Open access in Australia

Open access (OA) to academic publications has seen extensive growth in Australia since the first open access university repository was established in 2001 and OA is a fundamental part of the scholarly publishing and research landscape in Australia.

[8] 2016: The Australian Productivity Commission report on the Intellectual Property system recommended that all federal, state and territory governments "implement an open access policy for publicly-funded research".

[9] 2017: A joint policy statement recommending making Australia's publicly funded research outputs F.A.I.R.

[13] A significant change occurred in 2021, when the NHMRC announced a draft update to its OA policy that would remove previous caveats and mandate that all funded research outputs be made OA under a creative commons license without embargo.

[18] Various organisations and interest groups are engaged in advocating for greater access to research publications, data and other outputs in Australia.

[19] It provides strategic advocacy and operational support to universities, research institutes, funders and government organisations.

[26] The NHMRC also announced it was joining cOAlition S. The Australian government has also endorsed various recommendations on open access to information, data and publications including the OECD Recommendation on Access to Research Data from Public Funding in 2021.