Mapping the current scenario of gold and green open access in India: trends and patterns from DOAJ and OpenDOAR

This study examines the current scenario of Gold and Green Open Access (OA) in India using data from DOAJ and OpenDOAR databases and analyzes growth trends and patterns to provide inferential insights. The search in DOAJ identified 358 Indian OA journals and 111 Indian OA repositories were retrieved from OpenDOAR. Key findings indicate that over 35 percent of OA journals charge APC, only 1.39 percent have earned the DOAJ Seal and approximately 17 percent of journals allow authors to retain full copyright, with the majority adopting the CC BY-NC-SA license. In DOAJ, most journals are in Medicine, while OpenDOAR repositories are predominantly in Science. The study further identifies 2017 as the peak year for OA journal growth in DOAJ and 2013 for OA repository registrations in OpenDOAR. Most repositories are institutional, contain journal articles and use DSpace software. Correlation analyses reveal weak alignment between journal and repository growth, offering inferential evidence of structural gaps in India’s OA ecosystem. These findings provide a comprehensive overview of the state of OA publishing and archiving in India, informing evidence-based national OA policies and promoting wider adoption of OA practices among researchers.