Advice on open access models: Unlocking knowledge for national benefit

"Where implemented in Australia, these models increase the proportion of new Australian research that is published open access. However, journal articles involving Australian authors comprise only 4% of publications globally.3 None of these models allow fee-free access by Australian residents to the remaining 96% of the world’s journal articles. To address this challenge, Australia’s Chief Scientist has developed a fourth model: • A public access model, where centralised negotiations for national read and publish agreements (i) allow read access for all of Australia to all the world’s journal articles – past and future; and (ii) include open access publishing for all new, Australian-led research to ensure it is freely accessible to the world. The key distinction of this new model is in delivering benefits for all of Australia, not just researchers whose subscription fees are often covered by their employers. This would expand the number of Australian residents with access to research literature by more than 10 times...."