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| | Nov/Dec 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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| | | | What’s new in OA & scholarly publishing in Australia & Aotearoa New Zealand |
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| | Happy Holidays from Open Access Australasia! We hope our readers have had a successful and productive year. It has certainly been a momentous year for Open Access Australia. We ‘refreshed’ and reorganised our website, welcomed 3 new members to the Executive Committee at our AGM in March, launched our new advanced online course in open scholarship, OA201, convened our inaugural Members Forum, cohosted with COAR and CAUL a meeting of key stakeholders from the sector to discuss shared open infrastructure for repositories, and held our usual week of events for OA week 2025. We would like to extend heartfelt thank you to our members without whose support we would not be able to do the work that we do, and also to thank the broader open access community for continuing to collaborate, share and advocate for equitable scholarship in Australasia. All the best for the comng year! The OAA Executive Committee and staff. |
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| | | Australia & Aotearoa New Zealand repository meeting.On October 17, 2025, COAR and Open Access Australasia co-hosted a meeting on shared repository infrastructure, moderated by Martin Borchert and Kathleen Shearer. The discussion focused on the evolving repository landscape in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand and the growing international movement toward shared platforms. Read COAR’s summary of the meeting. International models of shared repositories were shared via video by speakers from Portugal, France and Canada. |
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| | | | CAUL successfully negotiates read and publish deals for 2026.CAUL has successfully concluded in-principle Read & Publish agreements for 2026 with Taylor & Francis, and with Springer Nature and Wiley, negotiated collaboratively with Universities Australia and Universities New Zealand. These deals provide open access publishing in both hybrid and gold journals, eliminating article processing charges for eligible authors at participating institutions starting January 2026. These agreements deliver key advantages for CAUL members over previous deals, including uncapped open access in hybrid journals, expanded gold journal allocations across publishers, and no APCs for eligible authors. BREAKING NEWS! Just announced on December 16th CAUL has also reached in principle agreement with Elsevier. Negotiations had been paused and universities were bracing for losing access. Congratulations to the CAUL, UA and UNZ team for successfully concluding these agreements with the major publishers. |
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| | | | Aleisha Amohia & Chris Cormack, Catalyst IT, present at NDF25.This presentation at the National Digital Forum 2025 explores how Māori values and data sovereignty can reshape our approach to library systems and cultural stewardship. Describing the evolution of Koha, the world’s first open source library management system (born in Aotearoa), the presentation explores examples of technology embodying kaupapa Māori principles. |
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| ARDC Year in Review 2025.ARDC’s 2025 Year in Review highlights transformative advances in national research data infrastructure, including the launch of five new projects under the People Research Data Commons and establishment of key communities of practice. The organization accelerated innovation through enhanced digital skills programs, PID benchmarking tools, and support for open data initiatives like the National PID Strategy. These efforts positioned Australian researchers for greater competitiveness and impact in data-driven discovery. |
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| | | ALIA National Conference May 11-14 2026: Keynote speakers. |
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| | An impressive collection of keynote speakers for the ALIA National Conference 2026 conference have now been confirmed. The ALIA National Conference is the flagship event for the Australian Library and Information Association, bringing together library and information professionals from all sectors and career stages. |
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| | | | | Wikimedia Australia signs the Open Heritage Statement.Wikimedia Australia (WMAU) has proudly signed the Open Heritage Statement (OHS), joining organisations around the world in calling for equitable access to public domain cultural heritage in the digital environment. By signing this statement, WMAU reinforces its commitment to open access and to the free exchange of knowledge. This includes supporting initiatives that allow people to engage with, build upon and benefit from our shared cultural record. |
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| | | | AuSCCoP The Australian Scholarly Communications Community of Practice (AuSCCoP) warmly welcomes two new co-conveners for 2026. Lyndall Holstein, Charles Sturt University, and Kristie Jones, University of the Sunshine Coast, will be joining Tracey Cunningham to head up the meetings next year. Many thanks to Em and Bronwen for all their work with the group over the past two years. If you are a CoP member please consider taking a moment to respond to the 2025 AuSCCoP Survey to give your feedback and help shape the focus and format of the group next year. The meeting schedule for 2026 will be announced soon. More information and how to join AuSCCoP Diamond Open Access Publishing group. The group is pleased to announce a new co-convenor for 2026 to join Caitlin and Tracy – Lucy Walton, Western Sydney University (WSU). Many thanks to Zac Kendall for all his work as co-convenor over the last two years. More information about the Diamond Publishing group and how to join. AuSCCoP Repositories group Please join members in congratulating our new co-convenors, Allison Brown, University of Melbourne and Lucie Goudie, CQU. Thank you to everyone who lodged an EOI. Liz and Keely would also like to extend many thanks and gratitude to Sarah Brundrett for all the tireless work, time and energy she put into the group as a founding co-convenor. 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 |
