‘Open access’ refers to free online access to research outputs. Most research is published in academic journals. This is peer-reviewed research literature and, therefore, trusted information.  However, most journal articles are only available through subscriptions (or a pay-per-view charge), unless authors pay an extra fee for it to be open access. As a result, access is mainly limited to people who have access to academic libraries, such as at universities and publicly funded research agencies. 

Australia’s Chief Scientist, Dr Cathy Foley, has been considering ways to provide access to research literature to more people in Australia, including the public, businesses, professionals, community groups, teachers, school children, non-profit organisations and policy makers. This would help to counter misinformation, help industry understand the latest developments in fields relevant to their sector, and help teachers and health professionals access the latest evidence-based research to support their work. 

Dr Foley has proposed a possible model that would allow all Australians to access academic journals. The public access model aims to maximise the number of people who can read science and research literature without a subscription.

National agreements would be negotiated with academic publishers to provide:

•    Open access publishing of all articles with an Australian lead author.
•    Access to all paywalled content in journals for all Australians.

Benefits include diffusion of new knowledge and best practice across the community:

For the business community open access would help encourage business investment in R&D and an uptick in innovation and productivity. EY modelling has identified a potential cumulative economic uplift of $2.3 billion in GDP and 1000 new jobs across the first 8 years.

• For the Public Service and the not-for-profit sector, open access would help ensure that policy-making and service delivery is informed by the latest evidence.
• For professional groups, including health professionals, teachers and journalists, open access would enable their practice to be informed by the latest evidence.
• For the wider population, open access would help foster a culture of lifelong learning and public engagement with science and research. This would support an agile workforce and democratic resilience.

The public access model would also provide equity of access to journal articles and open access publishing within the Australian research sector.