Open access: Home

Research Quick Guides are available for:

• Submitting your outputs for Open Access
• Accepted manuscripts, Open Access and the Research Outputs Repository
• Checking research outputs for open access compliancy with UniSA, NHMRC and ARC policies

Are you maximizing the visibility and accessibility of your research outputs?

Take 30 seconds to check your profile by:

• connecting to your staff home page, then go to Research > Outputs
• look for theunderneath each output – if it is visible, a version of your research is publicly available
• if the open access icon is not visible, and you have not previously sent the Library the accepted manuscript, then email the accepted manuscript for inclusion in the UniSA Research Outputs Repository.

Please note if the accepted manuscript is still under embargo, it will not appear as 'open access'.  Contact Ask the Library if you would like to know which of your outputs are under embargo.

Refer to the Accepted manuscripts, Open Access and the Research Outputs Repository Research Quick Guide for more information about the version that the Library requires so it can be made open access. The Library checks copyright for every submitted research output, and applies publisher embargoes as required.

What is open access?

Nationally and internationally, there has been a shift towards making research output available online via open access, with the aim of enabling the free flow of information to benefit researchers, institutions, and society as a whole. This guide provides an overview of a range of issues relevant to open access publishing including what open access is, different publishing models, publisher and funding requirements, and copyright.

Open access (OA) is where published scholarly output is made accessible online without charge. Access includes the right to download, read, copy, re-use, distribute and display material subject to the proper citation and acknowledgement of authorship.

OA materials are most commonly peer-reviewed journal articles, but there is a movement towards providing OA to scholarly monographs as well.

For authors

• your work can be freely accessed, distributed and cited worldwide
• with Australian OA repositories indexed by search engines like Google and the National Library's Trove service, the visibility and discoverability of your research is enhanced
• greater exposure = more citations
• publishing in an OA journal can shorten the delay between acceptance and publication

For researchers

• free online access to research, not restricted to what your organisation can afford

For universities

• increased exposure of research activity
• shared knowledge and innovation
• increased community and industry engagement with research

Save 15% when publishing in BioMed Central and SpringerOpen journals

UniSA researchers can take advantage of a 15% discount on article processing charges when publishing with BioMed Central and Springer Open. Be sure to submit your article from within the uni network, and also use your UniSA email address.

“One of my papers published in PLOS One was written with collaborators from different universities in Adelaide and in the US. It has been viewed more than 7900 times and has strengthened my collaborations particularly with the researchers in the US.”

-- Dr Siobhan Banks, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Sleep Research, University of South Australia

The UniSA Open Access Policy in a nutshell:

• applies to all research publications from 1 January 2014
• An electronic copy of the final refereed, revised draft (accepted manuscript) of each research or scholarly output of the University is to be deposited in the Research Outputs Repository by the author within one month of acceptance for publication
• Open access to the full-text will be available as soon as is practicable and not later than twelve months after publication. Embargoes and access restrictions will be applied as necessary
• Compliance with this policy automatically confers compliance with ARC and NHMRC open access mandates

The Publishing guide has all you need

For further information please do not hesitate to contact the Academic Library Services team for your division.