From Open Access to Open Science - the open agenda continues to gain momentum

The open knowledge movement has seen a lot of activity this year both in Australia and internationally with more to come in 2022 writes Amanda Lawrence.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the necessity for research to be open and accessible to researchers, policymakers, practitioners and industry as well as the general public.

The year began with Plan S which came into effect on 1 January 2021. Plan S is led by cOAlition S – an international consortium of research funders. It requires that scientific publications based on research funded by public grants must be published in compliant Open Access journals or platforms or made immediately available through Open Access Repositories without embargo.

OECD 2021 Recommendation concerning access to research data from public funding - areas of policy guidance

Also in January, the OECD published an update to its open data policy with its Recommendations concerning access to research data from public funding. The aim is to establish access and global sharing of research data as a major policy priority, with the ultimate goal of making the global science system more efficient and effective. The image below shows the key areas that need to be taken into account to achieve an open data system.

In Australian the National Health and Medical Council (NHMRC) proposed changes to their open access policy early in the year, in line with Plan S. As the proposal stated, ‘There is a growing international shift towards open access publishing, which encourages scientific collaboration, transparency and rapid sharing of information’. Revisions include requiring funded research publications to be made available immediately on publication, either via the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) uploaded to a repository or at the point of publication by the publisher (Gold OA). Currently an embargo of up to 12 months is allowed. Unfortunately at this point the embargo continues as changes to the policy are on hold until 2022.

Then in March, Australia’s new Chief Scientist, Dr Cathy Foley, announced that developing an open access strategy in Australia would be one of her four priorities during her term in office. In a speech at the National Press Club Dr Foley argued that ‘Access to information is the great enabler for innovation and for research commercialisation. Lack of access to information is a real roadblock, and hinders our ability to compete internationally’ (Foley 2021). During 2021 Dr Foley presented her ideas to Open Access Australasia and invited responses via email. Consultants at CSIRO Futures also conducted interviews with various stakeholders. In September Dr Foley published a paper outlining her approach in Australian Quarterly. It is expected that a draft proposal will be released in 2022 so stay tuned.

2021 has also been the year for the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) Roadmap process, which occurs every 5 years and identifies areas of government investment in foundational infrastructure for access to knowledge and facilities for Australian research. The Exposure draft was issued in December 2021 with the final version is due early 2022 followed by the Investment plan.

Image from the UNESCO Open Science Brochure 2021

Back on the international stage, the UNESCO Open Science Recommendation was adopted by Member states at the 41st Session of the General Conference in November 2021. The UNESCO Recommendation recognises the breadth of open science and the importance of each of its components including open access to diverse research publications, open data, open educational resources, citizen science, open source software, source code, and hardware. This represents a significant milestone for global open access initiatives and we expect to see a range of projects and reforms flowing from this recommendation over the next few years.

Academic publishing and research communication is a dynamic field with business models, public interest needs and education policy struggling to adapt to rapidly changing digital technologies. If you are looking for more information on Open Access the Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL) has released a new Open Research toolkit in association with ARMS which is designed to help universities develop open research policy, strategy & practice. Open Access Australasia also has lots of information and resources and provides regular updates.

For tailored support, workshops and mentoring, Outside Opinion has a wealth of experience in academic publishing, research communication and impact, data management and research infrastructure.

Contact us to discuss your needs.