Our Open Access Policy (the Policy) is underpinned by the principle that publicly-funded research should be shared openly and at the earliest possible opportunity. Open access is about making research outputs freely available to use and share, which is distinct from simply 'free to read'.
We support the sharing of outputs from National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)-funded research including publications and data. The aims of the Policy are to mandate the open access sharing and use of publications arising from NHMRC-funded research. The Policy also encourages open access to research data and requires that patents resulting from NHMRC funding be made findable through listing in SourceIP.
Combined, these approaches will help to increase dissemination and improve accessibility of research, increase reuse of research data, improve research integrity and contribute to a stronger knowledge economy.
In 2022, we strengthened the Policy by:
- removing the allowance for a 12-month period before making a publication open access and requiring publications to be made available immediately upon publication
- requiring use of open licensing, which means publications can be used and shared widely.
All recipients of NHMRC grants must comply with all elements of the Policy. The implementation dates for Part 1: Publications of the Policy are shown in the following table:
| NHMRC grants | Implementation date | Additional information |
|---|---|---|
| New grants | Immediately | All publications produced from NHMRC grants awarded under Grant Opportunity Guidelines issued on or after 20 September 2022. |
| All other NHMRC grants | 1 January 2024 | All publications produced up to 31 December 2023 must be made open access in a repository or other acceptable location within a 12-month period from the date of publication. This is consistent with the previous version of NHMRC’s Open Access Policy (November 2018; updated April 2020). |
