Union Cabinet has approved One Nation One Subscription (ONOS) Scheme on 25th November 2024. A budgetary allocation of Rs. 6000 crore for ONOS scheme has been made to ensure that students and academicians gets access to latest research articles and journals. ONOS scheme aims to centralise journal subscriptions for nearly 6,300 government-run institutions. ONOS by central government seeks to provide equitable access to 13,000 scholarly journals under a single platform. Read this article till the end to know One Nation One Subscription Scheme complete details.
The One Nation One Subscription Scheme has been launched by the central govt. to provide nationwide access to scholarly research articles and journal publication. ONOS scheme will be provided with a fully digital and easy to use process for everyone eligible for it.
How to Get ONOS Scheme Subscription (Working)?
The union govt. aims to provide a One Nation One Subscription facility for the higher education institutions (HEIs) and R&D laboratories run by it. The Department of Higher Education is creating a unified portal for the said institutions to access and stay on the top of the research in their respective fields. The process will be reviewed by the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) and publications of Indian authors of these institutions will also be handled by it.
What is the Duration of ONOS Scheme?
Central government has announced the allocation of about Rs. 6,000 crore for One Nation One Subscription scheme. The funds will be available for next three calendar years, starting from next year. Thus the duration of One Nation One Subscription (ONOS) scheme would be the years 2025, 2026 and 2027.
The new central sector scheme is a hope to build on and further enhance the scope and reach of many initiatives by the Union government in recent times as far as education is concerned, especially higher education.
Which Publications will be Available under ONOS Scheme?
This common platform will host 13,000 journals published by 30 international publishers including Elsevier Science Direct (including Lancet), Springer Nature, Wiley Blackwell Publishing, Taylor & Francis, IEEE, Sage Publishing, American Chemical Society, and American Mathematical Society, among others.
How to Make One Nation One Subscription Portal Registration?
All institutions will only need to make One Nation One Subscription Portal registration to access these journals. The central government negotiated one subscription price for each of the 30 different publishers and approved Rs. 6,000 crore for three calendar years – 2025, 2026 and 2027.
However if HEIs still want access to journals outside the 13,000 available on the common platform, they can subscribe to them individually.
What benefits does ONOS Scheme Provides?
The national subscription scheme will benefit nearly 1.8 crore students, teachers and researchers in the country, spread across more than 6,300 institutions. Here are some of the benefits which ONOS scheme will provide to the institutions an students:-
Countrywide access to national and international scientific and academic content.
Benefit to research and educational institutions including universities, colleges, research organisations, as well as every citizen of the country through public libraries.
Stimulating scientific research and innovation in the country.
One Nation One Subscription Scheme Launch Date
Through the ONOS scheme, the Centre aims to consolidate the disaggregated approach to journal access for all government HEIs. ONOS will enable state and central government HEIs to access thousands of journals on one platform, which will be active from January 1, 2025.
How do HEIs Currently Access Journals?
Currently, HEIs can access journals through 10 different library consortia which are under the administrative control of various ministries. A library consortium is a group of two or more libraries that have agreed to cooperate to fulfil certain similar needs, usually resource sharing.
For eg- INFLIBNET Centre (Information and Library Network Centre) in Gandhinagar is an Inter-University Centre of the University Grants Commission under the Ministry of Education (India) which oversees the UGC-Infonet Digital Library Consortium, providing access to selected scholarly electronic journals and databases in different disciplines.
What is the need for One Nation One Subscription Scheme?
The ONOS scheme has been justified on four grounds.
It would expand access to the best scholarly journals for 55 lakh to nearly 1.8 crore students, faculty, and researchers across roughly 6,300 government universities, colleges, research bodies, and Institutions of National Importance (INIs), including those in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.
It would avoid duplication of journal subscriptions across different library consortia and individual higher education institutions and hence reduce excess expenditure on overlapping resources.
A single subscription for all central and state government HEIs would provide better bargaining power when negotiating with publishers.
Centre will gain insights into the extent to which journals are being accessed and downloaded by the government higher education ecosystem. This will not only help in long-term planning but also allow us to encourage inactive institutions to fully utilise the platform and promote its benefits among their teachers, students, and researchers.
When was ONOS conceptualised?
“If India is to become a leader in these disparate areas, and truly achieve the potential of its vast talent pool to again become a leading knowledge society in the coming years and decades, the nation will require a significant expansion of its research capabilities and output across disciplines,” the NEP 2020 stated. The One Nation One Subscription Scheme originates from the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which emphasised research as a cornerstone for achieving excellence in education and national development.
