What’s new in OA & scholarly publishing globally General NewsUK Universities big deal with Elsevier
Universities in the UK have reached a 3-year agreement with Elsevier providing both unlimited open access publishing and access to paywalled journal articles for a significant reduction on current institutional spend. Jisc, who negotiated the deal, says it’s the world’s largest Open Access agreement with Elsevier and a major step in the transition towards full, equitable and affordable transition to open scholarship. Read more.
 Scottish Universities create OA press
Academic and research libraries across Scotland are working to establish and sustain an open access publishing platform, owned and managed by the 18 participating Institutions. The Scottish Universities Open Access Press (SUOAP) aims to provide a clear and cost-effective route for researchers to make their work freely available to a global audience, meeting the requirements of funders and realising the ambition to extend the impact of research across society. The project responds to developments in the OA landscape such as the publication of the UKRI Policy, REF requirements and the principles of Plan S. Read more.
New recommendations from Budapest Open Access Initiative at 20 years – BOAI20
The four new recommendations very much align with our principles. We hope they will provoke discussion, especially in relation to concerns many have raised about the increasing dominance of large commercial players in scholarly communication. Ginny Barbour was one of the panel of reviewers of the new recommendations. 
1. Host OA research on open infrastructure. Host and publish OA texts, data, metadata, code, and other digital research outputs on open, community-controlled infrastructure. Use infrastructure that minimizes the risk of future access restrictions or control by commercial organizations. Where open infrastructure is not yet adequate for current needs, develop it further. 2. Reform research assessment and rewards to improve incentives. Adjust research assessment practices for funding decisions and university hiring, promotion, and tenure decisions. Eliminate disincentives for OA and create positive new incentives for OA.
3. Favor inclusive publishing and distribution channels that never exclude authors on economic grounds. Take full advantage of OA repositories and no-APC journals (“green” and “diamond” OA). Move away from article processing charges (APCs).
4. When we spend money to publish OA research, remember the goals to which OA is the means. Favor models which benefit all regions of the world, which are controlled by academic-led and nonprofit organizations, which avoid concentrating new OA literature in commercially dominant journals, and which avoid entrenching models in conflict with these goals. Move away from read-and-publish agreements. Listen to a 2021 podcast discussing the BOAI.  To honour of the 20th anniversary of the BOAI, Scholastica has announced a new Fully Open Access Journal Publishing Toolkit and blog series where OA leaders share steps stakeholders can take to advance the BOAI principles.
 Planning underway for OASPA Conference
The OASPA 2022 conference planning committee has been finalised and work has begun on the program for this year’s annual conference to be held online 20-22 Sept. Read more.
US reintroduces OER textbook bill & approves $11m for OER pilot
US senators have reintroduced the Affordable College Textbook Act, a bill to expand the use and awareness of open educational resources at college and university campuses while also approving $11 million in new funding for the Open Textbook Pilot grant program. Both of these are key SPARC policy priorities. Read more.
Austria adopts Open Science policy
Austria has committed to the Open Science movement and the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) with the adoption of the Open Science Policy Austria.
Read more.
The future of scientific publishing: Action Plan
This project from the International Science Council explores the role of publishing in the scientific enterprise, asking how the scholarly publishing system can maximize benefit to global science and to wider audiences for scientific research. Read more.
New cOAlition S Rights Retention campaign
cOAlition S has launched an online campaign, under the theme “Publish with Power: Protect your rights“. The campaign aims to encourage researchers to retain their intellectual property rights, explains the steps they need to take and highlights the benefits for them and also for science and society. It includes a suite of resources about the Rights Retention Strategy.
Repositories COAR Annual Meeting open for registration.
This online and face to face meeting will be held 17-22 May, in Madrid and has been organised by the Spanish National Research Council. The meeting is open to all COAR members and is free to attend online. Read more.
ReportsImpact of predatory publishingA global network of more than 140 science, engineering and medical academies, the InterAcademy Partnership, has released a report “Combatting Predatory Academic Journals and Conferences“. The report found predatory journals and conferences are becoming increasingly sophisticated, impacting at least a million researchers & finding their way into trusted indexes. Recommendations on the Transformation of Academic PublishingThis report outlines recommendations by the German Science and Humanities Council and outlines three central arguments to support this transformation. Read report.US Research Libraries’ annual reportAssociation of Research Libraries has released its Annual Report 2021 | 
Last month our wonderful member institutions and partners came together for our AGM & Strategy meeting where Kim Tairi, the Kaitoha Puka (University Librarian) at Te Wānanga Aronui o Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland University of Technology) was unanimously elected as the new Chair of the Open Access Australasia Executive Committee. We really couldn’t do what we do without the support and expertise of our Executive Committee and we say thank you to our outgoing Chair, Martin Borchert (UNSW), and Executive Committee Members Donna McRostie (University of Melbourne), Fiona Burton (Macquarie University), Scott Nicholls (The University of Western Australia) Anne Scott (CONZUL & University of Canterbury Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha) and Maureen Sullivan (Griffith University). And we warmly welcome Kim and new Executive Committee Members, Fiona Bradley (UNSW), Dimity Flanagan (The University of Melbourne), Danny Kingsley (Flinders University), Michelle Blake (University of Waikato) and Claire Thorpe (Southern Cross University). Get to know our new Executive Committee 
Big birthday for ARDC’s Nectar 
