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August 2024: What’s in this issueWhat’s new in OA & scholarly publishing in Australia & Aotearoa New ZealandWhat’s new in OA & scholarly publishing globally
Recent writing & resources on OAUpcoming events in OA & scholarly publishing |
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Contributions to the newsletter or the blog, especially notice of upcoming events, are welcome. Contact us here. If this newsletter was forwarded to you and you’d like to receive it directly, please sign up |
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What’s new in OA & scholarly publishing in Australia & Aotearoa New Zealand |
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Breaking news!! Chief Scientist releases her advice to government on open access models Thursday August 29th 2024. The Chief Scientist has just released her advice to government on open access- Advice on open access models. Unlocking knowledge for national benefit. The document can be downloaded from the Australia’s Chief Scientist website “Under the public access model, open access agreements to research literature would be brokered with the publishers, big and small, through a single national negotiating body, and the agreements would extend access beyond the academic community to the wider Australian public.” Open Access Australasia will continue to be involved in discussions with the Chief Scientist about this model and will keep you updated on developments. |
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National Science Statement and Priorities out now! The Australian Government has released the new National Science Statement and National Science and Research Priorities outlining the long-term vision for Australia’s science and research system. Though not focusing explicitly on open research there are key statements of implicit support for open, such as a commitment to “Modernise our science agency systems and decision-making mechanisms, including to better support open science and cross disciplinary and cross institution collaborations.” (our emphasis) |
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Member only online course now set to trial self-paced participation OA101, our online introductory course to the basics of open access, has run as a structured, mediated course of 4 week duration through 5 iterations 2022-2024. We have received consistent feedback over these years that some members would like the ability to work through the modules at their own pace over a longer period of time. We are therefore trialling a self-paced version of the course. We will open the modules in mid/late September and keep them open (though password protected) for 2 months. During this time help will be available by email at any time and ‘drop in’ sessions will be scheduled each week for participants to access if they have questions, need help, or would just like to chat about the content. The registration form for the self-paced version of OA101 will be circulated next week. It will be necessary to register to receive the log in information as this course is not open to the general public. Not sure if your institution is a member? You can find out on our website Not a member but want to know how to join? Email contact@oaaustralasia.org or use the contact form on our website |
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What are you doing for OA Week 2024? OA week begins Monday October 21st. This year’s theme for OA Week is ‘Community over Commercialisation’ again as there is much more to be said on this topic which goes to the heart of open. Events can be tailored to any issue or region within this broad theme. We want to know what OA week event you are planning! Send your event details to contact@oaaustralasia.org and we will include it on our website. The OA Week 2024 Planning Committee is hard at work to bring you three events from Open Access Australasia this year. More will be revealed… |
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AuSCCoP The Australian Scholarly Communications Community of Practice (AuSCCoP) next meets on September 12th at 1pm AEST/3pm NZST. Please add your agenda items. If you would like to join the AuSCCoP and/or attend the next meeting please email contact@oaaustralasia.org AuSCCoP Diamond Open Access Publishing group. The Diamond group met on August 15th and featured lightning talks comparing open journal publishing platforms. Their next meeting will be October 17th at 1pm AEST/3pm NZST. More information about the Diamond Publishing group and how to join AuSCCoP Repositories group The next meeting will be held on September 19th at 1pm AEST/3pm NZST. For more information or to sign up to the group please email contact@oaaustralasia.org |
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What’s new in OA & scholarly publishing globally |
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SPARC Open Access 101 recordings available SPARC has been holding a three part series on open access designed to introduce those interested to the basics, then to build in some examples of practical approaches to OA, concluding with thoughts about OA’s future. These sessions have been held at a fairly unsociable hour for our timezone but the recordings for the first two parts are now available. The concluding session takes place on September 11th and we will share the recording in next month’s newsletter. Session 1: Foundations Session 2: Case Studies Session 3: Emerging Issues in OA |
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COAR becomes a signatory of the Barcelona Declaration on Research Information. The signatories of the Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information commit to taking a lead in transforming the way research information is used and produced – ”Openness of information about the conduct and communication of research must be the new norm” As a signatory of the Declaration, COAR commits to reforming the research landscape and transforming practice through: Making openness of research information the default Working with services and systems that support and enable open research information, Supporting the sustainability of infrastructures for open research information, and Working together to realize the transition from closed to open research information
For a list of signatories see the Barcelona Declaration website |
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OpenAPC dashboard provides international data on fees paid to publish open access. The OpenAPC initiative collects and disseminates datasets on fees paid for open access publishing on GitHub under an open database license. Data on Open Access journal articles (APCs), Open Access Books (BPCs) and data on articles published under transformative agreements are aggregated. All data is provided voluntarily by universities and other HEI, funders or national consortia. Check out the OpenAPC dashboard here |
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Retraction Dashboard provides visualisations of article retractions by country. The Retraction Dashboard takes its data from Retraction Watch, a blog that reports on retractions of scientific papers and on related topics “tracking retractions as a window into the scientific process.” The project is funded by Open Research Funders Group (ORFG) and features contributions from Dr. Moumita Koley, Dr. Achal Agrawal and Ayush Tripa. Check out the Retraction Dashboard here The current retraction crisis makes it even more essential that the research and peer review process be open and transparent as well as making open all types of research output. |
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Pricing framework to foster global equity in scholarly publishing “cOAlition S commissioned Information Power to explore how a globally fairer pricing framework for academic publishing could be devised and implemented. The key objective of this study was to identify ways in which readers and producers of scholarly publications or their proxies–research funders and universities–could financially contribute to supporting the academic publishing services valued by their research communities, as a function of their means, in a manner that is more equitable and sustainable.” |
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SCOSS Family of open infrastructures report back on their year of funding “Each year, we ask the current SCOSS Family infrastructures to provide brief summary reports of how funds received through SCOSS support were used. These reports offer valuable insight into infrastructures’ activities, achievements, and challenges.” |
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What we are reading: Keeping up with AI |
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Open research is the key to unlocking safer AI “The starting point to developing safe AI models is, we must understand what the model understands. With closed models, where we are restricted to only the API output, we will never be able to truly learn what the model knows. Without an understanding of what the model knows, how it’s leveraging data to formulate a response, and what data is in the model, we have no hope of conducting the research that is required to design and effectively regulate AI models.” |
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What we are watchingOctopus.ac: Free, fast & fair Octopus is a UKRI funded open research publishing platform where researchers can publish their work for free, without barriers. Designed to encourage a new culture of collaboration, fast sharing of work, and quality assessment, Octopus helps to incentivise best practice at every stage of the research process. |
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What we are listening toResearch talk: Open access monographs The transformative world of open access monographs with Anna Hughes, Dr Joe Deville and Lucy Barnes. |
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Upcoming events in OA & scholarly publishing |
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