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December 2021: What's in this issue

 
What's new in OA & scholarly publishing in AU & NZ 
What's new in OA & scholarly publishing globally
Recent writing & resources on OA
Upcoming events in OA & scholarly publishing
  
This is our final newsletter for what's been another incredibly busy year in the world of Open Access. Some of the highlights for us have been launching our new website, supporting the work of Australia's Chief Scientist on a national strategy for open access, bringing together a top-notch programme for Open Access Week, as well as looking at Open Access from a variety of perspectives through our webinar series.  We also welcomed project officer Sally Murray-Walsh to the team who, among (many) other things has been creating the slick new look in our graphics and on our website. 

Our office will be closed for the Summer break from Dec 22 - Jan 4. We will be kicking off 2022 with a webinar rounding up 2021, followed by our regular series of lively webinars from more great presenters. Our AGM and Strategy meeting for members will be on 25th Feb 2022. If your organisation is not yet a member, get in touch with us!

Wishing you and you loved ones all the very best of the holiday season.
 
 For regular news updates, check our Twitter account 
 
Contributions to the newsletter or the blog, especially notice of upcoming events, are welcome. Contact us here  

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What's new in OA & scholarly publishing in AU & NZ

 

Draft National Research Infrastructure Roadmap open for feedback
Stakeholders are encouraged to read the Exposure Draft and provide feedback for Australia's National Research Infrastructure Roadmap via this online form. Feedback is due by COB Wednesday 22 December 2021, and will be shared with the Expert Working Group and guide the delivery of the final 2021 National Research Infrastructure Roadmap. Open Access Australasia will be making a submission.

CONZUL announces 2022-2025 priorities
Open Scholarship is one of four priorities, which include activities that champion open scholarship, strengthening institutional repositories, reporting on OA and leading an open textbook movement for higher education in Aotearoa. Read more.


OA in The Conversation
Curtain University's Lucy Montgomery, Cameron Neylon & Carl Huang wrote this article  What can we gain from open access to Australian research? Climate action for a start  about how open access to research has become an important strategy to speed innovation. And the Australian Chief Scientist, Dr Cathy Foley, supported the adoption of the UNESCO Open Science Recommendation in How the United Nations’ new ‘open science framework’ could speed up the pace of discovery . 

Australian arts collective win international Open Publishing award
Miyarrka Media, based in the Yolŋu community of Gapuwiyak in northern Australia, has won an international award for open content for its Phone & Spear : A Yuta Anthropology which brings indigenous Australian stories together using mobile phones to create images.  Other winners at the 2021 Open Publishing Awards include Zotero, Stencila software and the lifetime contribution award went to Creative Commons.

New Open Access Policy at UNSW
The policy adopts (wherever possible) CC-BY as default licence, no embargo (except for theses), and rights retention. Read more

Data Commissioner announced
This month the Prime Minister appointed Australia's first National Data Commissioner - Gayle Milnes. Ms Milnes has had a senior data management role at the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications. As commissioner, she will implement rules around data use, including provisions requiring universities and institutions to register as users to access public data sets. The Government has also launched its Australian Data Strategy. From the website "The Australian Data Strategy signposts the Australian Government’s data intent and efforts over the period to 2025. It focuses on three key themes:

  • maximising the value of data 
  • trust and protection 
  • enabling data use 
There is a consultation period, which ends on 30 June 2022.

What's new in OA & scholarly publishing globally

 

General News


The UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science has been adopted by the UNESCO 41st Assembly.  Open Access Australasia has made a joint statement of support with CAUL.

front cover of Unesco recommendation on Open ScienceThe Recommendation has seven key objectives around open science:

  1. Promoting a common understanding of open science, associated benefits and challenges, as well as diverse paths to open science
  2. Developing an enabling policy environment for open science.
  3. Investing in open science infrastructures and services;
  4. Investing in human resources, training, education, digital  literacy and capacity building for open science;
  5. Fostering a culture of open science and aligning incentives for open science;
  6. Promoting  innovative  approaches for open science  at  different stages of the scientific process;  
  7. Promoting  international  and  multi-stakeholder cooperation in the context of open  science  and  with  view to reducing  digital,  technological and knowledge gaps.

SCOSS logo
Three year strategy: SCOSS

After consultation including surveys, interviews and focus groups, the global Sustainability Coalition for Open Science Services (SCOSS) has published its 3-year strategy. The 2022-2024 strategy outlines three primary goals for SCOSS for the coming years:

  • Promote the sustainability of Open Science Infrastructure through funding and support
  • Raise global awareness about the value of non-commercial Open Science Infrastructure through advocacy and connection building
  • Build and maintain trust in Open Science Infrastructure through vetting and selection

Download the strategy document for more information.

