Open Access Publishing: First Among Equals

The scientific publication scenario is witnessing massive disruptions. Many traditional publication models are either going hybrid (part subscription mode, part open access), or fully mutating to open access publishing, precipitated by the Budapest Open Access Initiative.1 The gist of the Budapest Open Access Initiative is, “…by open access we mean… free availability on the public internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any lawful purpose, without any financial, technical or legal barriers… The only constraint on reproduction and distribution, and the only role for copyright… should be to give authors control over the integrity of their work and the right to be properly acknowledged and cited.”2 Open access falls into four categories: Gold Open Access Model, Green Open Access Model, Hybrid Open Access Model, and Diamond Open Access Model. The Gold Open Access Model gives instant and unlimited online access to final versions of research papers. This model is sustained through the Article Publishing Charges (APCs), which the author pays. The APCs for high-impact journals published from the West can be as high as INR 3,00,000 or more, and may be beyond the reach of many authors unless they get institutional support or have publication charges included in their research grants.3 APCs for Indian journals are far modest, ranging from INR 3000 to 10,000. In the Green Open Access Model, the authors have the option of self-archiving, i.e., they may publish in subscription-based journals and can preserve a penultimate version of their research either in pre-print repositories such as SSRN or arXiv, PubMed Central, or institutional archives.4 This version of open access is like “eating your cake and having it too,” as the authors do not have to pay hefty APCs while at the same time they can share their research with a wider audience. The Hybrid Open Access Models contain a mix of paid and unpaid articles, whereby authors have an option of publishing their research in traditional subscription-based journals and making a particular paper accessible to the public by paying APCs for that article.1 Lastly, we come to the “first among equals” Open Access Model, i.e., the Diamond or Platinum version. These journals do not charge APCs nor do they burden the readers with paywalls. This makes it the most equitable and sustainable model without any conflicts of interest, which can arise when journals charge APCs.5 The Diamond Open Access Journals are fully financed by academic institutions, government bodies, or research societies and function fully on non-profit principles, making them the “first among equals.” The Medical Journal of Dr DY Patil Vidyapeeth falls in this category. Data availability statement Not applicable. Author contribution AB was responsible for concept, drafting, revision, and final approval of this editorial. Financial support and sponsorship Nil. Conflicts of interest There are no conflicts of interest to declare.