The ONOS – https://www.onos.gov.in/ is an initiative launched in January this year with support from the Govt of India. It is one through which all Government institutions can get access to articles from a large number of journals (more than 13000). This from more than 27 subject categories. From 2027 – Private institutions will also have this access, but with a fee.
This has been one of the best thing that happened in India, in academics and research.
However I have some worries about this. A major one being – that like the Cochrane Library, this should not go, thanks to underutilization. Somewhere around 2004 India had paid (through the ICMR) access for the Cochrane Library – to anyone who logged in from an Indian IP address. This meant that any medical / health researcher in India, had access to the entire resource. This was really important as the Cochrane Library is considered a gold mine for Evidence based reviews!
But – my experience then was that majority were unaware not only about the free access, but about the resource itself. I used to be regularly invited to deliver lectures on Literature Searching, in Medical Colleges. At that time I used to ask “How many of you have heard of the Cochrane Library?” On an average around four hands went up (from an audience of 40-50). When they had not even heard about this resource -there was no way that they could know about it being free.
Result – there was an obvious underutilization of the resource which was available to everyone. The free access lasted for about seven years and then was quietly shut down. Today lot more people are aware of the source but only those in a few large institutions have access to the whole resource. And of course many still do not know how to exploit this resource properly, if they are doing a search to author a systematic review. The requisite training is not provided.
Coming back to the ONOS – thankfully there has been a fair amount of publicity and a few events that have promoted this resource. The website is excellent and gives lots of details. The only lacuna I feel is that one is not even allowed to search the database if one does not have login rights. I am unable to say how good (or otherwise) the search features are
What I do wish to see in the future is – lots more of promotion and integration.
– Promotion – every institution that has access, needs to ensure that every student / employee is aware of this tool and is trained to use it well.
– Integration – Databases like PubMed can be programmed to create special filters. Example – if I run a search on a topic, I can create filters that tell me about articles in journal collections. I would like a filter for ONOS journals. It would help me locate all full text articles I need, at a glance.
Such developments that ensure complete utilization of the ONOS is the way to long term availability! I hope lots will happen. And of course I hope that the country gets back access to the Cochrane Library and also gets country wide access to other databases. AND importantly – students and professionals learn how to search them right! We at QMed can help make that happen! If people ask.
