March 2025.
Australia’s research system should be diverse, agile, equitable and supportive of specific needs in the Australian environment to make Australian research globally available and to maximise its impact. A modern, open scholarly communication infrastructure is needed to support researchers, funders, policymakers and the Australian public for publishing, synthesizing and accessing research outputs of all kinds.
Like so many other nations, Australia relies on international publishers for much of its publication infrastructure and increases in these already substantial costs – which seems likely – would be unsustainable. To reduce this dependency it is important to establish a national system that is both cost-effective and capable of aligning with global networks to provide for interoperability and discovery. This would strengthen national capabilities and the visibility and interoperability of Australian research in the global publishing system, including Indigenous research.
The foundational pieces of such an infrastructure are already in place. Government investment in the early 2000s allowed universities to create institutional repositories (although it is notable that other research institutions that were not included in this funding have struggled to develop their own, most still do not have them.) The outlay to connect institutional repositories with an advanced discoverability layer would be minimal in comparison with national spending on commercial publishing, which was estimated by the former Chief Scientist to be more than $500 million annually. We therefore propose investment in upgrading of university repositories through a nationally coordinated program. Upgrading would allow Australia’s university repositories to fully support and integrate in global networks such as the European OpenAIRE initiative. It would ensure that university repositories are able to align with other related infrastructure projects – for example in data, such as those managed by ARDC. It would increase societal impact, by making Australia’s open research outputs more easily discoverable by end users including industry and NGOs.
Internationally we are seeing other countries invest more in national research infrastructure. For example, national repositories are already in place in France, the Netherlands and recently underway in Japan. Open Access Infrastructure for Research in Europe (OpenAIRE) coordinates research infrastructure across the EU. These initiatives reflect the growing commitment to open science that has followed the 2021 UNESCO Recommendations, which requires providing access to and preserving the entire breadth of research output including journal articles, books, theses, data, software, and creative media. Repositories in Australia are already hosting such unique research outputs including theses, creative works and data as well as open access journal articles. Increasingly funders, for example the NHMRC, are requiring publicly funded research output be made immediately accessible and repositories are an approved way to do this. With adequate investment and coordination a national repository system can draw on and improve the resources already in place.
Recent policy changes in the US illustrate the risks of relying too heavily on other nations to host Australian research outputs, or even research of value to our researchers. Improved interoperability and the establishment of securely hosted copies will protect and support Australian research. Further investment in research infrastructure such as repositories will enable this.
UNESCO is currently collecting information on the progress towards open science of signatory countries – Australia’s survey is underway and Australia will shortly begin to be benchmarked internationally. There is an opportunity now to ensure that Australia’s approach is in alignment with international best practice, but this can only come from a national approach to critical research infrastructure.
Finally, while national priorities and capabilities are fundamental, discovery, research and publishing are global endeavours. Interoperability of institutional, state, and national infrastructure such as repositories of publications, data, and non-traditional research outputs is essential.
- Concerning Research Priorities: No. 3. Elevating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders knowledge systems
The 2021 Roadmap identified the gap between Indigenous and non Indigenous participation in so many key areas of research and made this gap a national priority. Open Access Australasia welcomed section 5.6 of the 2021 Roadmap Indigenous knowledges and NRI and commended the recognition that “strong Indigenous governance” must be the foundation of any platform for storage and access of all research done by or pertaining to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. Principles of Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Governance must take priority over requirements to make research and data open with regards to all such research. Further investment in access controls and protocols for the protection of ICIP can help support these principles.
There are some excellent infrastructure initiatives already in place, such as AIATSIS’ Indigenous-governed data repository Yumi Sabe, or the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Data Archive (ATSIDA) hosted at UTS. Dedicated funding pipelines for Indigenous-led projects, including scholarships and grants for early-career researchers is required to guarantee the continued growth of such vital infrastructures. Secure and appropriate tools for Indigenous-led research must also be included if the aim of elevating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders knowledge systems is to be achieved.
In all planning and implementation engagement with communities must come first and foremost. Cultural competence training programs to enable respectful and appropriate interactions needs to be a part of the process of engagement and inclusion.