2017-2019
Program Director: Jill Benn, University of Western Australia, who was succeeded by Catherine Clark, Curtin University (at the time)
Open scholarship and FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) scholarly practices support the efficient dissemination of knowledge to researchers, students, policymakers and the wider public, facilitate faster scientific discovery and problem-solving, and underpin research integrity.
Open and FAIR scholarly practices are continually innovating. This requires ongoing collaboration between libraries, funders, policymakers, publishers, and our research communities – a collaboration that CAUL facilitates.
The program was succeeded by the Advancing Open Scholarship program (2020-2022).
Projects
Collection and Reporting of Article Processing Charges (APCs) Information Project
Project lead: Susan Lafferty, Australian Catholic University
This project investigated the cost of APCs to Australian universities. It developed a methodology for estimating the Article Processing Charges (APCs) at a university based on data from sources including Scopus, Web of Science and Unpaywall. The project team reviewed national and international approaches to collecting APC information and sought input from CAUL members and other stakeholders about possible strategies. The project team piloted the method in February 2019. As part of this pilot, data on publications produced by researchers at six local universities in 2017 were collated and analysed.
The project outcomes are reported in the paper ‘Fair, Affordable and Open Access to Knowledge: The CAUL Collection and Reporting of APC Information Project’, presented at IATUL 2019.
Retaining Rights to Research Publications Project
Project lead: Frances O’Neil, Victoria University
The project investigated the best mechanisms for Australian universities to retain non-exclusive rights to author manuscript versions of scholarly works. The project sought legal advice on the applicability of a UK-Scholarly Communications Licence (UK-SCL) or Harvard Model in Australia.
Project outcomes are available to Council Members on request.
Intellectual Property Rights Retention in Scholarly Works in Australian Universities Project
Project lead: Fiona Bradley, University of New South Wales
This project developed suggested wording for non-exclusive licenses in Australian universities’ intellectual policy documents. It aimed to:
- improve rights retention for research publications
- maximise the proportion of openly available research publications
- move Australian universities towards compliance with Plan S.
Read the Intellectual Property Rights Retention in Scholarly Works in Australian Universities – Report
Roadmap to Plan S for Australia Project
2019-2020 | Project lead: Dimity Flanagan (University of Melbourne)
This project undertook an analysis of the challenges and opportunities arising from Plan S for Australian researchers and universities. It developed high-level recommendations on how Australian universities should proceed to meet compliance obligations from 2021. The project report was delivered to the DVCsR Committee.
Read the Roadmap to Plan S for Australia – Report
Review of Repository Infrastructure
2018 | Project lead: Martin Borchert (University of New South Wales)
The project involved reviewing the current state of the Australian institutional research repository infrastructure in the current global context. The project report provides observations and recommendations on possible ways forward for the Australian repository infrastructure and management.
Read the Review of Repository Infrastructure – Report.
Statement on Open Scholarship Review
2019 | Project lead: Peter Green (Curtin University)
The project reviewed CAUL’s Statement on Open Scholarship (2015) and developed a new policy statement that outlines a commitment and associated actions to maximise the benefits of open and F.A.I.R. (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) scholarly practices.
Read CAUL’s Statement on Open Scholarship (2019), which is the key output for this project.
Fair Use Advocacy
2018 | Project lead: Catherine Clark (Curtin University)
This project was initially designed to advocate and build support for a fair use copyright legislative framework in Australia. Subsequently, program activities were reprioritised and aspects of this project were realigned into other projects, and the project was put on hold.