Open Scholarship

Open scholarship is the practice of applying principles of openness throughout the research and scholarly environment. It encompasses both open research and open education.

This site is a hub to support University of Melbourne students and academics in exploring the ways in which they can apply open practice to their teaching and research.

Open Access

Open access is the term applied to research outputs such as journal articles, monographs, and book chapters, that have been made open to everyone.

Follow the links below to learn more about open access at the University of Melbourne.

Explore publisher and repository pathways to open access:

Open Research

Open research is not all-or-nothing. You can start with small changes and focus on opening up one particular stage of your research. You can engage with open research from an early stage in your project, such as through preregistering your research study or trial, or you can engage retrospectively by making your published research outputs open access via an institutional or data repository.

There is no set pathway to achieving open research, instead it is about adopting the open practices that make sense for you, your research, and your research communities.

Follow the links below to learn more about different ways to open up your research.

Open Educational Resources (OERs)

Open educational resources, or OERs, are openly licensed teaching materials. They can be freely used, adapted, remixed, and shared with others. Importantly, OERs can play a major role in improving equity and social justice.

OERs are an important aspect of the open scholarship ecosystem. They can draw from open access publications and other open research outputs, or even encourage students to share their own research openly.

Follow the links below to learn more about OERs.



Further Resources

Banner image by Manuel Meurisse on Unsplash.



Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) / Accepted version

The version of an article, paper, book, or book chapter that has been accepted for publication. It is the author’s final manuscript version after peer review and revisions, but prior to the publisher’s copyediting, typesetting, and formatting results in a proof.

Find out more about article versions on the Minerva Access website.

Article Processing Charge (APC) / Book Processing Charge (BPC) / Chapter Processing Charge (CPC)

Fees levied by a journal or publisher for publishing an article, book, or chapter open access. They are sometimes charged by open access journals and publishers and may be their only source of income. Hybrid journals and publishers always charge APCs, which are an additional income source to subscriptions.

APCs, BPCs, and CPCs may be paid by an author, their institution, or a funding body. These charges may be waived if an institutional open access publishing agreement (such as a Read and Publish agreement) is active.

Creative Commons licences

Open licences that have become best practice in open access publishing. They are built using a combination of elements: BY (Attribution), SA (Share-Alike), NC (Non-Commercial), and ND (No Derivatives). All licences are detailed on the Creative Commons website.

Creative Commons

The most open of the licences is the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence. This licence allows authors to retain their copyright while granting others permission to distribute, use, adapt, remix, and build upon the material, so long as attribution is given to the creator. This is the preferred, and sometimes required, licence of the Australian Research Council (ARC) and National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), as well as many international research funders.

The most restrictive is the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) licence. This licence does not allow for any commercial uses or the creation and sharing of any adaptations or derivative versions. It greatly restricts how others can use the work and, when adopted as part of an exclusive licence to publish with a publisher, can result in a significant loss of author rights.

Elements

The University of Melbourne’s internal research outputs management system. The Elements platform is used for the collection and reporting of metadata on the University’s research outputs. Publications details in researchers’ Find an Expert profiles are drawn from their Elements profile.

Depositing Author Accepted Manuscripts (AAMs) in Elements is one pathway to making research outputs open access in Minerva Access, our institutional repository.

Embargo

In the context of open access publishing and sharing, embargoes are a restriction imposed by publishers on the public release of an output. Most scholarly publishers will allow the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) of a journal article or book chapter to be made open access in a repository after an embargo of between 12 and 36 months.

Staff at our institutional repository, Minerva Access, will determine and manage embargoes before making any version of a research output publicly available.

Gold open access

Definitions vary, but “gold” open access typically refers to publishing with fully open access journals or publishers. The research output is made freely available to the public immediately upon publication, usually under a Creative Commons licence.

Note that some publishers use the term “gold” to refer to paid open access in subscription journals. Today, this is more commonly referred to as “hybrid” open access.

Green open access

“Green” open access is when a paywalled research output is made freely available to the public in a repository. At the University of Melbourne, we tend to refer to this as “repository open access,” and we maintain an institutional repository, Minerva Access, to facilitate green open access to our research outputs.

