Plan S, Open Access: An Interview with K. VijayRaghavan, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India

From The Wire:

K. VijayRaghavan is the principal scientific adviser to the Government of India.

[Clip]

Q. Based on one of your responses during the Q&A [during a recent presentation], it seems the Government of India is still committed to Plan S. There has been no explicit confirmation otherwise. You announced your support in a tweet over a year ago but there has been no word since…

VijayRaghavan: We are not joining Plan S. Plan S is itself evolving, and the terms that we are trying to push is something that we will ask Plan S to push for in their format.

[I asked him in a follow-up email to clarify this point; his reply follows:] Since February 2018, some water has flowed under the bridge. We have done substantial work here and had consultations with government, individual scientists and the academies. Our directions now and the next steps are what I spoke about in my lecture. Plan-S has also taken its steps and moved in some new directions. We are in touch with Plan-S, at present, to the extent that they have presented their current directions at our meeting by video and responded to clarifications we asked.

As we move along, I expect there will be overlap in our directions to open-access. However, our directions will be entirely determined by the interests of Indian academia and of India, for which our understanding of and collaboration internationally with groups such as Plan-S is important.

Read the Complete Interview (approx. 1390 words)

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