In the SCOSS consultation run in summer 2021, the community identified three types of Open Science Infrastructure to prioritise for funding:

  1. Open publishing services, tools and platforms
  2. FAIR Open Access repository services
  3. Open research data infrastructure and services

 
The SCOSS Board recognizes these types as priorities in this call. At the same time, it remains open to receiving applications coming from other types of services that address other themes. 
Read more on how to apply here.  Applications are due by 28 February 2022.

Scottish Universities Open Access Press
Scottish Confederation of University & Research Libraries are collaborating in to establish a publishing press that is owned and managed by the participating Higher Education Institutions. Launch is anticipated in 2022/23. Read more.


Liber strategy for EU 2023-2027
The proposed framework consists of 5 vision elements with 12 strategic priorities. Of the 5 elements, 2 are fundamental: these two are interconnected with all strategic priorities of the 3 aspirational vision elements, one of which is advancing open science. Read more.


cOAlition S starts work on Journal Comparison Service
The service is aimed at helping the research community better understand publishing fees and whether they are commensurate with the services delivered. Read more

Reports

front cover of the state of open data 2021 report
State of Open Data report for 2021
The State of Open Data are a series of surveys and reports analysing the current trends in open research data. They are a result of a collaboration between Figshare, Digital Science, Springer Nature and other leading industry and academic representatives.

This collection groups together the surveys, the data, the code, the reports, infographics and posters relating to the 2021 State of Open Data.



Reproducibility report from UK's Knowledge ExchangeReport cover image: The Alchemist, 1663, Cornelis Bega. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
The Art of Publishing Reproducible Research Outputs: Supporting emerging practices through cultural and technological innovation report explores current practices and barriers in the area of research reproducibility, with a focus on publication and dissemination. 50 stakeholders from 12 countries including funders, research institutions, learned societies, publishers and infrastructure & service providers were consulted  to find the answers to these questions:
  • What are the main benefits and barriers of publishing reproducible research outputs?
  • What are the roles of the different stakeholders involved?
  • How expensive are reproducibility checks?
  • What kind of digital tools and infrastructure are needed to publish reproducible research output?
Research on Research report on pandemic
The Scholarly communication in times of crisis: The response of the scholarly communication system to the COVID-19 pandemic report looks at the impact of COVID-19 on academic publishing & illustrates that achieving speed and quality in scholarly communication is an essential and shared responsibility. It found the pandemic highlighted the importance of increasing promotion of openness in general. "Efforts to promote open science, particularly open access of published outputs and open sharing of data, need to be further intensified."
 

Recent writing & resources on OA 


Recent blogs from our site

Consolidation continues to shrink scholarly communication market
Bibliodiversity, not commercial predominance, should be the future of open access
Behind the Scenes of Hack OA Everyday
 

What we're reading

The Open Access Law Book in Aotearoa New Zealand: Radicalising the Funding of Future Publishing - James Mehigan  Journal of the Australasian Law Academics Association

Will there be any transformation or are we stuck with the transformative agreements? - Wilhelm Widmark UKSG website

Academic Publishing – Market Or Collectivization? Bjoern.Brembs.blog

How (not) to incentivise open research Lizzie Gadd The Bibliomagician


New OA tools 

picture of journal picking toolQuality Open Access Marker (QOAM) has created a new interactive tool for distinguishing trusted, no-fee OA journals.

And another tool to help researchers find a suitable OA journal is in development from a group of researchers at the Munin Conference of Scholarly Publishing in partnership with DOAJ & Open Citations - called Bison and hoping to pose an open alternative to proprietary offers.

Upcoming events in OA & scholarly publishing

 




May 16-19 2022 Canberra

 

 
 

 

 
 

Want more OA news?
 
We can't cover everything here!  This is a curated list of items that caught our eye and/or which seem especially relevant to OA in this region. For daily updates the best source is the Open Access Tracking Project or if you prefer to be more selective, our Twitter account, which has posts throughout each day.

The newsletter archive provides snapshots of key issues throughout the year. Other ways to keep in touch with discussions at Open Access Australasia include joining our community of practice calls.
 
Follow us via twitter @openaccess_anz  or online at  https://oaaustralasia.org/
Please get in touch if you have ideas for the newsletter
or on anything to do with Open Access in Australasia.
 
Newsletter compiled by Sandra Fry and Virginia Barbour, Open Access Australasia.

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Copyright © 2021 Open Access Australasia,
Published under a CCBY 4.0  license.
 
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