Most academic publishers allow the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) of a journal article, conference paper, or book chapter to be made available in a repository after an embargo period (usually 12-36 months). A rights retention approach can be adopted to allow immediate green open access.

General repository

Multi-disciplinary research repositories that can be used to share Author Accepted Manuscripts (AAMs) or preprints. Examples include Zenodo, SSRN, and Figshare. Many, but not all, are non-commercial.

A comprehensive list of reputable repositories can be found in the Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR).

Hybrid journals and publishers

A hybrid journal charges a fee (an Article Processing Charge, or APC) to publish a journal article open access in an otherwise subscription journal. The journal is hybrid because it contains both open access and paywalled content. The APCs levied by hybrid journals are, on average, higher than those levied by open access journals.

Similarly, hybrid book publishers levy a Book Processing Charge (BPC) or Chapter Processing Charge (CPC) to make the book or one or more chapters open access, when they would otherwise be paywalled.

Institutional open access publishing agreements

A contract entered into by an institution and a publisher that allows affiliated authors (usually affiliated corresponding authors only) to publish open access without facing Article Processing Charges (APCs), Book Processing Charges (BPCs), or Chapter Processing Charges (CPCs).

The most common kind of institutional open access publishing agreement today is the Read and Publish agreement with hybrid publishers. However, agreements with fully open access publishers can also be negotiated.

The University of Melbourne's current open access publishing agreements are detailed on the Open Access Publishing page.

Institutional repository

Repositories hosted by institutions to collect the research outputs of that institution. They often collect a broad range of digital items including articles, papers, books, book chapters, reports, data, and creative outputs.

The University of Melbourne’s institutional repository for traditional research outputs is Minerva Access.

Metadata

Metadata is information that describes an item or asset – that is, data – such as a research output or research dataset. This metadata may be compiled into a publications management platform such as Elements, or a repository such as Minerva Access.

The metadata of a journal article, for example, will usually include information such as: the author(s) and their affiliations, article title, date of publication, journal title, journal ISSN, publisher, volume, issue, page range, DOI, licence and access rights, and funder grant ID.

Minerva Access

The University of Melbourne’s institutional repository for research publications, including journal articles, book chapters, and theses. Through Minerva Access, University of Melbourne researchers can make their research outputs open access.

Minerva Access logo featuring an owl

University staff can deposit their research outputs in Minerva Access by uploading files in Elements, completing a ServiceNow form, or emailing the Research Outputs team. Find out more on the Research Gateway (internal access only).

Non-Traditional Research Output (NTRO)

A broad term encompassing research outputs that do not take the form of typical peer-reviewed scholarly publications (journal articles, books and book chapters, conference publications).

Non-Traditional Research Outputs (NTROs) include visual artworks, creative writing, films, performances, recordings, music composition, building and design projects, curated exhibitions, and portfolios. They may also be referred to as Artistic and Practice Based Research Outputs (APROs).

To be considered a research output for reporting purposes, an NTRO must meet the definition of research established in the Australian Research Council's 2018-19 ERA report:

Research is defined as the creation of new knowledge and/or the use of existing knowledge in a new and creative way so as to generate new concepts, methodologies, inventions and understandings. This could include synthesis and analysis of previous research to the extent that it is new and creative.

University of Melbourne researchers can find out more about reporting their NTROs on our Research Gateway: Add Non-Traditional Research Outputs (NTROs) to Find an Expert.

Open access

Open access refers to the availability of research outputs via the internet, such that any user can find, freely access, read, and download the output without charge. Best practice in open access is to use open licences, such as Creative Commons licences, that permit users to copy, distribute, print, search, link, crawl, mine, and otherwise use and reuse the research output, as long as proper attribution is provided. Find out more on our What Is Open Access? page.

Open access journals and publishers

Journals or publishers that release all their content open access. Research outputs are made freely available online such that anyone can find, access, download, read, use, and share the output. Sharing and reuse is facilitated through open licences, such as Creative Commons licences, and always subject to proper attribution.

A comprehensive list of open access journals is available through the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), which is quality controlled and clearly displays any Article Processing Charges (APCs) levied by journals. Almost 70% of the journals listed in DOAJ do not levy APCs, instead being supported by institutions, organisations, associations, or grants.

