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About Shodhganga, N-LIST and OJAS @INFLIBNET
The ‘Shodhganga’ initiative through Information and Library Network Centre (INFLIBNET), Ahmedabad has been launched for the purposes of creating electronic repository of all the M.Phil / Ph.D. theses in the country. It is a matter of pleasure to note that many institutions have already tied up with the INFLIBNET and are regularly submitting the electronic version of their theses to Shodhganga’. Recognizing the need of a similar kind of electronic database of all the undergoing research programs at the level of M.Phil and Ph.D., INFLIBNET has launched another initiative called ‘Shodh Gangoth’. All universities are requested to submit the synopses of all the M.Phil / Ph.D. scholars after their clearance by the competent bodies of the Universities. This will help the research community to avoid duplication of resources and efforts besides indicating the trends and directions of research in each area of study. This new initiative is known as ‘Shodh Gangotri’. “Shodh Gangotri” using the INFLIBNET web address http://shodh.inflibnet.ac.in. indicates the necessary details such as: title of the research topic, name of the student. year of registration, Department / Faculty, name of research supervisor / associate supervisor(s), his/ her Institutional affiliation, etc.
Shodhganga (http:// Shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/)
The Shodhganga is a digital repository set-up for submission of electronic Version of theses and dissertations by students and research scholars in universities in India and make them available in open access to the world-wide academic community. The Repository was set-up in response to the UGC Notification (Minimum Standards & Procedure for Award of M.Phil. / Ph.D) Degree, Regulation, 2009) where-in the responsibility of maintaining the digital repository is assigned to INFLIBNET Centre. Ahmedabad Shodhganga website provides all information relevant to the students, research supervisors and university authorities with regard to ETDs including their responsibilities, access policies, submission process, metadata structure, etc. Universities have started signing MoU with INFLIBNET Centre for granting non-exclusive rights to host their ETDs in the Shodhganga. Moreover, students from different universities have submitting electronic version of their theses into the repository on voluntarily basis. So far, students from 17 universities have submitted their theses into the repository and 21 universities have signed MoU with the INFLIBNET Centre. Total number of theses submitted into the repository has grown to 1,708 as on 11 May, 2011.
N-LIST (http://nlist.inflibnet.ac.in/)
The Project entitled “National Library and Information Services Infrastructure for Scholarly Content (N-LIST)”, being jointly executed by the UGC-INFONET Digital Library Consortium, INFLIBNET Centre and the INDEST-AICTE Consortium, IIT Delhi, provides for i) cross-subscription to e-resources subscribed by the two Consortia, i.e. subscription to INDEST-AICTE resources for universities and UGC-INFONET resources for technical institutions; and ii) access to selected e-resources to 6,000 colleges. The N-LIST project facilitates access to e-resources to students, researchers and faculty from colleges through proxy server(s) installed at the INFLIBNET Centre. As on March 31st 2011, 1,840 colleges have registered themselves for the N-LIST project. including 1,280 eligible colleges that are now getting access to resources subscribed under the N-LIST programme. Log-in IDs and passwords have been issued to more than 1,20,000 faculty members, students and researchers after obtaining list of authorized users from registered colleges.
Open Journal Access System (0JAS) @ INFLIBNET
The INFLIBNET Centre has installed and configured Open Journal System (0JAS), an open source solution developed by the Public Knowledge Project, on servers at INFLIBNET to facilitate hosting of electronic version of journals into open access mode with all processes of submission, peer-reviewing, editing, layout designing and publishing built into it. The initiative, named “OJAS@INFLIBNET”, encourages universities and institutions that are publishing journals in print format to use the OJAS for hosting electronic version of their journals free-of-cost on servers at the INFLIBNET Centre. The initiative also encourages (faculty in universities to start their own open access journals using the platform offered by the INFLIBNET Centre. Currently Open Journal Access System @ INFLIBNNET hosts six journals namely “Journal of Literature, Culture and Media Studies”, “Assam University Journal of Science & Technology” in two parts, namely, “Biological and Environmental Sciences” and “Physical Sciences and Technology”, ICSSR Journal of Abstracts and Reviews – Geography, ICSSR Journal of Abstracts and Reviews – Political Science. ICSSR Journal of Abstracts and Reviews – Economics and ICSSR Indian Psychological Abstracts and Reviews.