Discoverability and accessibility of humanities and social science datasets in India: A policy landscape

Open data are an integral part of the Open Science ecosystem that is being promoted worldwide for equitable access to information and knowledge resources. India is at the forefront of emerging developing nations, participating in and immensely contributing to the global Open Science movement. There are a number of initiatives in India to share public sector data generated by different government entities. However, the research data are not yet covered by these data portals. Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable data implementation across the research ecosystems covering research institutions, academic institutions and research funding agencies remains minimal, which needs to be boosted through nationwide policy advocacy, capacity building and awareness-raising campaigns. This paper evaluates the initiatives for disseminating and discovering the humanities and social science datasets made available by the government, academic institutions and private entities. This paper also identifies suitable policy instruments in India, helping India to meet the commitments widely discussed in the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science, where India is one of the signatory nations out of 193 signatories.