1. International Open Access Week
Prof Sue Carthew

2. Open Access:
The free, immediate, online access to the results of scholarly research – and the right to use and re-use these results as needed.
Open Access Week - global event that started in 2007
Opportunity for academics and researchers to learn about its potential benefits - & put into action

3. Policies re Open Access
Some countries now have policies about open access
e.g. Japan, UK, China, US, Australia
US - FASTR – Fair Access to Science & Technology Research Act – articles on publicly funded scientific research to be freely accessible online – passed in July 2017
Australia – ARC, NHMRC – all publications (or research outputs) to be deposited in an open access institutional repository within 12 months

4. 2017 Theme: Open in Order To…..
Consider the concrete benefits that can be realised by making scholarly outputs openly available

5. 2017 Theme: Open in Order To…..
Increase access to knowledge
particularly for those who wouldn’t normally be able to access (libraries don’t have journal, aren’t near a library – e.g. developing countries, small institutions)
Facilitate collaboration
- And on a global scale (e.g. Human Genome Project – international collaborative project - all sequence data made available for other researchers to use)

6. 2017 Theme: Open in Order To…..
Raise your own research visibility (and that of your institution)
OA articles are viewed more often than those only available to subscribers (3x)
More sustained number of downloads
Have greater citations (2x?) and are cited earlier
Increase the impact of your work

7. 2017 Theme: Open in Order To…..
Increase usage of research outputs
- Particularly for research with strong public interest(e.g. biological impact of Fukushima nuclear accident on a butterfly accessed >250,000 times in first month)
Faster access to research for industry, students, researchers
Research can influence policy
Practitioners can apply findings
Taxpayers might feel they get better value for money

8. What can you do?
Publish in open access journals (but beware of bogus or predatory journals – and focus on those that maintain high academic standards - e.g. PLOS – Directory of Open Access Journals)
Lodge your data in relevant repositories (e.g. Genbank – DNA sequences, ALA – Atlas of Living Australia, ChemSpider – compound data, ASSDA - Australian Social Sciences Data Archive, NACJD – National Archive of Criminal Justic Data)
Post pre-prints – and talk to library about what you can post where
Promote articles - e.g. use mechanisms like ResearchGate, LinkedIn
Encourage the university to establish an open access publication fund (to cover article processing charges)