Context

India is now the fourth-largest producer of PhD graduates worldwide, a notable achievement according to data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Yet this progress is undermined by a glaring contradiction: many scholars in the country are based at universities that cannot afford subscriptions to essential academic journals. Doctoral research demands access to hundreds of scholarly papers, but students—already operating on modest stipends between ₹20,000 and ₹35,000—often face prohibitive costs ranging from $20 to $3,000 (approximately ₹17,000 to ₹2.64 lakh) just to access a single article. This creates an insurmountable barrier to knowledge for those who need it most.

The High Cost of Knowledge

·       The gravity of this issue became even more apparent when the Delhi High Court, in August, ordered the blocking of Sci-Hub and LibGen—two of the most widely used free-access academic platforms. The legal challenge was initiated by three of the world''s largest academic publishers, who collectively control 40% of the global publishing market and cited copyright infringement. This sparked widespread debate, particularly in academic circles across the Global South, about the ethics of limiting access to research that is often funded by public money.

·       Academic publishing relies on a model that extracts significant profits from the unpaid labour of researchers. These scholars produce content and often participate in peer reviews without compensation, yet publishers claim ownership and charge steep fees for access. They neither generate the original research nor are involved in quality verification, yet benefit disproportionately. A 2021 study published in the Journal of Scientometric Research found that India made up 8.7% of all downloads from Sci-Hub in 2017, with more than 13 million access requests—about 20% of which were for medical and health science materials. This data underscores the degree to which students and professionals depend on these platforms to conduct meaningful research and address local challenges.

Health, Innovation, and the Cost of Exclusion

·       The most critical consequences of these knowledge barriers are felt in healthcare. According to organisations like Doctors Without Borders (MSF), the field of medicine is dynamic, constantly evolving in response to emerging diseases, climate impacts, and changing social contexts. In the Global South—where two-thirds of global tuberculosis cases occur and where antimicrobial-resistant HIV poses an acute threat—doctors and healthcare workers are increasingly cut off from the latest research they need to develop effective treatments.

·       Health interventions must be tailored to local conditions—considering factors such as geography, malnutrition, age, and coexisting illnesses. These require up-to-date research and continuous innovation, yet the paywall model denies access to precisely those who are tasked with addressing such urgent public health needs. This is not merely an academic or logistical problem; it is a question of morality, fairness, and global justice.

Knowledge as a Commodity

·       The crisis extends far beyond the health sector. Today, knowledge has increasingly been transformed into a luxury commodity, accessible only to those who can afford it. Universities, especially in developing nations, are under pressure to privilege publications in high-impact, globally recognised journals—often at the expense of research that directly engages with urgent local or social concerns.

·       Corporate interests now shape research priorities, reinforced by a framework of patents and intellectual property rights that serve to privatise publicly funded research. In this environment, grassroots knowledge and indigenous expertise are marginalised. Communities in the Global South are frequently treated as mere data sources for researchers from the Global North, with local scholars relegated to secondary roles in research projects. Authorship and intellectual framing often remain with Northern institutions, resulting in a one-sided narrative that misrepresents Southern realities.

·       This imbalance is not only inequitable but distorts the way challenges in the Global South are understood and addressed, perpetuating a knowledge system that fails to represent or serve the majority of the world’s population.

Towards Collective Action and Open Science

·       In an era marked by converging global crises—climate disasters, forced migration, growing antimicrobial resistance, and entrenched inequality—the need for shared, open, and collaborative knowledge systems is more urgent than ever. Recognising this, all 193 UNESCO member states, including India, endorsed the first global framework on open science in 2021. This framework aimed to make scientific knowledge more transparent, accessible, and inclusive.

·       However, despite this commitment, dominant publishing houses continue to enforce restrictive paywalls, creating an artificial scarcity around knowledge that is, by nature, abundant and collectively produced. Science is inherently a collaborative endeavour—built on centuries of cumulative contributions across cultures, borders, and generations. Yet paradoxically, even the very communities that contribute to data collection, fieldwork, or case studies often lack access to the final published research.

·       This exclusion undermines not just the principles of equity and justice, but the collaborative spirit that underpins scientific progress. The practice of locking away knowledge behind high-cost barriers contradicts the idea of science as a global public good.

Conclusion

If the world is to tackle the complex and interconnected challenges of the 21st century—from global health emergencies and climate change to economic and social inequities—knowledge must be treated not as a commodity but as a shared resource. The ongoing dominance of corporate publishers, who continue to restrict access to knowledge for profit, denies millions the opportunity to learn, innovate, and contribute to solving the problems that affect them most.

Governments, educational institutions, and civil society must act collectively to pressure these publishers to dismantle paywalls and embrace a more democratic, open-access approach to knowledge dissemination. Only when access to knowledge is universal and equitable can we truly empower individuals and communities to build healthier, more just, and more resilient societies across the globe.