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June 2025: What’s in this issueWhat’s new in OA & scholarly publishing in Australia & Aotearoa New ZealandWhat’s new in OA & scholarly publishing globallyRecent 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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Open Access Australasia set to launch new online course!OA201 – our advanced course in open scholarship- will be presented in 4 modules tracing 4 main themes: Bibliodiversity: an essential ingredient for open scholarship. Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Governance: redefining assumptions behind open scholarship. Rights retention: the cornerstone of open scholarship. Artificial intelligence: implications for open scholarship.
These 4 dimensions reflect both the promise and complexity of openness—balancing accessibility and innovation with responsibility and equity. The modules will explore the dynamic interplay between openness, diversity, rights, and technology, and how these elements are collectively shaping the future of scholarship. Module 1, The bigger picture for Open Access is set to launch in July 2025. It introduces the 4 themes, providing definitions, background and context. Invitations for a launch event for this module will be sent in the coming weeks. Please note that at this time both OA101 and OA201 are available to Open Access Australasia members only. Access for members is free. Interested in joining OAA? See our member benefits and infographic Our Value and get in touch contact@oaaustralasia.org |
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OA Week 2025: Planning Committee gets to work on 2025 theme “Who owns our knowledge” |
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OAA’s 10 person committee is already meeting to brainstorm ideas for our OA Week events. If you have ideas for us send them along! “This year’s theme asks a pointed question about the present moment and how, in a time of disruption, communities can reassert control over the knowledge they produce. It also challenges us to reflect on not only who has access to education and research but on how knowledge is created and shared, where it has come from, and whose voices are recognized and valued.” SPARC What will your institution do for this year’s OA Week? As always we can list and promote your institution’s events on our website. |
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“Implications, there are a few. Trying to make sense of all of this.” Blog by Danny Kingsley. |
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Danny Kingsley, Director, Library Services (Information) at Deakin University, and well known to all of us in the open access community, has posted this blog as a companion piece to two talks she gave recently, one for the Australian Scholarly Communications Community of Practice (AuSCCoP) (recording here) Danny takes us through the major disruptions academic libraries and publishers are facing from funding cuts, political interference, and rapid technological change, especially with the rise of AI, which is transforming how research is accessed and trusted. In this uncertain environment, libraries are urged to lead proactively by investing in open infrastructure and rethinking their role in connecting users to information, rather than waiting for stability. |
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Aotearoa’s Crown Research Institutes merged into new structure.Three new future-focused science organisations have been established by merging and refocusing Aotearoa New Zealand’s seven Crown Research Institutes. The three Public Research Organisations (PROs) will continue as Crown entity companies. A fourth, new PRO will be established to focus on advanced technology. |
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AuSCCoP The Australian Scholarly Communications Community of Practice (AuSCCoP) is calling for EOI for a third convener while one of the current conveners is on extended leave. Register your interest here. AuSCCoP will be holding a watch party on July 3rd at 1pm AEST/3pm NZST showing the SPARC webcast OA, Attribution, and Addressing Faculty AI Concerns. Register via this link. Next meeting will be Thursday July 10th. More information and how to join AuSCCoP Diamond Open Access Publishing group. At the last meeting on June 19th Hamid Jamali, Simon Wakeling and Edward Luca presented an update from their research on the sustainability of Australian journals; Max Sullivan and Nik Crombie from Victoria University of Wellington presented a Lightning Talk: 10 Years Supporting OJS and Diamond Journals. Summaries can be found in the groups notes. The group next meets August 21st. More information about the Diamond Publishing group and how to join. AuSCCoP Repositories group The next meeting is scheduled for July 17th. Co-convener Sarah Brundrett will present on repositories and cybersecurity. More information about the Repository group and how to join. Aotearoa Scholarly Communications CoP Information about all six of the Aotearoa groups can now be found on OAA’s website find out more and sign up for meetings The subgroups will be reporting on their activities to the main CoP later in the year. |
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What’s new in OA & scholarly publishing globallyA trio of stories from the US: |
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National Institutes of Health’s new OA Policy goes live.From 1 July, researchers funded by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) will be required to make their scientific papers available to read for free as soon as they are published in a peer-reviewed journal. The updated policy is a response to the Nelson Memo of 2022 which requires all US federal agencies to update their public access policies so that publications and supporting data resulting from federally funded research are made freely and immediately available to the public. Nature explains how authors can comply in this “news explainer” and the Authors Alliance have published this Q&A for Authors |
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OSTP issues implementation guidance for restoring gold standard scienceThe White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy has issued implementation guidance to agencies on how to implement the US Executive Order “Restoring Gold Standard Science” . Agencies have 60 days to write their implementation strategies, submit them to government and make them public on their websites. Plans must address the ways in which they will implement Gold Standard Science, plus ways to monitor adherence, train staff, integrate technology including AI, and document progress. The 9 principles of Gold Standard Science outlined in the EO include open science practices like transparency, open data, and standardized metadata, but concerns remain about the centralisation of control under political appointees. Thanks to SPARC for timely updates on these developments. |
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Trump admin cuts contracts with Springer NatureThe Trump administration has terminated millions worth of funding for Springer Nature. “All contracts with Springer Nature are terminated or no longer active. Precious taxpayer dollars should not be used on unused subscriptions to junk science” a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services was reported as saying by Axios |
