A New Era for Indian Researchers: APC Support under ONOS
About ONOS APC Support
The Government of India has issued APC Guidelines as part of the #ONOS programme. It is a forward-looking step that will be a major step for the scholars who wants to publish in some of the ONOS approved “high-quality” open-access journals, the negotiated APCs for these selcted journals will be centrally funded through the executing agency for ONOS. The ONOS (One Nation One Subscription) scheme was approved by the Government of India on 25 November 2024, and it officially begins operations on 1 January 2025. Its aim is to provide nationwide access via a centralised, digital subscription to more than 13,000 international scholarly journals (from 30 major publishers) for all students, faculty and researchers in government-run higher education and research institutions. Users benefit by getting free (or centrally funded) access to high-impact peer-reviewed journals, removing subscription cost and access barriers that many smaller or remote institutions previously faced.
What is ONOS APC support?
Under ONOS (One Nation One Subscription), the central authority will fund Article Processing Charges (APCs) for selected, high-quality fully open-access journals. Fully open access journals appearing in the list of top 1% journals for each of the 27 main subject areas given in the Scopus wil be eligible. These open access journals can be either from the major 30 publishers selected in ONOS providing free access to all or other publishers. This list of journals will be prepared every year by INFLIBNET in consulltation with the Department of HIgher Education and will be upoaded on ONOS website
Quick Apply Checklist
Eligibility & Requirements
Who is eligible?
- Researchers, faculty, students and principal investigators from institutions registered with ONOS
- Applicants are normally the first or corresponding author
- Must be a bona fide member of their institute
- Institutional endorsement by the Head / nodal officer required
Which journals qualify?
Only fully open-access journals that are in the top 1% (by CiteScore, SNIP or SJR as indexed in Scopus) are eligible. ONOS publishes the list of eligible journals and periodically updates it.
Quick Facts
Important Rules
- Only eligible fully open-access journals (top 1% by Scopus metrics) are supported
- Authors must have made a significant intellectual contribution to the work
- If APC is already provided by other government/agency funding, ONOS funding will not be provided
- False or misleading declarations may result in administrative or legal action











