Open Access Week 2022

20 Oct 2022

Open Access Week is an opportunity for us to explore and promote the benefits of open access. 

Open access is the free and immediate online access to scholarly materials, as well as the right to use and re-use that information. 

The ANU Library supports open access in many ways, notably through the Open Research Repository – which collects, maintains, preserves, promotes, and disseminates its open access scholarly materials. 

One great example of the ANU scholarly community working together to enhance open access is a recent digitisation project undertaken in collaboration between the ANU Library, researchers, and the ANU Gender institute. 

Seven historical publications have been digitised which will enhance the resources available on the early studies of women in the Australian academy. 

Emeritus Professor Marian Sawer, MAPhDAOFASSA, was thrilled to have these items made available through the Repository. 

How wonderful to see all these pioneering reports made available to a new generation – who may scarcely comprehend how once the most important academic contribution of women was seen as typing, proof-reading and editing their husband's books,” said Professor Sawer. 

Emeritus Professor Sharon Bell AM says that as we continue to address issues of gender equity in our universities, it is important to recognise how far we have come. 

These studies provide evidence of the systematic and structural inequality that has shaped our institutions, help us identify priorities and remind us that many of the issues that we are currently addressing were identified decades ago.  A reminder that we have come a long way but the need for significant change remains,” said Professor Bell. 

University Librarian Roxanne Missingham hopes thatmaking these itemsopenly accessible willexpand engagement with research, provide visibility to ground-breaking work, and reduce barriers to access. 

“I’d like to thank Professors Marian Sawer, Fiona Jenkins, and Sharon Bell for their positive support of the digitisation we have been doing of material around women in universities. This collaboration with the ANU Gender Institute is a great example of how we can employ discipline-based knowledge in transdisciplinary problem-solving,” said Roxanne. 

“We are keen to shine a light of these collections during Open Access Week, as well as the positive benefits of open access and digitisation.” 

The items digitised as part of this project are:  

Please browse through these important historical resources, available to all through the ANU Open Research repository. 

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Why is digitisation important? 

By digitising these items, we can make them available online for a much larger audience, as well as produce preservation copies for future use. 

Find out more about upcoming digitisation projects in the SIS Digitisation Plan 2022-23, or by subscribing to the Digitisation Update. 

Why is open access publishing important? 

These are huge benefits to having information be open access. 

For example: on average, open access academic works are more easily discoverable by the public and are cited more often. 

Further information on the benefits of open access can be found on the ANU Open Research website. 

How do I publish open access? 

Repository-based open access 

Works are deposited into an open repository. 

The ANU Open Research repository is the Australian National University’s service to make scholarly publications openly accessible. 

Find out how you can contribute your research on the Open Research website. 

Article Processing Fees/charges for open access 

Some publishers have a charge (fee) for making articles available through open access. 

The ANU Library has agreements with several publishers to allow ANU authors to publish articles via open access without paying these fees– Read and Publish Agreements. Read our news item for more information.