
South Asia level (32.28) is lower than the
prices seen in Bangladesh, India and Sri
Lanka. The policy makers in these countries
need to analyse how data and internet-
enabled phones or computers can be made
more affordable in these countries. Without
affordable access, digital inclusion would
remain a pipe dream in all the countries.

Cost of data Device price

Fig 3.14 Cost of 100MB of data Fig 3.15 Cost of cheapest internet-enabled
(% of monthly GDP per capita) (2019) mobile device (2019)

83.64

63.38 57.80 61.77

45.33 39.43

South Asia(54.78)

47.14 South Asia (37.28) 16.84

India Sri Lanka Nepal Bangladesh India Sri Lanka Nepal Bangladesh

Source: GSMA State of Mobile Internet Connectivity Source: Global System for Mobile Communications-
Report (GSMA-MIC) Mobile Internet Connectivity: Tarifica

322 The index converted the handset prices to dollars for standardisation.

91

When one looks at the diverse data shared as
part of this subsection as a whole, it
becomes immediately apparent that there is
a long path to travel for all the four countries
to make digital inclusion a reality. Though
data on some factors like access to
electricity portray a positive picture, it is
evident that a lot needs to be done on most
of the dimensions discussed in the UNU
framework. For example, it is evident that the
growing percentage of internet access does
not necessarily translate to meaningful
access to the internet or quality of internet
access in any of the four countries
considered. As we could also notice from the
data, the cost of accessing the internet
(both in terms of data and device costs),
remains a challenge in at least three of the
countries analysed as part of this research.

The diverse data discussed as part of this
subsection should persuade policy-makers
in these countries to take proactive steps
for achieving digital inclusion. The data
discussed in this chapter should also prompt
STI policy makers in the Global North to open
their eyes to the digital divide reality. Most
importantly, we hope that this would lead to
more comprehensive studies on digital
inclusion. Only more studies on digital
inclusion can persuade global conversations
on open science to include digital inclusion
as an integral element.

04Chapter
Overcoming
The Challenges
At National And
Regional Levels

The whole planet's future is at
stake and now is not the time to
play secret and coy. For all future
global crises collaboration is the
only way out and anything that sits
behind paywall and hoarded will be
extremely dangerous for the future
of humankind.For that reason,open
science and collaboration is the
only path forward.

- Dr Madhukar Pai³²³

The whole planet's future is at stake and now is not the time
to play secret and coy. For all future global crisis
collaboration is the only way out and anything that sits
behind paywall and hoarded will be extremely dangerous for
the future of humankind. For that reason, open science and
collaboration is the only path forward for us

323 Interview with Dr Madhukar Pai, Associate Professor, McGill University; Associate Director, McGill International TB
Centre, Canada (1 November 2021)

Recommendations 94

Recommendations

This chapter provides some

recommendations to support open science

As we have seen from the previous in these four countries, as envisaged in the
sections, openness is yet to become a norm
among the scientific and research UNESCO Recommendation. As many
communities in the four South Asian
countries studied as part of this research. challenges are found to be common in these
Interviews conducted with diverse
stakeholders also provide a similar four countries, and as this is a common
understanding. The most important
question that emerges at this stage is what report prepared for all the countries
these four countries can do to promote
open science in the context of the findings analysed, this chapter is limited to
discussed in the previous sections.
suggesting commonly applicable

recommendations for all these countries. We

hope that all the four countries will initiate

more national-level studies to build upon

these recommendations and identify

approaches to address the same, tailored for

their local contexts. For ease of

understanding and ease of implementation,

we have divided the recommendations

amongst the two important stakeholders -

policymakers and scientific research

community. The term ‘policymakers’, for the

purpose of this chapter, includes

government, research and educational

institutions, and funding agencies.