Paywall

A barrier to accessing content online, which can only be overcome by having a subscription (either institutional or individual) or paying a one-off access fee.

Paywalled content is sometimes referred to as closed or closed access, as opposed to open or open access.

Plan S

Plan S is an international initiative to require grant funded research articles to be fully and immediately open access upon publication. There are three compliant pathways:

  1. Publishing in a fully open access journal or open access platform.
  2. Immediate repository open access (green open access) under a CC BY licence. The rights retention strategy has been designed to support this pathway.
  3. Publishing in a journal that is under a transformative agreement, and is therefore moving from hybrid publishing to fully open access publishing.

Plan S was initiated in 2018 by cOAlition S, an international consortium of research funding organisations that includes the World Health Organization, the European Commission, the NHMRC (from 2022), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Wellcome Trust, and various European funding agencies.

Find out more on our Funder open access policies page and on the cOAlition S website.

Preprint

A version of an article or paper that is shared openly prior to formal peer review or publication. Preprints are typically shared on preprint servers, such as arXiv.org, bioRxiv, OSF Preprints, SSRN, or Zenodo.

Find out more on our Preprints page.

Read and Publish (R&P) agreement

Contracts entered into by institutions and publishers wherein institutions pay for both read access to specified subscription journals and for affiliated academics to publish open access in those journals. The publishing component may be uncapped (unlimited) or capped (limited) and may cover only a select titles list from the publisher. In many cases, the agreements only cover select hybrid journals, with APCs still being levied for open access journals. These agreements are sometimes called transformative agreements when they aim to transform the publisher’s underlying business model to make their journals fully open access.

Most of the R&P agreements in place at the University of Melbourne were negotiated by the Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL) and have also been adopted by other Australian universities. All of the University’s current R&P agreements are detailed on our Open Access Publishing page.

Repository

An online digital archive, usually open to the public, that stores and provides access to research outputs. Common types of repositories include: institutional repositories, general repositories, and subject repositories.

Research output

A work produced during a research project. Research outputs are diverse in nature and range from journal articles, conference papers, books, and book chapters, to research data, code, software, protocols, and artistic and creative works.

Rights retention

Rights retention involves authors pre-emptively asserting copyright and sharing rights over Author Accepted Manuscripts (AAMs) at the time of initial submission to a publisher, usually through the application of a CC BY licence to the AAM. Upon article publication, the AAM is deposited in a repository for immediate open access.

In alignment with the Plan S Rights Retention Strategy, the 2022 NHMRC Open Access Policy requires authors submitting to subscription journals to include a rights retention statement in their submitted manuscript. Upon article publication, authors are expected to make their AAM open access under a CC BY licence in a repository.

For more information on author rights retention, see our Funder open access policies page and the NHMRC’s Open access and retention of ownership rights document.

Submitted manuscript

The submitted manuscript is the version of a research output originally submitted to a venue, such as a journal or book publisher. This version typically undergoes editorial review and may subsequently be sent on for peer review.

In the past, submitted manuscripts were sometimes called preprints, although this term now has a different meaning: early versions of article or papers shared prior to peer review on preprint servers.

Find out more about article versions on the Minerva Access website.

Subscribe to Open (S2O)

A publishing model wherein a journal or publisher makes the coming year’s content open access at no cost to authors, if their annual subscription target is reached.

Although more common with journals and journal publishers, the model has also been adopted by some book publishers, as in the case of MIT Press’s Direct to Open (D2O) program. Participating institutions receive access to the publisher’s backlist/archives and, if revenue targets are met, the coming year’s monographs and edited volumes are published open access at no cost to authors.

Some of the S2O initiatives currently being supported by the University of Melbourne are described on our Open Access Publishing page

Venue

The venue in which a research output is published is the journal, conference proceedings, book series or imprint, or website that publishes the final work. Venues have different scopes in what they publish – for example, research articles, conference papers, or monographs – and typically have different audiences.

Version of Record (VoR)

The final published version of a research output – usually the publisher’s final PDF.

Unless the work is published open access under a Creative Commons licence, this version cannot generally be shared or made open access in a repository.

Find out more about article versions on the Minerva Access website.

