About 1.8 crore students from state-funded higher education institutions, including universities and IITs, will have access to research papers published in top journals across the world from January 1 as part of the government's 'One Nation, One Subscription' initiative.

Addressing a press conference, the government's Principal Scientific Advisor AK Sood said more than 13,400 international journals covering science, technology, engineering, medicine, mathematics, management, social sciences and humanities would be made available to researchers under the 'One Nation, One Subscription' (ONOS) initiative's first phase.

Under the initiative, 451 state public universities, 4,864 colleges and 172 institutes of national importance will be among the 6,380 higher education and research institutes that will have access to top journals published by 30 publishers, including Elsevier, Springer Nature, and Wiley.

"Earlier, institutions such as IITs or central universities subscribed to a small set of journals related to specific disciplines but, under ONOS, all institutions will have access to 13,400 research journals," said Department of Science and Technology Secretary Abhay Karadikar.

He said the ONOS initiative would be launched on January 1 and access to top journals available for the next three years.

In the second phase, the government plans to extend the initiative to private academic institutions through a public-private partnership model.

The third phase will grant universal access to international journals through designated access points at public libraries.

ONOS will be coordinated by a central agency -- the Information and Library Network (INFLIBNET), an autonomous inter-university centre of the University Grants Commission (UGC).

"The initiative will expand access to scholarly journals to a vast diaspora of students, faculty, researchers and scientists of all disciplines, including those in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, thereby promoting core as well as interdisciplinary research in the country," Sood said.