Welcome to the Open Access Australasia website

January / Febrary Newsletter

 
What’s new in OA & scholarly publishing in AU & NZ 
What’s new in OA & scholarly publishing globally
Recent writing & resources on OA
Upcoming events in OA & scholarly publishing
  
Happy New Lunar Year. It’s great to be back on deck for what is already looking like another exciting year in Open Access. Our first webinar for 2022 will be on Tuesday, February 8th with a review of 2021 and a look ahead to 2022. Register here.  Our AGM and Strategy meeting for members will be on February 25. If your organisation isn’t a member and would like to join get in touch with us.
 
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What’s new in OA & scholarly publishing in AU & NZ


Research underway on persistent identifiers
The MoreBrains Cooperative, supported by the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) and Australian Access Federation (AAF) are conducting a cost-benefit analysis of the impact of PIDs on Australian research. It follows a UK analysis which found a national PID consortium could save universities millions of dollars. A report is expected in mid-year.  Read more.

UNSW OA action makes CMM
UNSW’s revised Open Access Policy was described as a “smart and targeted move” by the Campus Morning Mail and we agree. The policy requires OA immediately on publication with no embargo. It can be the author’s accepted manuscript or published version. Authors must declare this requirement when submitting to a journal.

Australia’s Chief Scientist on Open Access
Dr Cathy Foley spoke at the Research Support Community Day 2022  on her vision for open access in Australia. 

What to expect from post-pandemic publishing? 
Ginny Barbour was featured in an article by Fiona McIntyre in Research Professional News entitled, What to expect from post-pandemic publishing

 

What’s new in OA & scholarly publishing globally

 

General News


Creative Commons $1m grant
The grant was made in honour of of the organisation’s 20th anniversary by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.  CC CEO Catherine Stihler said the money will be used over three years for general operating support and “will ensure open access and better sharing for all – not only those with privilege”. Read more.

DORA governance changes
Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) initiative has made changes to its governance procedures to include broader representation in their governance groups. The changes include:

  • distributing power outside outside of Europe and North America on the Steering Committee
  • reducing financial barriers for organisations in developing or transitional economies that wish to support DORA.
  • ensure leadership positions on the Steering Committee reflect the wide diversity of academia.
A word from Open Science Champions: UNESCO
With the adoption of the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science (see Open Access Australasia’s recent statement) six experts share their perspectives in this short YouTube video.
 
opening image of youtube video a word from open science champions
 

German Science Council demands Open Access
The (Wissenschaftsrat) Council has called for open and free access to scientific publications saying the faster and more widely research results are disseminated, the faster other scientists can build on them. The statement aims to ensure the final versions (version of record) of scientific publications are kept immediately, permanently, at the original place of publication and under an open license (CC BY). This “paradigm shift” has been welcomed by PLOS who encourage, however, the council to accommodate the developing Open Science ecosystem and not just focus on published Open Access versions of record.

White House report on Presidential memo
In January the  White House Office of Science & Technology Policy (OSTP) released a report on scientific integrity in response to a Presidential Memo on Restoring Trust in Science. The report assesses current agency policies related to scientific integrity and makes recommendations for additional steps the US government should take to ensure public trust in science. One of the recommendations related to transparency in communicating science. The report also recommends agencies allow researchers to post manuscripts as preprints once they have cleared agency review.

New index of 200 million scientific docs
The OpenAlex database has been created by Canadian non-profit OurResearch in response to the closure of Microsoft’s Academic Graph (MAG). OpenAlex describes scholarly entities and how they are connected to each other. It is integrated with Unpaywall & draws data from sources including ORCID, Crossref & Wikidata identifiers. 
 

Plan S


2021 Annual Review
This report gives an overview of activities over the past year and provides the levels of OA compliance among cOAlition S funders. It also showcases the tools and services being developed, and outlines support for new publishing models, highlighting the
progress on the Transformative Journals framework, reaction to the Rights Retention Strategy, and how small society publishers are moving to Open Access. Read Report.
 

Preprints


ASAPbio: FAST principles for Preprint
Preprint server ASAPBio has developed a set of principles underpinning a positive and constructive approach to preprint feedback: the FAST principles. The 14 principles encompass four themes (see below). Read more.



Two Million milestone for arXiv.org
In what began as an email list for physicists in 1989, ArXiv preprint server has now grown to more than two million papers – reaching the milestone on January 3. Read more. 

COAR collaborates on plan to launch preprint directory
The Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe (CCSD) of France and the Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR) have announced a collaboration to launch a directory of open access preprint repositories. The directory will build on the outcomes of a project undertaken by the French Committee for Open Science (Preprints Platforms Project). The preprint directory will be publicly available in the spring of 2022. Read more.

New Academic Framework from LERU
The framework aims to reward and recognize a diversity of profiles and contributions and recognises that this ” is in line with the cultural transformation that is part of the Open Science movement and with several national initiatives on reward and recognition.” Read more

 

Recent writing & resources on OA 


Recent blogs from our site

Kicking off OA advocacy in 2022: Resources for OA advocates to use and adapt
 

What we’re reading

Guest Post — Does Open Access Cannibalize Print Sales for Monographs? – Guest post by John Sherer on the Scholarly Kitchen

Scholarly communication competencies: An analysis of confidence among Australasian library staff – AAM of paper to be published in College and Research Libraries

Tracking changes between preprint posting and journal publication during a pandemic – PLOS Biology 

Eight components for ‘open social science’ – An agenda for cultural change – LSE Impact Blog
 
 
 

Upcoming events in OA & scholarly publishing


Open Science Practices in Education Research
Thursday, February 24 & Friday, February 25

 




May 16-19 2022 Canberra

 

 

 

June 6-9 2022 Denver

 

 

Want more OA news?
 
We can’t cover everything here!  This is a curated list of items that caught our eye and/or which seem especially relevant to OA in this region. For daily updates the best source is the Open Access Tracking Project or if you prefer to be more selective, our Twitter account, which has posts throughout each day.

The newsletter archive provides snapshots of key issues throughout the year. Other ways to keep in touch with discussions at Open Access Australasia include joining our community of practice calls.
 
Follow us via twitter @openaccess_anz  or online at  https://oaaustralasia.org/
 
Please get in touch if you have ideas for the newsletter
or on anything to do with Open Access in Australasia.
 
Newsletter compiled by Sandra Fry and Virginia Barbour, Open Access Australasia.

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