From Paywalls to Free Walls: Concepts and Practice of Open Access Publishing

Dear All,

We are delighted to inform you that Department of Library & Information Science, Central University of Tamil Nadu (CUTN), Thiruvarur, organised a special online lecture under its series “Gyan Pravah: Online Lecture Series in LIS." The 9th lecture in the series was held on 30th August 2025 (Saturday) from 03:00 to 04:20 PM via Google Meet. Dr. Mohammad Nazim, Associate Professor, Department of Library and Information Science, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, was invited as the resource person and delivered a lecture on the topic “From Paywalls to Free Walls: Concepts and Practice of Open Access Publishing.”

The program commenced with a welcome address and opening remarks by Prof. S. Thanuskodi, Head, Department of Library and Information Science, CUTN, followed by a brief introduction to the department. Prof. Akhandanand Shukla, Department of Library and Information Science, CUTN, introduced the resource person, highlighted the importance of the lecture, and provided an overview of the theme.

In his talk, Dr. Nazim covered a wide range of themes, including scholarly publishing and the research cycle, paywall and free-wall models of communication, the evolution of the Open Access (OA) movement, routes of OA publishing, credible platforms and tools, predatory journals, and strategies for making research openly accessible. He discussed the limitations of traditional publishing models, explaining how authors often transfer their rights to publishers and how readers, despite paying subscription fees, are frequently granted little or no reuse rights beyond basic access. He emphasized that paywall publishing slows scientific progress and reduces the return on public investment in research. While introducing the concept of OA publishing, he addressed common myths, clarifying that OA does not equate to low-quality research. Many reputed journals and funding agencies support OA, and most OA journals are peer-reviewed and indexed. He compared paywalled and OA publishing models, outlining their respective benefits and drawbacks. He also highlighted the “One Nation One Subscription” policy and the role of libraries in ensuring equitable access to scholarly information worldwide.

Dr. Nazim elaborated on the different routes of OA publishing and explained the publishing cycle of each route, along with their advantages and limitations. He emphasized the importance of self-archiving research, discussed preprint versions of papers and Article Processing Charges (APCs), and introduced well-known OA repositories such as SHERPA-RoMEO and the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). Citing data from Royal Society Publishing, he demonstrated that articles published in OA receive 100% more citations and 116% more downloads than subscription-based articles. He emphasized that “open access means more reach and more impact” as it increases visibility, fosters global collaboration, and enhances the reputation of researchers and institutions.

At the same time, he acknowledged the challenges of OA publishing, including APCs, predatory journals, and copyright and licensing issues. To address these, he provided a checklist for evaluating OA journals, recommending that credible journals should clearly describe their peer-review process, be listed in DOAJ or UGC-CARE, maintain transparent APC policies, and have editorial boards comprising genuine scholars. He also explained Creative Commons (CC) licenses, outlining types such as CC-BY, CC-BY-SA, CC-BY-NC, and CC-BY-ND, and elaborated on their significance in scholarly communication. Furthermore, he introduced several free tools supporting OA research—including Unpaywall, Open Access Button, CORE, Zenodo, and the Open Science Framework (OSF)—and demonstrated their utility in enhancing research visibility and accessibility. In conclusion, he presented case studies showcasing success stories that demonstrated how OA enhances research visibility and highlighted the transformative role of institutional repositories in disseminating scholarly outputs. During the interactive Question–Answer session, Dr. Nazim responded to several queries.

 

The program, designed for Library and Information Science (LIS) professionals, witnessed active participation from faculty members, research scholars, and students of CUTN as well as other institutions. The lecture was coordinated by Prof. Akhandanand Shukla, Department of Library and Information Science, CUTN, and attended by more than 70 participants. The session ended with concluding remarks and a formal vote of thanks proposed by Dr. S. Ravi Kumar, Associate Professor, DLIS, CUTN, who expressed gratitude to the resource person, organizers, and participants for their valuable contributions in making the lecture a success. Ms. Komal Sahu, Senior Research Fellow, served as the rapporteur of the program.

Glimpses of the program are given below:

Department thanks to all who attended the program and taken the benefit to listen Dr. Mohammad Nazim on the important aspects of open access publishing.