July/August 2022 Newsletter

What’s new in OA & scholarly publishing in Australia & Aotearoa New Zealand
What’s new in OA & scholarly publishing globally
Recent writing & resources on OA
Upcoming events in OA & scholarly publishing

Welcome to our newest member
We are thrilled to announce our new associate member the Australian Citizen Science Association (ACSA). The member-based, incorporated association seeks to advance citizen science through the sharing of knowledge, collaboration, capacity building and advocacy. ACSA is funded by a Commonwealth Government grant through the Inspiring Australia Program, with the purpose of supporting citizen science in Australia in partnership with the University of Sydney.

For regular news updates, check our Twitter account 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.

What’s new in OA & scholarly publishing in Australia & Aotearoa New Zealand

NZ calls for national approach: OAA Chair Kim Tiari
Dr Tom Saunders’ report, The Future is Open is now available on the Office of Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor website. I am fortunate to have seen this report in different iterations and thrilled that it is published. Many of us in the sector are excited and encouraged by the report, as it recommends a national approach to open access (OA). It is a comprehensive look at the current state of OA in Aotearoa New Zealand and the recommendations in Tom’s own words “…lay the foundations for a long-term OA strategy in Aotearoa New Zealand.” Aspirational and pragmatic it calls on the research sector, government and funders to embrace open access. Both the Council of New Zealand University Librarians and the Research Committee of Universities New Zealand are working jointly on a two OA projects and these projects are informed by this report’s rallying cry: The Future is Open!

Australian Chief Scientist: “Structural change required”
Speaking at the launch of The Innovation Papers for this month, Australia’s Chief Scientist, Dr Cathy Foley, spoke on a panel discussing Australia’s long-running research translation and commercialisation challenge. Dr Foley said there are still significant roadblocks for Australian academics looking to commercialise research. “It’s like jumping off a cliff and waving goodbye – hopefully you have a parachute and you don’t hit the ground. We need a structural change in the way we measure what success looks like for our academics.” Read more.

Importance of bibliodiversity in OA
Our own Dr Ginny Barbour wrote this feature article for Campus Morning Mail Open access research repositories provide diversity and innovation publishers can’t match – they have a critical role in archiving, preserving and sharing the diverse content produced by universities

Supporting equity & diversity within scholarly communications: the role of the DOAJ
If you haven’t already, please register for our next webinar on September 13th, presented by the wonderful leadership team from the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), Joanne Ball & Leena Shah. #OAWebinar

What’s new in OA & scholarly publishing globally

USA policy for public access to research

In a significant policy move, the Biden administration has announced that by the end of 2025 all taxpayer-funded research must be made freely and publicly accessible, along with associated data. The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) updated US policy guidelines to make the results of taxpayer-supported research immediately available to the American public at no cost. Head of the OSTP, Dr Alondra Nelson, says “when research is widely available to other researchers and the public, it can save lives, provide policymakers with the tools to make critical decisions, and drive more equitable outcomes across every sector of society.” The timeline gives agencies, researchers, publishers, and scholarly societies some flexibility on when to adapt to the new policies. Open Access Australasia wholeheartedly welcomes this change in policy and makes this statement of support. Director, Dr Ginny Barbour has written articles for Campus Morning Mail & The Conversation discussing the significance of the US decision.
Reaction to the news has been overwhelmingly positive (except from some of traditional publishers). Here’s a selection from around the world:

Open Access Week 2022

Planning is well underway for #OAWeek22. This year we will be continuing with the format which has proved so successful over the past two years, with a number of expert panels and speaker events held online via zoom across the week. Topics include climate justice in the Pacific & supporting vulnerable communities, understanding climate science data, climate journalism & open science, citizen science, open access myths, tackling climate (in)justice, Wikimedia collaborations for knowledge sharing and hacking a guide to open climate resources for teachers. Registrations will open closer to Open Access week but the full program of events are up on our new Open Access Week 2022 webpage. We also have a place on our site to list external events from around the region. If you are planning one, please send the details of your event to sandra@oaaustralasia.org

General News

FinELib & OLH strike 3-year deal
The consortium of Finnish universities, research institutions and public libraries (FinELib) and the not-for-profit Open Library of Humanities have signed a three-year deal providing support for OLH through its Library Partnership Subsidy Model. The partnership with OLH is FinELib’s first with a scholar-led diamond OA publisher. Journals that have joined OLH include Glossa: a journal of general linquistics, Ethnologia Europaea, Architectural Histories as well as OLH’s flagship journal, the multidisciplinary Open Library of Humanities Journal. Read more.

Millions of images from Ebony and Jet Magazines to become OA

The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) and the Getty Research Institute have taken ownership of the collections and plans to preserve and facilitate public access. The archive includes over four million prints and negatives, which up until now have been widely inaccessible to the public. The Getty Trust is further committing $30 million to the organization and digitization of the archive, which will allow researchers easier access. Read more.

Call for monkeypox research to be made OA
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) has joined the global science community in calling on publishers to make all monkeypox-related research immediately available to the public. Our friends at SPARC have called on the White House to go further and make ALL research immediately available to the public. Read more.

Repositories

Transformative agreements are not the key to open access
Executive Director of the Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR), Kathleen Shearer, wrote an article for the Times Higher Education blog questioning the path ahead for read & publish agreements, and says without a fuller embrace of repositories the transition will be slow, partial and siloed.

EU: Facts and Figures for open research data
The European Commission has released figures and case studies related to accessing and reusing the data produced in the course of scientific production. Read more.

Job@open

Wikimedia Australia seeking Executive Officer
An exciting opportunity to join a national association and global open knowledge movement at a time of organisational growth and major new initiatives. Wikimedia Australia is the Australian chapter of the international Wikimedia Foundation. As an independent, not-for-profit organisation and registered charity, we support our members, the broader community and partner organisations to contribute to Wikipedia, Wikidata and other Wikimedia platforms through events, training and partnerships. More information here.

Recent writing & resources on OA

What we’re reading

University league tables have no legs to stand on – by Adrian Barnett & Elizabeth Gadd

A Possible Fix For Scientific (and Academic) Publishing – Daniel Bingham, Peer Review blog

Upcoming events in OA & scholarly publishing

17-21 October Brisbane

28-30 November Melbourne

AIMOS (the Association for Interdisciplinary Meta-Research and Open Science) Conference 2022 seeks to advance the interdisciplinary field of meta-research by bringing together and supporting researchers in that field.

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.

Newsletter Sign Up

Get Involved

Find out more