Return to Open Scholarship

The Principles

Questions relating to the Principles for Open Access to Research Outputs at Melbourne

  • Why do we need these Principles?

    The University of Melbourne wishes to encourage the uptake of open access because of the wide-ranging benefits of removing access barriers to research. Making research openly accessible allows for greater reach and influence, both in terms of global academic reach and to those outside of academia such as business, government and community groups.

    It is also important to increase open access output so that the University continues to keep pace with policy requirements of both Australian and overseas funding bodies.

  • Do these Principles align with other policies and statements?

    Yes, the Principles support the Australian Research Council (ARC) Open Access Policy, the National Health and Medical Research Council’s (NHMRC) Open Access Policy and the expectations described by the Australian Code for Responsible Conduct of Research.

    The Principles also support the Australian 2017 Policy Statement on F.A.I.R. Access to Australia’s Research Outputs, driven by the Universities Australia DVCR committee and developed in consultation with a wide array of stakeholders, outlines a set of principles for retaining the highest standards of excellence for research practice.

  • Do the Principles restrict my choice of publication outlet?

    No. The University holds the position that the choice of publication venue is a decision held by the researcher

  • Do the Principles mean I should not publish in an open access journal?

    Of course not. The Principles encourage deposit of your Author Accepted Manuscript in Minerva Access because many researchers publish in subscription journals. However, if the most appropriate outlet for your research is a fully open access journal, then this meets the requirements of the Principles. Keep in mind that while most open access journals do not charge an APC, some do and therefore will require that you have access to funds from your grant or within your department.

  • I’m a Graduate Researcher, does this affect me?

    Yes, for the purposes of the Principles, Graduate Researchers are included as ‘research community’.

  • Why do you refer to ‘peer reviewed’ research?

    A ‘peer reviewed’ research output means where the output itself is peer reviewed, rather than an output appearing in a peer reviewed publication. That is, an opinion piece in a peer reviewed journal is not included in this classification.

  • Are my research outputs included in the Principles on Open Access to Research Outputs?

    Research outputs as defined in the University of Melbourne “Research Outputs Collection Classification Guidelines” (October 2018) are included as follows:

    Research output

    Relevant Principle

    A1- Authored research books

    Principle 6

    A - Other book categories

    Principle 6

    B1- Research book chapters

    Principle 6

    B - Other book chapter categories

    Principle 6

    C1 - Journal articles, refereed

    Principle 6

    F1 – Conference publications, full written papers, refereed

    Principle 6

    M- Software and Datasets

    Principles 7, 8 & 10

    F - Other conference publications

    Principle 9

    C - Other journal contributions

    Principle 9

    D - Reference works

    Principle 9

    E – Editorship

    Not affected by Principles

    G - Reports

    Principle 9

    I - Patents

    Not affected by Principles

    J - Original Creative works

    Principle 9

    Jii – Creative Recorded Works

    Principle 9

    K - Curated or produced Public Exhibitions and Events

    Principle 9

    P – Performance of original Creative Works

    Not affected by Principles

    V- Scholarly Contribution to Database/Website

    Not affected by Principles

  • What is an ‘accredited’ repository?

    The accredited institutional repository of the University of Melbourne, Minerva Access, collects, preserves, and showcases the intellectual output of staff and students for a global audience. For this reason, researchers are encouraged to deposit their work in Minerva Access in the first instance.

    If you work in a field where depositing in a subject repository is preferred, then you can check that it is an accredited repository through ensuring it is registered in Open DOAR, a quality-assured global directory of academic open access repositories.

    If you are looking for somewhere to deposit your research data, the Core Trust Seal site lists data repositories that have been certified as trustworthy. There are also a number of directories that list well-respected and long-established data repositories, such as re3data.org, the FAIRsharing Databases catalogue, and this list of Data repositories from the Open Access Directory (OAD).

  • Why is the time-frame so short?

    Both the ARC and NHMRC require researchers to make the bibliographic information of their publications available in an institutional repository within three months of publication. To ensure that researchers continue to comply with ARC and NHMRC policy, the Principles include the same time frame requirement for deposit of a work.

Practical advice on open access

  • How can I make my work open access?