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| | What’s new in OA & scholarly publishing globally |
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| | Advent Calendar 2025This is a special Advent calendar designed to highlight problems and inconsistencies in academic papers and scientific journals. Each day, a new case will be published, and your task is to spot the problem. |
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| | | | cOAlition S Strategy 2026-2030 “The coalition is defining a new strategy plan and governance structure to take its work on open access forward. This strategy is guided by a refreshed, shared vision: a scholarly communication system that enables rapid, open, transparent, and equitable sharing of trustworthy scientific knowledge.” For a summary see cOAlition S reinforces Open Access commitment while advancing next strategic phase For commentary see After Coalition S disrupted scientific publishing, new plan retreats from strict requirements which argues the new strategy focuses on promoting alternative, scholar-led and low-cost publishing models, transparency of fees, and reform of research assessment, but without strong new spending commitments or enforcement tools, leaving some observers disappointed by the reduced disruptiveness. |
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| | | | SCOSS Expression of Interest 2026Having raised over €7.4 million to sustain vital, non-commercial infrastructure and services within the Open Science community; the Global Sustainability Coalition for Open Science Services (SCOSS) is searching for new potential candidate organisations to fund during the 2026 to 2028 SCOSS funding cycle. We welcome applications from across the world: particularly from Asia and Africa, although all regions are invited to apply. |
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| | | | Open Access in Asia: Regional perspectives.The DOAJ webinar on Open Access in Asia (November 7, 2025), led by Senior Ambassador Vrushali Dandawate, highlighted rapid OA growth across Indonesia, Pakistan, India, and China, with 55% of Asia’s 5,500 indexed journals being Diamond OA (no APCs). Indonesia leads in Diamond OA but faces sustainability issues; Pakistan advances via training despite infrastructure gaps; India boasts platforms like Shodhganga amid predatory journal challenges; and China drives policy-led OA with 481 indexed journals. Common needs include training, funding, national policies, and cross-border collaboration to boost quality and visibility. The blog also includes links to slides and the video recording. |
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| | | | Diamond Open Access Starter toolKit (DO.ASK)The Diamond Open Access Starter toolKit (DO.ASK) is an online FAQ handbook guiding institutional publishing service providers through creating and maintaining Diamond OA platforms, covering general startup advice and platform-specific topics. Created by DIAMAS (Marc Bria, Isabella Meinecke, Hanna Varachkina, Antti-Jussi Nygård, Nino Katic, Cezary Rosiński, Nikodem Wołczuk, Drahomira Cupar), it supports platform managers and technical staff. Its purpose is to address common questions for sustainable Diamond OA services, available in web, PDF, and ePub formats for flexible reference |
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| | | | Integrating Choices in Open Standards: CC Signals and the RSL StandardCreative Commons collaborated with the Real Simple Licensing (RSL) Collective to integrate attribution and a new “contribution” component into the RSL 1.0 standard (launched September 2025), enabling publishers to set machine-readable terms for bot access to content, including credit and good-faith reinvestments like donations or open data sharing. This “pay-to-crawl” approach addresses AI extraction from the web by balancing open access with reciprocity, distinguishing transactional fees from ecosystem support amid power imbalances between AI developers and content creators. |
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| | | | | COAR: Strategic Analysis of the Scholarly Communications Landscape.by Kathleen Shearer. This report overviews the socio-political landscape shaping scholarly communications and highlights major forces poised to impact repositories in coming years, informing COAR’s next strategy. Drawing from an August/September 2025 member survey, literature review, expert consultations, and Executive Board feedback, it identifies volatile trends affecting open science and repositories over the next three years. |
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| | | | | IOI’s year in review.Invest in Open Infrastructure (IOI) launches its 2025 Impact Report, highlighting progress amid global research challenges through proactive governance, sustainable models, and cross-sector collaboration. Key achievements include channeling US$3M to open infrastructure in Africa and Latin America, expanding Infra Finder to over 110 infrastructures, and creating tools for accurate public access cost assessments. |
