Background:
Open Access(OA) has emerged during the last decade or so as a movement and a business model whose goal is to provide free access and re-use of scientific knowledge in the form of research articles, monographs, data and related materials. Faster and wider sharing of knowledge fuels the advancement of science and technology accordingly, the return of health, economic, and social benefits back to the civil society. By removing the barriers of price and permissions, OA publishing promotes the global flow of knowledge across different tiers of stakeholders; improves access to ‘developed-country research which percolates down to developing countries growth and development and also creates much-needed visibility for ‘developing-country research’; and allows researchers and practitioners to access current knowledge.

The lack of awareness might still be an issue for Indian researchers, but there have been various initiatives by Indian institutes, journals and publishers to make research content open. Nature Publishing Group (NPG) continues to expand the open access options it offers to authors, with new open access journal launches and open access options on many subscription journals. The first of these open access options were introduced in 2005, and NPG now publishes over 60 journals that are open access platform or offer open access options. This includes 100% of the journals published in partnership with academic and society partners. NPG published over 2000 open access articles in 2012.

The specific objectives of the workshop:
• Certification of quality
• Threads in ENCODE: Encyclopedia of DNA Elements
• The growth of open access
• Open access and peer review
• The future of science publishing
• Role of Journals in the 21^st century