SocialJustice forum Goel DG Sharma – Language, Literature, and Interdisciplinary Studies

Decolonizing Knowledge Systems: Open Access in the Indian Context

Nikita Goel | E.L.A. Project

Sharanya DG | E.L.A. Project

ORCiD ID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-3927-8984

Abhishek Sharma | University of Delhi

___________________________________________

DOI: https://doi.org/10.71106/DKRP7781

Publication: Social Justice Special Issue

Download PDF

Abstract | Open Access (OA) began with the promise of a more equitable approach to sharing knowledge through increased scholarly communication, changing the ways in which research can be disseminated and accessed. Its initial intent defied the privileging of knowledge as it presented alternatives to traditional subscription models of journal publication that sustained inequality, since these models allow only elite institutions to afford exhaustive research databases, thereby widening the gap between large and small institutions, developed and developing economies, as well as rich and poor nations. Against such traditional models, Open Access offered a level playing field to all, not only benefitting the readers, but also the researchers participating in it, a fact often overlooked in the discussions surrounding this movement. Within the academic community, the production of knowledge through research gains credibility only when it is validated by the scholarly use of the work, a process for which quantitative models of assessing credibility have been created. The reformation of knowledge-disseminating systems assured global visibility to authors from diverse geographical regions across all classes by tearing down the prohibitive barriers of cost and copyright.

Key words | Open Access (OA), Knowledge Systems, Academic Publishing, Global South, Eurocentrism, OA in India, Digital Literacy, Equity, Democratization, Decolonization, Epistemic Delinking

Nikita Goel (nikita.goel@ellids.com) graduated in Publishing Course from Columbia University, New York, after completing her Masters in English Literature from University of Delhi, India, in 2015. During her course in Columbia University she largely explored various aspects of academic publications, especially the designing of academic books within printing presses, as well as various aspects involved in the production of electronic/print Journals and Magazines. Before starting as an Editor at Language, Literature, and Interdisciplinary Studies, Nikita had worked with varied publishing houses on genres ranging from Children’s Fiction, Non-Fiction, K-12 Division, to Academic publishing. Her research on Open Access dwells on a practice-based approach to OA policy-making and explores its viability in the Indian subcontinent.

Sharanya DG (sharanya.dg@ellids.com; ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-3927-8984) is an Assistant Editor at the Open Access academic journal, Language, Literature, and Interdisciplinary Studies (LLIDS). She holds a Masters degree in Contemporary Literature and Culture from Birkbeck, University of London, where her dissertation focused on the forms of literary resistance in contemporary feminist Dalit fiction. She completed her undergraduation from Symbiosis School for Liberal Arts, India with a major in English and minors in Anthropology and Philosophy. She has previously taught academic reading and writing at the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru. Through her engagement with research, Sharanya hopes to continue exploring the intricate ways in which our cultural and political lives entangle with literature.

Abhishek Sharma (abhishek.sharma@sgndkc.du.ac.in) is Associate Professor, Department of English at University of Delhi, India. He has been teaching Western and Indian Literature in the University of Delhi for the past twenty five years. As part of his teaching assignments, he has also been offering ESL and ELT courses to his students from the fields of Commerce, History, and Political Science. His lifelong engagement with epic traditions of India as well as Ancient Greece made him move towards the field of interdisciplinary studies and culminated in his Ph.D. dissertation on Valmiki’s Ramayana.

MLA Citation for this Article:

Goel, Nikita, et al. “Decolonizing Knowledge Systems: Open Access in the Indian Context.” Language, Literature, and Interdisciplinary Studies, Social Justice Special Issue, 31 Dec. 2025, pp. 1.41–1.46, https://doi.org/10.71106/DKRP7781.