The Shodhganga Repository

Abstract

Shodhganga is a digital repository of Indian electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) maintained by the INFLIBNET Centre, an autonomous Inter-University Centre of the University Grants Commission (UGC) of India. The repository was established to provide open access to Indian research scholars’ Ph.D. theses and dissertations, promoting visibility, accessibility, and preservation of Indian research output. Shodhganga aggregates ETDs from over 750 universities across India, providing a single platform for researchers to access and explore Indian research. Over 359,378 full-text theses and 8,657 synopses are currently available in Shodhganga. All ETDs are available online and downloadable in full text, promoting transparency and facilitating research collaboration. The repository supports various Indian languages, including Malayalam, Tamil, Gujarati, Sanskrit, Urdu, and Hindi, in addition to English.

Shodhganga assigns DOIs to the theses and dissertations it hosts, ensuring each document has a persistent and unique identifier. This practice enhances the discoverability and citability of academic works, aligning with international standards for scholarly communication.

It supports the integration of ORCID iDs for authors and researchers are encouraged to link their ORCID iDs to their profiles, facilitating accurate attribution and improving the traceability of their scholarly contributions.

Overview

Country	India
Start date	2011
Annual Budget	n/a
Responsible organisation(s)	Funding institution
Target group(s)	Higher education institutes|Students|Junior researchers
Policy instrument type	Information services and access to datasets

Background

Jury Choice e-INDIA Award 2011: Shodhganga received this prestigious award for its innovative approach to digital repository management.

Before Shodhganga, Indian universities lacked a centralized platform to archive and provide access to theses and dissertations. Many valuable research outputs were inaccessible, fragmented across institutions, or not preserved in digital formats. The University Grants Commission (UGC) sought to make Indian academic research more discoverable and accessible, aligning with global open-access initiatives. This is facilitated by Shodhganga.

The repository was originally created as part of a UGC initiative to address issues of plagiarism and unethical academic practices. Shodhganga integrates plagiarism-detection software like URKUND to ensure academic integrity.

Shodhganga was funded by the UGC, with financial and technical support provided to the INFLIBNET Centre for its development and implementation. It continues to be financed by the UGC as part of its support for the INFLIBNET Centre. Universities and institutions participating in Shodhganga may also contribute resources (e.g., staff and IT infrastructure) for digitizing and uploading theses.

Objective(s)

To advance open access to academic research in India

Public access URL

https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/

All tags

• Incentives & Rewards
• India
• 2011
• Funding institution
• Higher education institutes
• Students
• Junior researchers
• Information services and access to datasets
• Unique digital identifiers for citation and credit

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