Trends in Open Access Academic Outputs of State Agricultural Universities in India: Patterns from OpenAlex
This study addresses the lack of systematic, longitudinal analysis of open access (OA) scholarly output from Indian state agricultural universities (SAUs). Employing a mixed-methods approach—including OpenAlex API data harvesting, OpenRefine-based data cleaning, ArcGIS spatial visualization, and Excel-based statistical analysis—it examines 97,536 OA publications from 2014–2023 across temporal, spatial, institutional, authorial, journal-level, funding, and thematic dimensions. Results reveal Gold OA dominance (57.27%), yet 78.34% appear in low-impact journals; Tamil Nadu and Punjab SAUs lead in overall output and Green OA/funding performance, respectively. The study identifies critical structural gaps, notably misalignment between article processing charge (APC) expenditures and national OA policy objectives. These findings provide empirical evidence to refine agricultural research funding mechanisms, enhance OA quality, and inform context-sensitive, differentiated OA policy formulation for India’s agricultural higher education sector.