Access to the Scientific literature in India

This paper uses an evidence-based approach to assess the difficulties faced by developing country
scientists in accessing the scientific literature. I compare backward citations patterns of Swiss and Indian
scientists in a database of 43'150 scientific papers published by scientists from either country in 2007.
Controlling for fields and quality with citing journal fixed effects, I find that Indian scientists (1) have
shorter references lists (2) are more likely to cite articles from open access journals and (3) are less
likely to cite articles from expensive journals. The magnitude of the effects is small which can be
explained by informal file sharing practices among scientists.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.