Tama’s eLearning Blog

According to Bernard Lane in today’s Higher Ed supplement, the ARC has just made shifted Australian research to an Open Access default:

Australia has taken a great leap towards research results being freely available to all, supporters of the open access movement say. The Australian Research Council and the National Health and Medical Research Council - with total annual grants worth more than $1billion - are about to announce their first open access policies. “An open access sea change is happening,” said Arthur Sale, professor of computing at the University of Tasmania. “It will take about a year to become fully fledged and unmistakable to all, but it is inexorable.” Federal Education, Science and Training Minister Julie Bishop welcomed the new approach as “well balanced”. She said given the scale of public investment, it was reasonable that research results be available to the community and other researchers, thereby maximising the benefits. Although the ARC policy is voluntary, researchers who decide not to use open access repositories in a timely way must explain why in their final report to the agency. The same approach is expected to apply to NHMRC grant programs. “It is a mandatory policy in that it is easier to deposit than write why not,” said open access advocate Colin Steele, former librarian at the Australian National University. Mandatory open access policies are rare and contentious.

Can anyone say ePrint archives Australia?