OPEN ACCESS FOOTPRINT OF ICAR-DEEMED AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITIES: A GLOBAL MAPPING THROUGH OPENALEX

Abstract

The present study examines the open access (OA) trends in Indian agricultural research and measures the underlying patterns of OA publishing in terms of author contributions, funding, journals, and other factors. The study selected the OpenAlex catalog as a tool to retrieve global publications shared by ICAR-deemed agricultural universities during 2004-2023. The Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi; the National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal; the Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar; and the Central Institute of Fisheries Education, Mumbai, were chosen for the experiment. The Research Organization Registry (ROR) ID was used to search for the institutions’ publications. OpenRefine was employed for data cleaning and analysis. The findings revealed that the four universities accounted for 37.71% of publications via four OA routes, with the IARI, New Delhi being the most productive. In the past two years, IARI, NDRI, and IVRI have shared over 50% of their publications as OA, predominantly through Gold OA. Most OA papers are published in Indian journals with low citations. Nonetheless, 11.19% of OA papers are supported by funding agencies. The present study measures the OA productivity of ICAR-deemed universities using OpenAlex and OpenRefine. The findings may encourage policymakers, stakeholders, and scholars to publish through OA routes, thereby enhancing their scholarly impact at the global level.