The Public Library of Science (PLOS) has announced a publishing agreement with Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) that gives its researchers unlimited publishing across all PLOS journals. MAHE will take part in PLOS’s Community Action Publishing, Global Equity, and Flat Fee models, which move publishing costs from individual authors to research institutions. The agreement is in place through 2026.
Dr. Santhosh KV, open access coordinator at MAHE, highlighted that the institution—recognized by the Government of India as an Institute of Eminence—views the agreement as aligned with its aim to support open, accessible, and impactful research. He emphasized that removing paywall costs allows global access to work by MAHE researchers and stated that, as one of India’s leading academic institutions, MAHE expects this step to increase the visibility and reach of its research and strengthen its scholars’ contributions to the global scientific community.
Roheena Anand, executive director of global publishing development and sales at PLOS, added that the organization is pleased to work with MAHE because both share the goal of advancing a more equitable, barrier-free approach to publishing. She noted that while the agreement extends PLOS’s presence in India, its greater value is in creating open science opportunities for researchers in the region.
Sameer Puri, founder and CEO of SPUR Infosolutions, described an exclusive partnership with PLOS—an open access pioneer—that brings PLOS’s institutional models to India for the first time. He explained that the first major outcome is the MAHE agreement, intended to foster broader participation and collaboration by enabling MAHE to share its work with the global research community. He added that SPUR’s reach and understanding of the Indian market, combined with PLOS’s commitment to open science, is expected to create a strong collaboration that benefits researchers across India, and he indicated plans to pursue similar opportunities with more institutions.
MAHE joins SURF in the Netherlands, Jisc in the UK, NorthEast Research Libraries (NERL) and the Center for Research Libraries (CRL) in the USA, CRKN in Canada, Leibniz Information Center for Science and Technology (TIB) in Germany, Irish Research Library (IReL) in Ireland, and Couperin in France in signing agreements with PLOS to support open access publishing for their member institutions.
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