95 Recommendations Initiating Policymakers
dialogues on Scientific Research
OPEN open science Community
SCIENTIFIC Open
KNOWLEDGE Access Policymakers
OPEN SCIENCE Open Data Scientific Research
INFRASTRUCTURES Community
OPEN Open
ENGAGEMENT Educational Policymakers
WITH SOCIETAL Resources Scientific Research
ACTORS Open Source Community
DIALOGUES Software
WITH OTHER Policymakers
KNOWLEDGE Open Scientific Research
SYSTEMS Hardware Community

Policymakers
Scientific Research
Community

Policymakers
Scientific Research
Community

Policymakers
Scientific Research
Community

Policymakers
Scientific Research
Community

Policymakers
Scientific Research
Community

Recommendations 96

RECOMMENDATIONS

Open Scientific Knowledge

01 Initiating Dialogues science, including STI policies, IP policies,
on Open Science educational policies and institutional-level
policies, to ensure that incentive structures
Policymakers in those policies are aligned with the broader
goals of open science. Open science needs
Though anecdotal evidence suggests that to become a priority at the regional, national
many researchers in these four countries are and state levels through the necessary
aware of the term ‘open science’, more changes in those policies. Introducing
dialogue, awareness campaigns and specific policy measures to make science
capacity building workshops are required to more inclusive, particularly to mitigate
be organised in all the four countries to various kinds of biases based on gender,
convey the importance of open science to class, caste, religion, and disability, needs
all stakeholders. This includes making priority attention among policymakers.
stakeholders aware of the extent and
consequences of the current crisis in The policies need to evolve by giving due
science, how open science intends to consideration to the local socio-economic
address some of the aspects of the current and cultural contexts. Periodic review of the
crisis, and the broader benefits of open working of the policies and their impact on
science. open science should also become a priority
for policymakers in all the four countries, and
If the institutions understand the discussions with civil society working
strengths of everyone, then groups should be held so as to jointly evolve
competition (among researchers) changes in policies. It is also important to
can be changed to cooperation.” facilitate more collaboration between the
policymakers in all these four countries to
- DR GEETHA ABEYSINGHE³²⁴ address the common challenges. As one may
recall from the discussions in Chapter 2 in
The policy makers also need to revisit the the context of Covid19 pandemic, there is a
existing policies that can have an impact on lot of scope for knowledge sharing among
researchers and institutions in these four
countries.

The exceptions provided under copyright
laws in these countries also need to be
reviewed urgently, and if necessary,
amendments have to be made to ensure that

324 Interview with Dr Geetha Abeysinghe, Former Program Director, Coordinating Secretariat for Technology and
Innovation, Sri Lanka (9 November 2021)

97 Recommendations For open science to succeed, a

the access requirements of researchers, broader view needs to be taken.
students and teachers in these countries
are sufficiently protected. Providing a broad We need to change the whole
fair use exception, complemented with
enumerated exceptions for teaching and system, not just a few of the
research, can be helpful for all the four
countries. This can be achieved with minimal immediate issues. The
modifications in the current copyright
legislations in Bangladesh, India and Sri organisations of the scientific
Lanka. Copyright legislation in Nepal might
require substantial changes in this regard. process (funding, careers,
Though the copyright laws in some of these
countries provide scope for arguing that publications, etc.) are currently in
text and data mining are permitted,
introducing specific exceptions for text and a competitive structure, with
data mining (TDM) can be helpful for all the
four countries, as it would reduce legal misguided priority (such as
uncertainties for researchers. Introducing
broader exceptions for persons with evaluation of research based on
disabilities should also be a priority in all the
four countries to make them part of the the impact factor of a journal)
knowledge creation process.
which is in direct conflict with the
While this subsection highlights some of the
priority areas of action for policymakers, it philosophy of open science.”
needs to be re-emphasised that a holistic
review of all existing policies and radical - DR AKHILESH GUPTA³²⁵
changes in the manner in which research is
being conducted is required for making open
science a reality.

325 Interview with Dr Akhilesh Gupta, Advisor, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India (2
November 2021)

Recommendations 98

Scientific Research
Community

During our research, we could see many
passionate open science advocates in all the
four countries. More discussions and
advocacy among peers and other
stakeholders can make a substantial positive
impact on the general attitude towards open
science. Support for open science
awareness programmes within institutions
(starting from the undergraduate level) can
also play an important role in mainstreaming
open science practices. It is also very
important for the scientific community to
realise that if science has to be open and
inclusive, the most vital steps will have to be
taken by the researchers themselves.

