Subbiah Arunachalam

Subbiah Arunachalam (b 1941) is a Chennai, India based information consultant known for his campaigns in favour of Open Access for academic journals in the "developing" countries. He has been associated with the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation. He has been called "India's and the Developing World's great advocate for open access".

Career

Linked with the Indian academic and scholarly communities for over three decades, Arunachalam has held posts of editor of scientific journals such as the Indian Journal of Technology, Journal of Scientific & Industrial Research, Indian Journal of Chemistry, Proceedings of the Indian Academy of Sciences, and Pramana.

In , Arunachalam described his career: "I started out as a student of chemistry, and after obtaining a Masters in Chemistry at Annamalai University in 1963, I took a research assistant’s job at the Central Electrochemical Research Institute, Karaikudi. I worked there for 21 months, doing research in electroplating.

"In May 1965, I moved to New Delhi, to work as an editorial assistant in the Publications & Information Directorate of the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR). Then in 1969, I took three years' leave to pursue research in physical chemistry at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore."

Arunachalam has said he has never taken a course in information science, but "simply developed a natural flair for some aspects of information science,...
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