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Research Cycle: Open Access

A step by step guide to the research process
What does Open Access mean?

Open Access  refers to the availability of research outputs via the internet, such that any users can find, freely access, read, share and reuse the research output.  Sharing and reuse is facilitated through open licensing. - NHMRC Open Access Policy, September 2022

Currently a review of changes to Open Access policy is being discussed by the Australian Chief Scientist - Dr Cathy Foley.

Read more about the project to make all Australian research available freely by open access here.

The video below provides more detail on

  • what  is included in the different levels of Open Access (green and gold access) ,
  • as well as an overview of creative commons licencing.  Refer to the Creative Commons Australia website for further information on this topic.
  • and discussing public funded research must be made freely available to the public. Refer to the NHMRC guidelines

  • Gold OA is when research is available as open access immediately from the publisher.
  • Authors usually retain copyright and the publisher may licence the work under a Creative Commons licence.
  • This model often requires the researcher, institution, or funding body pay a fee to the publisher in exchange for making it open access.

 

  • Green OA, also called the 'author self-archiving' model, involves making an approved version of a publication openly accessible in a repository, such as Deakin Research Online (DRO) or Monash University Repository
  • Most journals allow the author's accepted manuscript (or pre-print) of an article to be made OA in a repository, often after an embargo period. 

Open Access and Research Funders

Many research funding bodies have introduced an open access mandate as part of their grants process. These funding councils want to ensure that the findings of publicly funded research are made available to the general public as soon as possible.

Both the Australian Research Council and the National Health and Medical Research Council have open access policies that ensure that any publication arising, in whole or part, from ARC and NHMRC funding is made free available via an institutional repository within 12 months of the date or publication. Both organisations have some exemptions in place in regard to open access publishing. More information is available via their policy documents.

What are the benefits of Open Access

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