Australian universities pay $280m annually for access to academic publications but only 32 per cent of research articles rated by the ARC are open access. It’s time to do something about it say librarians and OA advocates

The Council of Australian University Librarians and the Australasian Open Access Strategy Group call for a national OA strategy in a joint election statement.

“We are at a stalemate in improving access to scholarly research because of the tension between the needs of research institutions, which want to disseminate their research outputs as widely as possible, and commercial publishers, who dominate academic publishing, and who primarily serve the needs of their shareholders,” they warn.

The allies call for a “cross-sectoral body,” to develop a national open access action plan within three years which would include policy recommendations to include in any review of HE and research by the next government.

“Achieving fair and open access to Australian research outputs would be a realistic and significant accomplishment for a new or re-appointed minister after the election, and a priority for government,” they state.