Open Research Data, Data Sharing and Access Policies of the Indian Research Funding Agencies: An Overview

The paper provides a general overview of the draft, approved, and implemented open research data and data-sharing policies of the Indian research funding agencies. The Government of India, under its various ministries, departments, and autonomous agencies/bodies/councils/boards, provides funds to many academic and research organizations to fuel scientific research, advancements, and innovations across disciplines/fields in the country.

The study identifies and provides an overview of the policies of the Indian research funding agencies/bodies encompassing research data management, data sharing, open data, accessibility, etc. First, extensive Google searches were made to find policy information using different keywords related to the research study. A list of Indian funding agencies that have such policies was prepared. Then, their websites were searched manually, and the required policy documents were downloaded/collected. It was found that not all funding agencies have such open data or data sharing and access policies in place. Funding departments, agencies/bodies from only 18 Government Ministries and 02 Autonomous Departments, which constitute only 33% of Ministries, have open data management, data sharing policies, and data repositories/archives in their system. The study covers policies from only selected Indian funding agencies/government bodies, i.e., DST, ICAR, ICSSR, DBT, ICMR, DGH, NIC, CSIR, ISRO, and NSE.