If we don't stand up for science, for
transparency, for openness, for
collaboration, then nobody else
will. This has to be something that
comes from within our community.
And when we close the doors on
that, then we are willing to accept
that we cannot report what we
have found or we can report it
only in select circles.”

- DR GAGANDEEP KANG³²⁶

326 Interview with Prof. Gagandeep Kang, FRS, Professor of Microbiology at Wellcome Trust Research Laboratory,
Division of Gastrointestinal Sciences at the Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore, India (2 November 2021)

99 Recommendations the answer papers, what is wrong if
he insists (or mandates) that any
02 Open Access research done from within the
university should be deposited in
Policymakers the university’s repository?” -

It is essential to evolve through extensive - PROF. SUBBIAH ARUNACHALAM³²⁷
stakeholder consultations, an enforceable
law or policy mandating open access to Archiving and sharing of scholarly outputs
research outputs from publicly funded through open access repositories (Green
research. Specific measures need to be open access route) must be recognised as a
taken by the policymakers to also enforce basic right for every researcher and policy
the existing open access mandates at the makers need to take sufficient steps to
national/institutional levels. facilitate the exercise of this right by
researchers. This includes providing
The way I see it is that researchers institutional support to researchers for their
do the research, they write the negotiations with publishers, so that
papers to report their findings, and exploitative provisions in publishing
they read and use each other’s contracts can be avoided. Evolving
papers as part of the process of appropriate institutional-level IP policies can
advancing knowledge. Today the also play a helpful role in this regard. As an
Internet and related technologies example, granting non-exclusive rights to
facilitate better sharing of those the university as part of the copyright policy
papers. So a fully Green future is of the university may help authors retain the
eminently possible and should be right to share the final accepted versions of
our goal. manuscripts.

If that is only possible by Similarly, it is extremely important to take
introducing a mandate then I am measures to strengthen non-profit
all for such a mandate, publishing models. Policymakers should
notwithstanding the fact that I am a support the establishment of high-quality,
champion of freedom of the research community-owned, open access
individual. If a chancellor of a journals. Policymakers in all the four
university can insist that a teaching countries can also support the conversion of
professor should teach a certain existing journals to high-quality open
number of hours, conduct access journals. Policymakers can take the
examinations in the subjects he help of initiatives like AmeliCA, a
teaches and evaluate and grade communication infrastructure for scholarly
publishing, for evolving sustainable non-
profit publishing models.³²⁸ Similarly, the
contribution from researchers towards
building and sustaining community owned

327 Visiting Professor, DST- Centre for Policy Research (DST-CPR), Indian Institute of Science, India. See ‘Open Access in
India: Q&A with Subbiah Arunachalam’ (2014) <https://poynder.blogspot.com/2014/06/open-access-in-india-q-with-
subbiah.html> accessed 16 March 2022
328 <http://amelica.org/index.php/en/about> accessed 16 March 2022

open access journals, needs to be given due Recommendations 100
attention by policymakers. For example, the
time and efforts put in by researchers for Scientific Research
editing and peer-reviewing the manuscripts Community
for such journals may be given due
recognition in recruitment/career progress -The success of any open access initiative
evaluations. depends largely on the support and
cooperation of researchers. Researchers
need to take the lead in ensuring that their
scholarly outputs are accessible to the
public with the least restrictions possible.
Creating awareness among peer groups on
the importance of open access is a vital step
in this regard.

The major challenge seen in South
Asia is also to some extent
applicable to other countries
across the globe. The challenge is
not about the lack of availability of
technology, as the whole idea of
open access was driven by
technological developments. The
only challenge has been the
reluctant participation of the
scientific community to make their
works accessible through open
access modes.”

- MR MADHAN MUTHU³²⁹

The research community should also be
vigilant about the (mis)appropriation of
copyright by publishers and should resist
the publishers' attempt to take away the
copyright in their works in return for
acceptance of the manuscript for
publication. During negotiations with
publishers, researchers must try to avoid any
assignment of copyright and instead opt for
licensing of specific rights. Most
importantly, researchers need to be aware of
their own rights over their works and should
also spread the awareness among other
community members.

329 Interview with Mr Madhan Muthu, Director (Library), Jindal Global University, India (3 December 2021) .