    There are two broad pathways to making your publications open access:

    1. Publisher open access, in which work is published as open access, usually under a Creative Commons licence. This pathway may involve the payment of fees. Find out more on our Open Access Publishing page.
    2. Repository open access, in which an approved version of a publication is made open access in a repository. This will usually be the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM), and an embargo may apply. The University can facilitate this through our institutional repository, Minerva Access.

    These pathways are explored further in our What Is Open Access? page.

    The University wishes to limit expenditure on paid open access models where we already have a subscription to the same journals (hybrid journals) and discourages authors from paying Article Processing Charges (APCs) to make outputs open access in hybrid journals. Researchers who wish to publish in subscription journals can make their work openly accessible through the deposit of a copy of their work in the institutional repository, Minerva Access.

  • What systems are available for me to use?

    The University has a well-established institutional repository that can be used for sharing research outputs openly called Minerva Access. This has been integrated with Elements, the University's system for managing research outputs and grants.

  • Which version of the work do I upload for open access in Minerva Access?

    As detailed on the Minerva Access deposit page, please deposit your Authors Accepted Manuscript (AAM). This is the final, peer reviewed and corrected version of a paper, before the publisher's copyediting, typesetting and formatting.

    You may only deposit the published version, sometimes known as the Version of Record, if there is a license that permits sharing of the work, such as a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license.

  • Won't making my outputs open access in Minerva Access break my agreement with my publisher?

    The University has workflows in place to ensure that the deposit of works in Minerva Access is compliant with publisher policies and copyright.

    Most publishers allow the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) of an article, conference paper, or single book chapter to be made publicly available in institutional repositories.

    If there are requirements to keep the output embargoed for a period, this will be determined and managed by the Minerva Access team.

  • Does the university provide funds to support open access publishing?

    The University does not have a central pool of funds for open access publishing fees, such as Article Processing Charges (APCs). We recommend asking your Research Office if there are any local arrangements in place. You can also consider budgeting for open access publishing costs as part of your initial grant application.

    However, the University has several open access publishing agreements in place which allow University of Melbourne corresponding authors to publish open access without paying an APC. Each agreement has different terms and conditions so please read all details carefully. University of Melbourne researchers also have access to a number of APC discounts. These are detailed on our Open Access Publishing page.

  • I have already put my work in a different repository - do I need to upload it again?

    No. The point of the Principles for Open Access to Research Outputs at Melbourne is to ensure that University of Melbourne research is openly accessible. Researchers who have made their work available in a reputable subject or general repository have achieved that end goal, so do not need to do anything further. If you are funded by the ARC and NHMRC, then a record of the work must be deposited into Minerva Access. Note that academic social networks, such as Research Gate and Academia.edu, are not repositories and not compliant with the Principles or with ARC or NHMRC open access policies.

  • My research outputs cannot be adequately described in Elements. What should I do?

    We recognise that Elements is much more straightforward for traditional research outputs. Non-Traditional Research Outputs (NTROs) generated from Artistic and Practice-Based Research can be difficult to deposit. If you are having trouble, please contact your the Research Outputs team or Faculty Liaison Librarian.

  • Am I allowed to include third-party-copyright material in the version I deposit?

    Researchers are responsible for ensuring that they have obtained permission to make third-party material available in the open access version of their work. This requires you to negotiate worldwide digital rights to use third party material, as it will be made available online and accessible to everyone.

    If you cannot get permission to reproduce material in this way, or you cannot afford the fees, you can deposit your work in Minerva Access without the third party content if you feel this does not significantly undermine the work.

    For further information, visit our Copyright website.

  • Is the University negotiating better deals with publishers?

    Since 1 January 2022, numerous open access agreements between the University of Melbourne and different scholarly publishers have been active. For details on these agreements, including transformative and read-and-publish agreements that don't require the payment of author-facing charges, see the Open Access Publishing page. Article Processing Charge (APC) discounts are also listed on this page.

    Many Australian university library subscriptions are negotiated on a national level through the Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL). CAUL are seeking to negotiate more transformative agreements with publishers in order to improve open access publishing opportunities for Australian researchers. Scholarly Services at the University of Melbourne is also reviewing opportunities to pursue more open access publishing deals. If you would like to contribute to this review, please do not hesitate to get in touch with the Scholarly Communications team.

