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Research Support: Open Access Publishing

A guide to library services and resources available to support researchers at the University of Melbourne.

Open Access policies from Australian funding agencies

The NHMRC and ARC have policies that require some publications arising from funded research project be made available in Open Access repositories. Information on how the University is responding to these mandates.  
Researchers need to be aware of these compliance requirements. 

Why consider Open Access publishing?

Research made available via this free and publicly-accessible medium is becoming increasingly cited and many open-access journals are now peer reviewed.

Open Access - Repositories:

  • Institutional repositories, e.g. Minerva: University of Melbourne repository.
  • Subject or discipline–specific repositories, ie.

Open Access - Publishing:

Open Access: 

  • •May lead to increased visibility, exposure, usage & impact of your research through expanded readership.  
  • Research shows correlation between OA downloads and citation counts 2 years later (see OA Bibliographies)
  • •Research impact has typically been measured by tools such as ISI Web of Science, ISI's Journal Citation Reports and Scopus. Tools like Google Scholar measure impact of a wider range of papers.
  • OA repositories often provide metrics such as download counts.
     
  • Read the Royal Society (UK) 2009 report  "Science as an open enterprise". 
  • Read the article: University Public-Access Mandates Are Good for Science (Shulenburger, 2009, PLoS Biology).

Important intellectual property (IP) & copyright issues to be considered:

  • Is your research part of a larger project or funded by a research grant which have agreements regarding publication of the research?
  • Will open access publishing now have future implications for your research group/lab/department/supervisor?
  • Are you or your research group/lab/department/ supervisor applying for/going to apply for a patent of your findings?
  • Does your work include confidential material or copyright belonging to others ?
  • Do you intend to publish your work in another form, e.g. journal article or a book?
    • Many publishers want “right of first publication”, you may not be able to publish your work as journal articles or as a book if you make it available on Open Access.
    • Once you do publish, your written work may be subject to a publishing agreement which may not allow Open Access.
    • Have parts of your work already been published and does the contract prevent you from re-publishing it on the repository?
  • Do you want your work accessible to the world immediately?

Open Access guides & bibliographies

Open Access Bibliographies:

Open Publishing Guide for Students:

The Right to Research Coalition has produced a new student guide to publishing openly, entitled “Optimize Your Publishing, Maximize Your Impact.”  This resource presents students with the ways in which they can make their research openly available for the widest possible readership and discusses the benefits of doing so – both as authors and as readers.  How do you know where to submit your manuscript?  What are the factors that go into deciding the most appropriate publication outlet?  Which journal will give your article the widest audience?

Australian Open Access Support Group

The Australian Open Access Support Group (AOASG) exists to support open access to research in Australia and to increase awareness of the importance of open access. For more information, see the AOASG website.

Open Access Publishing Discounts

University of Melbourne researchers have access to a number of discounts on article processing charges (APCs). Publisher manuscript systems may or may not advise the corresponding authors about the availability of discounts.

American Chemical Society

The Library's subscription to ACS journals entitles UoM authors to discounted article processing charges. Individual members of the ACS are entitled to a further discount. More information 
 

The Biochemical Society
The Library's subscription to the Biochemical Society journals entitles UoM authors to discounted article processing charges. The University currently subscribes to their full collection of journals.  More information. 

BioMed Central  

The Library has a BMC Supporter Membership which gives a 15% discount on the article-processing charges of all research articles accepted for publication in journals published by BioMed Central, Chemistry Central and SpringerOpen. More information.

F1000 Research

All authors publishing on the platform F1000 Research from UoM are entitled to a 10% discount. See also F1000 Workspace (http://f1000.com/work/), a new suite of tools. More information. 

OpenArticle (NRC Research Press)

Authors affiliated with the University of Melbourne are entitled to a 25% discount on the cost of Open Article for NRC Research Press Journals.    More information

Policy Press

The Library’s subscription to the Policy Press journal collection entitles University of Melbourne authors to a 20% discount on the Article Processing Charge commencing November 2015.   The UoM Policy Press customer number may be required to claim the discount.  Please contact the Library (colldev-enquiry@unimelb.edu.au) to obtain the current customer number.
More information  http://www.policypress.co.uk/OA.asp

The Royal Society  

Research staff and students from the University of Melbourne now benefit from a 25% discount on article processing charges for open access publication in any of the Royal Society journals, with the support of the University’s Open Access Excellence in Science Membership. More information.  

Royal Society of Chemistry

The Library is issued with a limited number of "Gold for Gold" vouchers annually.  Each voucher code enables UoM researchers to publish one paper in an RSC journal free of charge, as a Gold Open Access (OA) article, without paying the normal Article Publication Fee.  Contact Peta Humphreys  <phump@unimelb.edu.au> . More information 

Science Advances

The Library's subscription to the complete collection of AAAS journals entitles corresponding authors from UoM to an APC discount of up to 30%.   There is a limit to the maximum discount allowed, and surcharges may apply under some circumstances. 
More information:  http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/article-processing-charges

SpringerOpen

SpringerOpen includes Springer’s portfolio of peer-reviewed fully open access journals, and books, across all areas of science.  University of Melbourne authors are entitled to a 15% discount on the journal article processing charge and a 15% discount on the book publication fee. More information

Minerva - University of Melbourne's Institutional Repository

What is Minerva Access?

Minerva Access is the University of Melbourne's Institutional Repository. It aims to collect, preserve, and showcase the intellectual output of staff and students of the University of Melbourne for a global audience. 

  • Minerva Access is indexed by Google Scholar, and other search engines, e.g.  National Library of Australia's Trove, and OAIster  
  • Minerva Access provides statistics on accessions by country/month
  • Minerva Access provides permanent URL for works even if you leave the university – use for CVs, grants

Links

 
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Subjects: Research