Unlocking Australia's Green Open Access Potential

Publicly funded research often remains behind paywalls, limiting its accessibility and impact. Australia's open access initiatives have improved availability, but green open access remains underutilized. At James Cook University, a successful campaign, 'Bring Out Your Dead!', encouraged researchers to submit manuscripts, doubling the annual deposit rate without extra funding.

Australia has taken significant strides in increasing open access to publicly funded research, yet a large portion remains inaccessible due to remaining locked behind paywalls. Despite real progress, a significant gap persists because green open access, a cost-effective method, remains underutilized.

Green open access involves self-archiving peer-reviewed manuscripts in university repositories. Although most publishers permit this, uncertainty and oversight hinder researchers from maximizing its potential. At James Cook University, a campaign titled 'Bring Out Your Dead!' successfully encouraged researchers to submit older manuscripts, doubling the deposit rate in a year.

This initiative demonstrated that simple, low-cost interventions like administrative support can unlock vast amounts of inaccessible research. These efforts could be replicated across universities, enhancing public access to research and ensuring more informed policy, healthcare, and educational practices.

(With inputs from agencies.)