NEWSROOM
Macquarie University embraces the next information revolution
28 August 2008
Research conducted by Macquarie University experts will soon be freely available to anyone with access to the internet, following a unanimous decision by the Macquarie University Council last night.
Council voted to endorse University Senate recommendations that research articles be deposited in the online Macquarie University repository ResearchOnline (http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/) after their acceptance for publication.
"This historic decision will make Macquarie's scholarly work much more available to researchers, including those in developing countries and those without access to expensive journal subscriptions," said Vice-Chancellor, Professor Steven Schwartz.
"It is an example of using modern communication technology to achieve one of the oldest and most central academic aims - the free dissemination of knowledge."
The Macquarie decision follows similar initiatives by overseas universities such as Harvard and Stanford, and funding bodies such as the US National Institutes of Health, National Research Council of Canada and European Research Council.
"All academics have an interest in disseminating their work to the widest possible audience, but historically, the only way to do this was to publish papers in peer-reviewed journals," Schwartz said.
"Although academics do much of the work associated with these journals for free, the journals can still be prohibitively expensive. Some cost $20,000 for a one-year subscription."
Manuscripts of Macquarie research that are accepted for publication will now be immediately available to anyone on the web. In a few cases, access to some articles may be temporarily embargoed because of a journal's policy. However, Professor Schwartz said that embargoes are the exception rather than the rule.
"The great majority of scholarly journals do not object to making authors' self-archived papers ‘Open Access' immediately," he said.
"Studies have also demonstrated repeatedly that Open Access significantly increases the citation of articles, as well as enhancing other metrics of research usage and impact, in all disciplines, so our academics are unlikely to want to restrict access to their work."
Any enquiries from the media should be directed to:
Greg Welsh
Featured News
- 9 February 2010 Expedition breaks new records in fight against rising oceans
- 5 February 2010 Researchers call for new approach to disaster preparedness and recovery
- 1 February 2010 Yaegl research collaboration hits new heights
- 27 January 2010 MGSM named among top 100 global business schools for MBA
- 27 January 2010 $25 million in new research funding
