Q. How can I make my research output openly accessible within a twelve (12) month period from the date of publication?

For many researchers, the Australian Research Council (ARC) Open Access Policy applies to all grant-related research outputs which mean that any research outputs arising from an ARC supported research project must be made openly accessible within a twelve (12) month period from the date of publication and made available in the Research Profiles and Repository.

We recommend that you consult Jisc's open policy finder for a specific journal title assessment for publisher copyright summaries and OA archiving policies.​

Once the article is accepted and published, the academic sends the accepted version to the Research Profiles and Repository and places it under embargo as required.

A common scenario could be that the academic locates a suitable journal for the paper, but the article processing charge to publish Gold Open Access (OA) is high. However, the academic finds that the publisher permits Green OA for the accepted manuscript after a 12-month embargo. This pathway to OA is free and fulfills ARC requirements, as the embargo is 12 months or less.

The key benefits of Green OA Article in the Research Profiles and Repository are:

• Green OA articles have a strong citation advantage.
• Reach the global public, policymakers, and professionals.
• Compliance with ARC grant OA requirements.
• Record accessible within 12 months and counted as research output.

There has also been a rise in the prevalence of opportunistic publishers whose main interest is in collecting fees Article Processing Charge (APCs) from unwary authors.

• A 'predatory publisher' generally refers to a publisher who charges a fee for the publication of material without delivering the same level of editorial and publishing services offered by legitimate journals such as peer review.
• Predatory publishers often email researchers directly to solicit work. They are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their methods, and ‘scrape the web’ for data to use to populate their spam emails, to give the impression the publisher knows more about you than they do.

To help you identify predatory journals, and manage the risk of publishing in a predatory journal, use this Journal Checklist or refer to the the Publishing Process Subject Guide for further information on ‘Predatory’ publishing.

Additionally, review the following platforms:

• Consult this simple OA Journal Publishing Checklist to help evaluate journals.​
• Check for advice on Finding Scholarly Publishing Outlets to help compare and evaluate the relevant publications in your field.
• Review the DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals) for high-quality, peer-reviewed OA journals.​
• Consult Jisc's open policy finder, on a journal-by-journal basis, for publisher copyright summaries and OA archiving policies.​

For details about journal impact evaluation, please contact your School Librarian.