Open Access Week 2024

Post by Dr Zachary Kendal (Scholarly Communications Specialist).

With International Open Access Week 2024 next week (21-27 October), we wanted to take the opportunity to promote relevant webinars and reflect on what’s been happening at Melbourne in the open access space this past year.

Open Access Australasia webinars on 22, 23 & 24 October

The theme for Open Access Week 2024 is Community over Commercialisation. It prompts us to reflect on how we can prioritise the interests of public and academic communities.

This year, Open Access Australasia has organised three free 90-minute webinars:

• Tuesday 22 October 2024, 12pm AEDT: Open and Accessible: When open isn’t enough.
  Open access is more than just sharing information; it’s a powerful tool for building communities. By removing barriers to knowledge and participation, open access can help make our communities more diverse, equitable, and accessible to all. This panel will explore how open access practices can foster a sense of belonging and empower individuals from all backgrounds. Register here.
• Wednesday 23 October 2024, 12pm AEDT: Communities in Action: Cutting through the rough with diamond journals and open knowledge.
  How are communities in our region approaching open knowledge initiatives and driving meaningful change? In this session, the panel will explore the important role of collaboration in making research more accessible. We will delve into the opportunities and challenges of open diamond infrastructure, including international perspectives, as well as showcasing successful initiatives such as the Australasian Diamond Community of Practice and the Open Access Toolkit for Aotearoa New Zealand researchers. Register here.
• Thursday 24 October 2024, 12pm AEDT: Communities con-tech-ualised? How can technologies support communities and their decisions around opening their knowledges?
  In this session we focus on the use of technologies, including Artificial Intelligence, by and for various communities, and what that means in relation to Open Access, particularly in an Indigenous context. Our speakers will explore differing perspectives on openness, on technologies in and for community and how to build relationships and address the technology knowledge gap. Register here.

Register and find out more about the events, including the full line-up of panelists, on the Open Access Australasia website.

Open access developments at the University of Melbourne in 2024

It has been a busy year in the open access space at the University of Melbourne. Teams across the Library and Scholarly Services have been busy supporting open access publishing pathways, repository open access infrastructure, and open access policy compliance.

We started the year with the 2022 National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Open Access Policy coming into full effect for all grant holders. The policy aligns with our Principles for Open Access to Research Outputs at Melbourne (updated July 2023) in calling for immediate open access to peer-reviewed journal articles and conference papers, either through open access publishing or the use of rights retention statements and a repository.

Our open access publishing rate continues to increase, thanks in a large part to the 24 open access publishing agreements now in place. In 2023, about 59% of publications with one or more University of Melbourne authors was published open access, with a further 4% of publications made open access through our institutional repository, Minerva Access. This overall open access rate of 63% is up from 58% in 2022 and 54% in 2021.

Meanwhile, our repository open access pathways have strengthened further. Melbourne Figshare, our institutional repository for data and other digital assets, is now integrated with both Elements, our internal publications management platform, and Find an Expert. A new NTRO Service Now form allows researchers to enter full details of their artistic and practice-based outputs, sending records to Elements, Find an Expert, and Melbourne Figshare, where an open access version can be deposited.

Finally, new information on open access theses has been added to our Open Scholarship website. The new page explores the many benefits of making research theses open access and addresses concerns around publishing from publicly available theses.

Find out more about open access, including publisher and repository pathways to making your research outputs open, on our Open Scholarship website.