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| | | | Emerging practices in research assessment: Cross case analysis of 10 international funders.David Budtz Pedersen, Ulrik Gensby, Jonas Hedegaard, Olivia Karlsson Hansen, Josephine Bøgen Theilgaard, Kathrine Bjerg Bennike. This report analyzes research assessment practices across 10 international funders, including both public agencies land private foundations, using a framework covering peer review processes, metrics use, Open Science policies, diversity, and governance. It highlights trends toward qualitative evaluation and responsible research assessment (RRA) in alignment with the approaches advocated by DORA. and CoARA. Key findings show all prioritize expert peer review over journal metrics, with varying OA mandates and growing focus on research culture, equity, and diverse outputs. |
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| | | | | Black open access: shadow libraries and text piracyZakayo Kjellström, Doctoral thesis, 2025. This dissertation analyzes Black Open Access as a response to inequities in academic publishing, revealing shadow libraries like Sci-Hub and Library Genesis as robust ecosystems with their own infrastructure, norms, and “Pirate LOCKSS” preservation strategies. Employing netnography, computational methods, and text analysis, it reveals how these platforms legitimize piracy through gamification, quasi-legal frameworks, and moral arguments for knowledge democratization amid institutional barriers. |
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| | | | Chaos is coming for scholarly publishing.Dr Edwards argues that scholarly publishing is heading into a period of major disruption as funders and researchers push back against expensive, opaque commercial models and call for systemic reform. It highlights the Stockholm Declaration’s proposals to redirect open access funding from profit-driven publishers to non-profit, researcher-led platforms, with authors retaining copyright and costs removed for both readers and authors. The piece warns that shifting financial flows, evolving research assessment, and the rise of questionable and AI-generated content will create short-term “chaos” but could ultimately rebalance power toward the academic community. |
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| | | | For Researchers in the Humanities, Is Open Really Fair?By Lai Ma and Claire Davin “The open movement claims to include all disciplines. But it is profoundly shaped by the institution of science, leaving humanities researchers at risk.” |
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| | | | | New preprint server welcomes papers written & reviewed by AIBy Celina Zhao This article profiles aiXiv, a new preprint platform that explicitly welcomes AI-written papers and uses multiple large language model “agents” as built‑in reviewers to assess novelty, technical soundness, and impact. It positions aiXiv as a response to overloaded human peer review and inconsistent journal policies on AI, but experts warn about risks of superficial or fraudulent research and the danger of the site becoming a low‑quality dumping ground. |
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| | | | How AI Browsers Sneak Past Blockers and PaywallsOpenAI’s Atlas and Perplexity’s Comet present a new challenge for media companies that want to limit AI access. |
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| | | | Shell Game, season 2, by Evan Ratliff*podcast of the year!*“Season 2 tells the story of enterprise and entrepreneurship in the AI age or how Evan tried to build a real start up run by fake people.” Evan investigates the claim that AI agents can now allow us to launch a billion dollar company with only 1 human involved. Evan learns what it would take to create such a company by doing it – launching a real start up with five AI employees. |
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| | | | | Videos from the 4th United Nations Open Science and Open Scholarship Conference, held in Tokyo, Japan, in October 2025, are now available for viewing. This global event gathered leaders to advance equitable open science practices, aligning with UNESCO’s Open Science Recommendation and fostering international collaboration on data sharing, accessibility, and ethical scholarship. Explore key sessions on repository infrastructure, Indigenous data sovereignty, and transformative assessment reforms. |
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| | | | Dr. Karaitiana Taiuru and Dr. Angela Clark discuss Māori and whānau data sovereignty in forensic technologies. The session explores ethical futures for handling data from the deceased, emphasizing dignity, cultural protocols, and community control over sensitive forensic research. Key themes include balancing technological advances with tikanga Māori principles to prevent exploitation and ensure equitable governance. |
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| | | | | The Eco Well Podcast: The hidden crisis of bad scienceHow does bad science get published, and why does it matter? This week’s conversation with Dr. James Heathers PhD, Director of the Medical Evidence Project, a new initiative launched by the Center for Scientific Integrity, the nonprofit parent organization behind Retraction Watch. We dig into the cracks in our scientific publishing system, the rise of research fraud, and the ripple effects of bad science. If you’ve ever wondered how misinformation travels through “peer-reviewed” channels, this episode offers a candid look behind the scenes. |
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| | | | Upcoming events in OA & scholarly publishing |
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