Research Data

  • I don’t want to share my data

    There are many reasons why researchers don’t wish to or cannot openly share data, including privacy, intellectual property, ethical, and commercial issues. The Principles support sharing research data if you choose, but doesn’t require it, only asking you to make information about the nature and location of your data available.

  • Where can I register my metadata about research data?

    Ideally, information about the nature and location of your research data should be made available in a public data registry or repository. Many journals require datasets be made available on publication. PLOSOne and Nature, for example, both provide lists of recommended data repositories.

    The Core Trust Seal site lists data repositories that have been certified as trustworthy. There are also a number of directories that list well-respected and long-established data repositories, such as re3data.org, the FAIRsharing Databases catalogue, and this list of Data repositories from the Open Access Directory (OAD).

    The University’s data repository, figshare, will accept dataset metadata without making the data available. An example is this dataset about seizure prediction.

Help and support

  • Where can I go for help on making my work open access?

    The University provides an array of support to the research community in facilitating open access. In the first instance you should contact your Faculty Liaison Librarian.

  • Is there any help with talking to publishers about permissions to share book chapters?

    It is increasingly common for book publishers to permit deposit of a book chapter in an institutional repository. It is also possible to negotiate these permissions into your publishing contract. If you would like assistance in supporting these discussions with your publisher, please contact your Faculty Liaison Librarian or the University's Copyright Office.

  • What training and guidance is available?

    The Researcher@Library program for graduate researchers and academics runs throughout the year and features several webinars on open scholarship. You can read about open scholarship sessions on our Training and Events page.

    Further information on open access and scholarly publishing is available through the Open Research Guide and the Scholarly Publishing Guide.

    Guidance on how to deposit research in our institutional repository can be found on the Minerva Access website.

    For advice and training requests on open access, please contact your Faculty Liaison Librarian.


Training and Events

Researcher@Library

The Researcher@Library program for graduate researchers and academics runs throughout the year and features several webinars on open scholarship. Stay tuned for the sessions below that will be running in 2023.

Open Research 101

This session provides a broad overview of the many types of open research. Topics covered include preregistering research, open notebooks, open data, open source code and software, preprints, and open peer review. (Open access publications are explored in the Open Access in 2023 session below.)

Open Access in 2023

This webinar explores the current open access landscape and takes researchers through the what, why, and how of making research publications open. We will explore both publisher pathways to open access, including through the University's open access publishing agreements, and repository pathways, including through Minerva Access, the University's institutional repository. (Previously ran as Open Access 101.)

Open Access and Your Thesis

Designed for Graduate Researchers, this session provides an overview of open access and copyright considerations for your thesis. We cover open access deposit in the University's institutional repository (Minerva Access), embargo and restricted access options, considerations for theses with publications and publishing thesis material after submission, and third-party copyright and permissions. (Previously ran as Public Access and Your Thesis.)

Break Free! An Open Access Escape Room

An interactive online escape room that explores pathways to making research publications open access. Together, we help three fictional researchers liberate their work from behind paywalls!

Researcher Connect

The University of Melbourne Library also has a number of recordings of past events and training sessions that you can also view at Researcher Connect. The program last ran in July 2022; stay tuned for more information on the next Researcher Connect program.

Note that the Researcher@Library program and Researcher Connect events are presented for University of Melbourne staff and students only. For more information, email libraryresearch-tickets@unimelb.edu.au.


Contact a librarian

For enquiries relating to open scholarship, including open access, open research, and open educational resources (OERs), please email your discipline's Liaison Librarians, or arrange a time to consult a librarian.

Alternatively, you can contact the library by emailing library-enquiries@unimelb.edu.au.

Scholarly Communications

Email: scholarly-comms@unimelb.edu.au

The Scholarly Communications team can assist with complex enquiries relating to open scholarship and provide individual consultations. They can also work with library colleagues to organise seminars and workshops for reserachers on topics including open access and open educational resources (OERs).

Digital Stewardship

Email: digital-stewardship@unimelb.edu.au

The Digital Stewardship (Research) team can assist with complex enquiries relating to research data management (RDM), including on open data, open-source data and code, and open notebooks.