Purpose This study aims to examine the growth, dissemination and impact of open access (OA) publishing in India’s green energy research between 2015 and 2024, highlighting publication trends, citation performance, institutional contributions and alignment with sustainable development goal (SDG) 7. Design/methodology/approach A scientometric approach was adopted, using bibliographic records retrieved from the OpenAlex database. A total of 8,911 unique publications were cleaned and analyzed using OpenRefine and bibliometric tools to identify growth patterns, prolific journals, institutions, publishers, licensing trends, citation distributions and international collaborations. The analysis also mapped research areas, funding agency contributions and the relevance of OA literature to SDG 7. Findings OA publications accounted for 45.19% of total outputs and 55.26% of citations, with Gold OA dominating volume and Hybrid and Diamond OA demonstrating higher per-paper impact. Physical sciences and materials chemistry were the most represented domains, while interdisciplinary and socioeconomic research remained underdeveloped. Leading institutions and international collaborators were identified, with Saudi Arabia, the USA and the UK showing the highest citation efficiency. Licensing analysis revealed a substantial share of OA works without explicit reuse rights, particularly in Gold and Bronze OA. Practical implications The study highlights the need for strategic OA adoption, licensing standardization, interdisciplinary research and expanded international collaborations to enhance India’s green energy knowledge dissemination and policy relevance. Originality/value This study focuses exclusively on India’s OA green energy research, providing insights into the relationship between accessibility, visibility and impact, informing policy and future research directions.
Hazarika et al. (Wed,) studied this question.