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Open access in Australia

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Open access (OA) has seen extensive growth in Australia since the first open access repository was launched in 2001.[1] There are Open Access policies at the two major research funders: The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and Australian Research Council (ARC) . Around half of Australian Universities have an OA policy or statement; most policies are for Green (repository based) OA and OA  has become a fundamental part of the scholarly publishing and research landscape in Australia. Open Access Australasia (formerly The Australasian Open Access Strategy Group; AOASG), the Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL), and the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) are advocates for Open Access and related issues in Australia.

History

Timeline of key events

2001: ANU became the Australia's first university to establish and open repository for ePrints[2]

2003: QUT became the first university in the world to mandate open access for all of its scholarly works[3]

2010: CAUL released a Statement on Open Scholarship and the Australian Government made a Declaration of Open Government.[4]

2012: The NHMRC's Open Access Policy took effect.[5]

2013: the ARC's policy took effect making all ARC Discovery projects from 2014 comply.

2014: ALIA adopted a full open access policy.[6]

2016: the Australian Productivity Commission released a report on the nation's Intellectual Property system which recommended that all Australian, State and Territory Governments "implement an open access policy for publicly-funded research".[7]

2017: a F.A.I.R. policy statement was released confirming the need to make Australia's publicly funded research outputs findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable, and endorsed by ALIA, APO, Open Data Institute, Creative Commons Australia, CAUL, National and State Libraries Australia, Knowledge Unlatched & Australasian Research Management Society.

Australian institutions were involved in some of the early developments in the Open Access movement, including the first university to mandate open access to its research outputs in 2003.[3] Australian research funding agencies introduced open access mandates in 2013-14, however caveats in these policies lead to low effect.[8] However as of 2020, Australian institutions lag behind those of other countries, especially Europe and Latin America.[9]

Advocacy

Open Access Australasia works to promote OA and the F.A.I.R principles.  It provides strategic advocacy and operational support to universities, research institutes, funders and government organisations. It is funded by members and hosted by Queensland University of Technology. It presents an annual webinar series on all matters involving OA and a monthly newsletter on OA news. ALIA, CAUL and Open Access Australasia, together with universities and libraries around Australia promote OA awareness and action during Open Access Week in October each year.

Publishing and hosting

According to the Directory of Open Access Journals 83 open access journals were published in Australia in 2018.[10]

According to Registry of Open Access Repositories, 79 open repositories were hosted in Australia in 2016.[11]

Policies

The most influential OA policies in Australia are those set by governmental research funders (the ARC, NHMRC, and MRFF) as well as individual universities and other research institutions. These policies vary widely, and are collated in a directory by Open Access Australasia.[12]

References

  1. ^ Kennan, M. A., & Kingsley, D. (2009). The state of the nation: A snapshot of Australian institutional repositories. First Monday, 14(2), 1-23.
  2. ^ Steele, Colin (2013-11-06). "Open access in Australia: an odyssey of sorts?". Insights. 26 (3): 282. doi:10.1629/2048-7754.91. ISSN 2048-7754.
  3. ^ a b "Welcome". Open Access and Research Conference 2013 (PDF). 2014-01-27. p. 1. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-01-27. Retrieved 2018-05-04.
  4. ^ "Declaration of Open Government | Department of Finance". Finance.gov.au. 2010-07-16. Archived from the original on 2018-06-14. Retrieved 2018-06-13.
  5. ^ "NHMRC Open Access Policy (previously also referred to as the NHMRC Policy on the Dissemination of Research Findings) | National Health and Medical Research Council". Nhmrc.gov.au. 2018-01-15. Archived from the original on 2018-03-29. Retrieved 2018-06-13.
  6. ^ "ALIA open access statement". Australian Library and information Association. 24 February 2014. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
  7. ^ Productivity Commission Inquiry. (2016). Intellectual Property Arrangements. Report Number 7. Recommendation 16.1, p.38
  8. ^ Montgomery, Lucy. "2020 locked in shift to open access publishing, but Australia is lagging". The Conversation. Retrieved 2021-05-01.
  9. ^ Huang, Chun-Kai (Karl); Neylon, Cameron; Hosking, Richard; Montgomery, Lucy; Wilson, Katie S; Ozaygen, Alkim; Brookes-Kenworthy, Chloe (2020-09-14). Deathridge, Julia; Rodgers, Peter; Kramer, Bianca (eds.). "Evaluating the impact of open access policies on research institutions". eLife. 9: e57067. doi:10.7554/eLife.57067. ISSN 2050-084X.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link)
  10. ^ DOAJ. "Directory of Open Access Journals". Retrieved 2018-06-16.
  11. ^ "Browse by Country - Registry of Open Access Repositories". roar.eprints.org. Retrieved 2020-07-17.
  12. ^ "Open Policies". Open Access Australasia. Retrieved 2021-05-01.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
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