Open access principles

The University of Wollongong is committed to creating knowledge for a better world. We share our research as widely as possible to improve the common good by accelerating the pace of discovery, encouraging innovation, enriching education, and stimulating the economy. Our open access principles further the University’s strategic goals for a better future through education, research and partnership.

We do this through the following principles:

• Research outputs from public funding will be shared in a timely and accessible manner to foster social, economic, cultural and environmental benefits
• The University supports multiple pathways to open access, including:
• • depositing research outputs to reputable repositories
  • publishing open access
  • publishing in journals and/or book publishers covered by open access agreements (e.g. Read & Publish)
  • publishing under other models that involve publishers transitioning from paywalls to open access (e.g. Subscribe to Open)
• The University recognises that open access may not be appropriate in all circumstances, for example where cultural or disclosure obligations or restrictions apply; or under a research contract with a collaborator or funder
• We acknowledge and value the variety in types of research outputs and remain committed to making non-traditional research outputs (NTRO) as open and discoverable as possible and practical.

The University will:

• Implement or provide the infrastructure and associated services and resources that will be necessary to extend openness
• Provide guidance and services to support researchers who are bound by the requirements of their funding agreements to make research outputs open access through the deposit of works to UOW’s open access repository, including requirements to manage their research data
• Provide guidance on open access related conditions of publisher policies.

Responsibilities of researchers:

• To share the bibliographic details of data (metadata) underpinning published research in an open access repository, as appropriate and where required by funding mandates
• To ensure compliance with the OA requirements of funding agencies, which may include the deposit of the post peer reviewed and corrected version of their published research (the Author’s Accepted Manuscript) in UOW’s open access repository or an external subject repository
• Where possible, to share research data, while taking into consideration regulatory responsibilities, ethical, legal, cultural and other guidelines
• To share research outputs such as preprints, software, protocols and others where possible and as appropriate through disciplinary infrastructure (for example arXiv or Figshare)
• To share non-published research outputs and grey literature through UOW’s open access repository.

The Open Access Principles supersede the Open Access Policy, which Senate rescinded by resolution on 14 February 2024.

UOW’s Open Access Principles build upon the University of Melbourne’s Principles for Open Access to Research Outputs at Melbourne.