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Unfair publisher fees for deposit into repositories highlight the need for authors to exercise their rightsSome major publishers, such as the American Chemical Society and IEEE, have begun charging authors fees to deposit their author accepted manuscripts (AAMs) into open access repositories—a practice that undermines long-standing norms and makes it harder and more expensive for researchers to comply with funder open access policies. COAR strongly objects to these arbitrary fees, arguing they disadvantage unfunded authors, amount to double-dipping, and restrict the ability of institutions to provide open access to research. This statement urges authors to retain their rights, avoid signing over copyright, and encourages funders and institutions to adopt rights retention policies and invest in alternative, non-profit publishing systems. Open Access Australasia fully supports and endorses COAR’s stance against unfair publisher fees for depositing manuscripts into open access repositories. Their call for authors to retain their rights and for funders and institutions to back non-profit publishing models is a fair and necessary step to ensure research remains accessible and affordable for everyone with which OAA fully concurs. |
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Nature moves immediately to open peer reviewNature has announced that, starting June 2025, all newly published research articles will automatically include the full peer review file—containing reviewers’ reports and author responses. This move aims to increase transparency, allowing the scientific community and the public to see the discussions that shaped each paper, and is intended to build trust in the scientific process by opening up what is often seen as the “black box” of science. Reviewers can still choose to remain anonymous, but their comments will be published alongside the article. |
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2025 State of Open Infrastructure Report The report from Knowledge Rights 21 examines how copyright law can both hinder and enable Open Science in Europe, focusing on Slovenia, Italy, and Croatia. It finds that, despite political support for Open Science, national copyright laws often create significant barriers—such as requirements for unanimous co-author consent, unwaivable rights to remuneration, and restrictive publisher rights—that make it difficult for researchers to share and reuse scientific work openly. The report also identifies legal provisions that help Open Science, like Slovenia’s rights retention and secondary publishing rights, but concludes that a lack of harmonization and outdated copyright frameworks continue to limit the full realization of Open Science’s potential. |
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Moving OA forward: From transformation to collective responsibility Conference report from the 17th Berlin Open Access Conference, 5–6 February 2025. |
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From Rapid Release to Reinforced Elite: Citation Inequality Is Stronger in Preprints than JournalsChiaki Miura, Ichiro Sakata. “As preprints increasingly serve as an independent medium for scholarly communication rather than precursors to the version of record, it remains uncertain how preprint usage is shaping scientific discourse. Our research revealed that the preprint citations exhibit significantly higher inequality than journal citations, consistently among categories.” |
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Decolonizing the Colonizer: Indigenous Education as the Foundation for Mainstream Teacher Education in Hawaiʻi and Aotearoa New ZealandJessica Worchel “This research study provides guidance on how to accelerate the decolonization and indigenization of mainstream teacher education programs (TEPs) to intentionally ground in Indigenous knowledge systems and practices. The research also further clarifies the role of non-Indigenous kumu/kaiako (educators) in supporting Indigenous resurgence efforts, offering context, content, and strategies for us to serve as transformational allies.” |
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Insights: the UKSG journalThis journal’s mission is “to connect the information community and encourage the exchange of ideas on scholarly communication” to “provide a forum for the communication and exchange of ideas between the many stakeholders in the global knowledge community” and to “disseminate news, information and publications, and raise awareness of services that support the scholarly information sector.” Much great content in here! |
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Data Commons Can Save Open AIAlek Tarkowski Recent progress in open datasets shows promise for building fully open AI models without legal constraints. This post from The New Stack, argues that data commons—shared, collaboratively governed pools of high-quality, openly licensed datasets—are essential for the future of open, equitable AI. By making diverse datasets accessible for public-interest AI development, data commons can reduce reliance on proprietary or exploitative data sources, help address bias, and ensure that AI benefits are more widely distributed. The piece emphasizes that building and supporting data commons is crucial to counter the growing concentration of data and power among a few tech giants, and to promote responsible, transparent, and community-driven AI innovation. |
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AI-mediated translation presents two possible futures for academic publishing in a multilingual worldTatsuya Amano, Lynne Bowker, Andrew Burton-Jones “As the availability and performance of artificial intelligence for language editing and translation continues to improve, we can imagine a future in which everyone can use their own language to write, assess, and read science.” |
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Hybrid Horizons: Exploring Human-AI CollaborationCarlo Iacono Hybrid Horizons is a blog on Substack that explores the intersection of human creativity and artificial intelligence. Curated by Carlo Iacono, University Librarian at Charles Sturt University, each post is a collaborative creation between human and AI, offering insights, thought experiments, and discussions on the ethical, philosophical, and practical dimensions of human-AI collaboration and digital innovation. Really insightful and entertaining reading. |
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Challenges & Opportunities: GenAI & Open Educational ResourcesA presentation from the 2025 Library Publishing Forum. This engaging session explores how generative AI (GenAI) is transforming the landscape of open educational resources (OER) and academic libraries. Presenters from the University of British Columbia discuss real-world examples of GenAI being used to create and adapt OER, highlight the opportunities and risks of integrating AI tools into teaching and learning, and reflect on the policy and ethical questions facing libraries and educators. The webinar offers practical insights and thoughtful discussion on the future of open education in the age of AI. |
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New Podcast: Big Open Science Podcast“The Big Open Science Podcast focuses on the topic of Open Science within the context of the humanities and social sciences. It explores the theoretical, practical, and infrastructural aspects of Open Science, addressing key questions such as its ethical foundations, its global and institutional practices, or open research infrastructures.” |
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Opening the monograph door: How Copim is making OA books more of a realityThis podcast provides “publishing advice, insight and inspiration” for early career researchers. In this episode the host talks to Kevin Saunders, Open Access Engagement Lead, Copim/Open Book Collective. |
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Upcoming events in OA & scholarly publishing |
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